Instructional Design
Theory & Practice - The Gap
(Using the ADDIE Lens to determine why Training Programs Fail.)
Vidyotama had tried everything. She had gone
through the successful courses that her organization had developed
in the past; then she had memorized the Standards and Guidelines
for effective content development; she had even attended two different
training programs on content development. The first program had
introduced her to Bloom’s Taxonomy and ARCS, and showered her with
examples and exercises; and the second had taken her through the
nuances of Grammar and beaten her naturally flowing language into
the hard lines of Active Voice!
Yet, today, she sat glum, her eyes glued to the CDR or the Customer
Delight Rating of 3.5 on 10! Her course, the one she had pinned
her hopes on, had once again flunked.
She asked herself, “Why can’t I ever predict the outcome of the
courses that I design?”
Let’s try to answer Vidyotama’s question.
From a content developer's or instructional designer’s perspective,
the content development process included the following broad steps.
- Analyzing the Audience and the Task
- Structuring the Objectives on the basis
of the Goal
- Designing the Course/Training
- Developing the Content for Implementation
(Yes, this doesn't completely map to the ADDIE model. Primarily
because Need Analysis (from the A Phase) and the whole I Phase aren't
in the domain of the instructional designer.)
Let us
look at each of these steps in more detail.
1. Analyzing the Audience and the Task
Audience Analysis:
This step includes a careful analysis of the audience’s skills,
traits, expectations, and apprehensions. This can be successfully
accomplished only when we are skilled in applying certain theories
that help us understand traits and behavior of humans, and that
allow us to measure the existing knowledge and skill of the learner,
and it also gives us an opportunity to understand the attitude of
the learner towards all facets of the learning program that we intend
to offer.
Task Analysis:
This step includes a serious contemplation of the tasks that the
learner will be required to perform, after completing the training.
In case of corporate trainings, it includes a careful review of
the role requirements. The trainers, training managers, or instructional
designers do this review. This review tells them about the expected
skills and knowledge that is required from the prospective learner,
so that he or she may perform the said role effectively. This step
requires ample use of the taxonomies that explain different types
of learning, and also the application of Goal Analysis methods.
Unfortunately,
this step seldom receives the attention it deserves. Even when audience
data is collected, it is not put to right use.
2. Structuring the Objectives on the basis of the
Goal
This step can baffle even some of the senior designers, and, I
assure you that the fault isn’t theirs alone. Somewhere in their
past, when they were green – someone told them that all that they
needed to do with objectives was – write them using measurable action
verbs! And so, they did that…sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.
The review-fix cycle became their daily reality, and they didn’t
have the time to think otherwise. There’s nothing wrong with the
measurable verb diktat…what’s wrong is that this is just one of
the many things that an ID should be comfortable doing, if he or
she has to analyze a goal into strong, workable objectives!
The Instructional Designer combines the outcome of the audience
analysis and the content with the glue that’s made by brewing different
instructional design concepts such as Bloom’s
Taxonomy, Mager’s
Objectives, etc.
Remember
that writing good objectives isn’t about putting some measurable
verbs at the beginning of some cute looking sentences. It is about
ensuring that the sum total of the skills developed through those
objectives will make the learner reach the goal that the course
promises.
3. Designing the Course or Training
Designing a good course stretches an Instructional Designer’s
skills, imagination, and knowledge to its limits. Design is the
phase, which brings out the difference between mediocrity and greatness
in Instructional Design – for it is here that the jargon-spouting,
apparently knowledgeable individuals share the platform with
the practical, application-oriented individuals. Unfortunately,
both end up with courses that don’t have the spunk!
Why?
Well.
The Jargon-Spewing Individual (JSI) doesn’t bother to figure
out how the theories and models that he/she talks about should be
“used” to provide a strong instructional base to his/her courses.
The Practical Hands-On Individual (PHI) is too busy with
rework to figure out how the theories and models could reduce effort
and build a strong foundation for his/her courses.
So, Cognitivism,
Constructivism,
Behaviorism,
ARCS,
Gagne’s
Events, Bloom’s
taxonomy (Oh yes! There’s much more to this overused but underutilized
theory, than their ability to make the objectives look cool!)…and
other such beautiful concepts never reach their true potential.
They continue to exist in their ornamental avatars…and the cynics
continue to exclaim “Instructional Design? Anyone with common
sense can do it.”
Ever
wonder if Instructional Design could be done by anyone with common
sense, why we have so many unhappy learners around us? Is it
because as a population we lack common sense OR is it because we
don’t use instructional design the way it should be used?
4. Developing the Course/Training
Finally during the Development phase, where the learning styles
of the learner, the Gestalt principles, and other concepts such
as cognitive dissonance and suspension-of-disbelief should be guiding
us and helping us infuse life in our content…the theories and models
are completely forgotten! The autocratic rule of Grammar, Templates,
and Duplication of the so-called interesting interaction (without
paying heed to the context,) send the effectiveness of learning
to the guillotine!
Now you know the reason why our programs fail to interest our learners
- not because ID doesn't work, but because we don't know how to
make it work!
Vidyotama?
She’s is an innocent victim of the ubiquitous lethargy that pervades
our content development processes, and which forces us to move through
our professional lives as robots. We want to finish our 8 (or 10
or 12) hour-day and rush home – forgetting that when our productive
years have flown past…we’d have spent the remaining third of our
life wondering where we went wrong…and why those hours didn’t fill
us with pride, hope, and confidence.
Of course, it never happened to you…it happened to Vidyotama.
Did I tell you that Vidyotama is only a figment of my overworked
imagination?
...
Is she?
- Author:
Shafali R. Anand
Read more Articles by Shafali:
- Jobs in this Changing, Evolving World (Jobs – 2020 to 2040)
- The AFR Learner Types – Learning in this Changing, Evolving World (The AFR Learning Types will define who will survive and thrive in 2020-2040.)
- Augmented Reality and its Application in Learning (AR vs. VR, Examples of AR, and how it will define the future of eLearning)
- How Emotional Intelligence Saves Creativity – The IRON Method (How to Identify, Repair, Open, and Nurture the Creative Connections between your Creative Expressions and your Emotions.)
- David Kolb’s Cycle of Experiential Learning (The Four Stages of Learning & The Four Learner Types)
- The Trainer's Rendezvous with eLearning (A Short Affair or a Long-lasting Relationship?)
- Gamification of Trainings and Learning Experiences (Old Wine in New Bottle? If it tastes great, who cares?)
- Gamification (What does this new-fangled, star-spangled term mean?)
- Storytelling and Instructional Design (How to Provide, Guide, and Reinforce Learning by Writing Instructional Stories.)
- 5 Rules of Content Writing - Learning from the Bible (How to Design, Develop, and Implement Courses and Trainings)
- Instructional Design Theory & Practice - The Gap (Using the ADDIE Lens to determine why Training Programs Fail.)
- Writing Scripts or Storyboards for eLearning Content without Losing your Mind (Beating the Fixated ID Syndrome)
- Designing Training Games to Rev up your Workshops! (The Challenges and The Rewards)
- Should you become an Instructional Designer? (4 Key Traits of a Content Writer for eLearning/Training)
- eLearning, Instructional Design, Technical Writing, And Training (The Maze of Hidden Relationships)
- Training and Instructional Design (Damocles to Dionysus!)
- Casting the Spell of Learner Motivation (How Content Writers and Trainers can Weave Magic for the Learners?)
- The ADDIE Model (An Instructional Designer's Road Map)
|
