For these past two weeks, I have immersed myself in the Analysis portion of ADDIE. As a newcomer to Instructional Design, I have quickly learned that ADDIE (Analysis-Design-Development-Implementation-Evaluation) is my new foundation. Barbara Bichelmeyer (2005) proclaimed what almost everyone already accepted, ADDIE is THE conceptual framework for Instructional Design. So analyze, I must.
What I have learned so far…
Although I am a seasoned educator in the K-12 setting, I am finding that instructional design is very different. For one thing, instructional design is apparently self-assured enough to demand the necessary time to plan, plan, plan, and plan. Honestly, I have never truly been afforded that luxury as a high school science teacher. My planning is almost ALWAYS rushed and inadequate despite my ongoing efforts to work efficiently and expediently. With a new lesson in two different subject matters for 100+ students being required every single day, I will never be allotted the generous analysis time that is built into the ADDIE framework. Therefore, although analysis is somewhat familiar to me, I am not accustomed to pursuing it to this depth.
A quick Google search of the word “analysis” quickly retrieves the definition “(a) detailed examination of the elements or structure of something.” In my very first instructional design project, I am attempting to create a viable module for our high school science preparatory room assistants. I have quickly learned that the elements or structure of this module is certainly more akin to job training than classroom teaching. I am better able to approach my project by viewing the student assistants as employees, not high school students. Consequently, the design side of me is channeling ideas from my employment as a veterinary technician during my teen years; I am not thinking like a high school teacher.
Since I now view this project as a job training module and not classroom instruction, I have decided to develop an initial safety lesson along with quickly-retrieved job aids that will help the student assistants accomplish their work in a safe manner. My analysis, however, has indicated that I am still bound to the traditional high school schedule. Therefore, my unit reflects the almost hour-long class periods instead of a full day or half day of on-the-job-training. As of now, I plan to spend two class periods on safety practices (with one of those days devoted to safety decisions) and three class periods on the actual lab assistant duties. One class period will be targeted solely for a higher-level, more detailed skill: preparation of standard chemical solutions.
My analysis has already uncovered one glaring obstacle. I know that my student assistant learners will have the need for hands-on practice. However, because my instructors may be assigned to other responsibilities (such as teaching a traditional science class) during the instructional time, I must find a way to safely implement hands-on instruction, possibly with the instructor a door away. My current plan is to rely on instructional videos prepared with the instructor/subject matter expert.
Building blocks.
My project analysis and my project design are so closely related to each other, that I am reminded of a term that I use regularly as a biology teacher: mutualistic symbiosis. Symbiosis literally means “living with.” Organisms that are symbiotic have such a close relationship that they live together, intertwined. Although a quick review of biology will also uncover commensalism and parasitism as symbiotic relationships, I have found that the intricate connection of analysis to design most closely represents mutualism, a symbiotic relationship where both parties benefit. By analyzing the needs of my learners and instructors as well as the resources available, I am able to benefit my design. Similarly, my design efforts are serving to develop further analysis. Afterall, as Piskurich (2015) contends, the ADDIE framework is most effectively viewed NOT in a linear fashion, but as more web-like or recursive in nature. Each component of ADDIE affects and influences the other.
I am excited to see where my analysis leads my design, and where my design leads my future analysis. Still grrowing….
Bichelmeyer, B.A. (2005). “The ADDIE model” – A model for the lack of clarity in the field of IDT. AECT 2004 IDT Futures Group Presentations, IDT Record, 1-7.
Piskurich, G. M. (2015). Rapid instructional design: Learning ID fast and right. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Grrowing Ideas 