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SEPTEMBER 9, 2014 BY TONY BATES 6 COMMENTS

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Seitebaleng Susan DINTOE on Are

you ready for blended learning?

Hello, Educational technology from a

technical and non-technical perspective, I
find that it is important for a teacher,
lecturer or professor...
Posted Feb 14, 2018

Dudu P. on Why learner support is

an important component in the
design of teaching and learning

Thank you for the information about learner

support in education.I am one of those
learners whom their foundation or
background...
Posted Feb 09, 2018

Tony Bates on One reason we are

not getting enough engineers in
Canada: the professional
associations

Alex should reply but I'm pretty sure he

Click on the graphic for the interactive version © Flexible Learning Australia, 2014 means Cape Breton University, not
University of British Columbia
Chapter 5 of my open textbook, ‘Teaching in a Digital Age‘, is now published. In Chapter 5, I developed the concept of a Posted Feb 01, 2018
learning environment.
Noloaie on One-on-one online
I am now working on Chapter 6, ‘Models for Designing Teaching and Learning.’ In my last post I discussed the tutoring at $28 an hour
appropriateness of the classroom design model for a digital age. In this post, I explore the same issue for the ADDIE model.
It is a great post and helpful to students
What is ADDIE? who are going through their online
ADDIE stands for: education. In the modern day,...

Analyse Posted Jan 31, 2018

identify all the variables that need to be considered when designing the course, such as learner characteristics, learners’ Katie Metz on A short history of
prior knowledge, resources available, etc. This stage is similar to describing the learning environment outlined in educational technology
Chapter 5.
A requirement in my theoretical foundations
Design of educational technology class as part of a
this stage focuses on identifying the learning objectives for the course and how materials will be created and designed master's degree program with Boise
(for instance, it may include describing what content areas are to be covered and a storyboard outlining what will be State...
covered in text, audio and video and in what order), and deciding on the selection and use of technology, such as an Posted Jan 31, 2018

LMS, video or social media

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2/18/2018 Is the ADDIE model appropriate for teaching in a digital age? | Tony Bates

Develop Taha on One reason we are not

the creation of content, including whether to develop in-house or outsource, copyright clearance for third party materials, getting enough engineers in
recording videos or audio, loading of content into a web site or LMS, etc. Canada: the professional
associations
Implement Do u think i can work in canada as an
this is the actual delivery of the course, including any prior training or briefing of learner support staff, and student
engineer ? My degree is ABET accredited
assessment
.. If not...
Posted Jan 30, 2018
Evaluate
feedback and data is collected in order to identify areas that require improvement and this feeds into the design, Cliff on Can you teach ‘real’
development and implementation of the next iteration of the course. engineering at a distance?

The interactive infographic above provides an in-depth, step-by-step approach to the design of learning, with lots of online Hi Ryan, Thanks for the input, I have found
resources to draw on. There have been many books written about the ADDIE model (see for instance, Morrison, 2010; Dick the same thing. It’s encouraging but not a
and Carey, 2004). certainty. No update...
Posted Jan 29, 2018
Where is ADDIE used?
This is a design model used by many professional instructional designers for technology-based teaching. ADDIE has been Cliff on Can you teach ‘real’
almost a standard for professionally developed, high quality distance education programs, whether print-based or online. It engineering at a distance?
is also heavily used in corporate e-learning and training. There are many variations on this model (my favourite is ‘PADDIE’,
Hi Kyle, They are the exact same degree
where planning and/or preparation are added at the start). The model is mainly applied on an iterative basis, with evaluation
and it does not distinguish if you were
leading to re-analysis and further design and development modifications.
external or on campus....
One reason for the widespread use of the ADDIE model is that it is extremely valuable for large and complex teaching Posted Jan 29, 2018
designs. ADDIE ‘s roots go back to the Second World War and derive from system design, which was developed to manage
the hugely complex Normandy landings.
Tags
The Open University in the United Kingdom heavily uses ADDIE to manage the design of complex multi-media distance 2010 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 access

education courses. When the OU opened in 1971 with an initial intake of 20,000, it used radio, television, specially designed
accreditation Africa assessment Bates blended learning Blog
printed modules, text books, reproduced research articles in the form of selected readings that were mailed to students, and
Campus Technology Canada Chronicle of Higher Education CNIE
regional study groups, with teams of often 20 academics, media producers and technology support staff developing courses,
collaborative learning Commonwealth of Learning conference
and with delivery and learner support provided by an army of regional tutors and senior counsellors. Creating and delivering
conferences Contact North costs course design Distance
its first courses without systematic instructional design model would have been impossible, and in 2014, with over 200,000
students, the OU still employs a strong instructional design model based on ADDIE. Education e-books e-portfolios EDEN eSchool News faculty

development games hybrid learning innovation Inside Higher

Although ADDIE and instructional design in general originated in the USA, the Open University’s success in developing high
Education instructional design IRRODL journal Kolowich
quality learning materials influenced many more institutions that were offering distance education on a much smaller scale to
learning management systems lectures media selection MIT mobile
adopt the ADDIE model, if on a more modest scale. As distance education courses became increasingly developed as
learning MOOCs OER OERs Online Educa Berlin Ontario open
online courses, the ADDIE model continued, and is now being used by instructional designers in many institutions for the re-
design of large lecture classes, hybrid learning, and for fully online courses. content open educational resources open textbooks Open

University Quality research strategic planning students Teaching in a

What are the benefits of ADDIE? Digital Age UBC USA video virtual worlds Web 2.0

One reason it has been so successful is that it is heavily associated with good quality design, with clear learning objectives,
carefully structured content, controlled workloads for faculty and students, integrated media, relevant student activities, and
You can see a much larger tag cloud here
assessment strongly tied to desired learning outcomes. Although these good design principles can be applied with or
without the ADDIE model, it is a model that allows these design principles to be identified and implemented on a systematic
and thorough basis. It is also a very useful management tool, allowing for the design and development of large numbers of Tony’s Calendar
courses to a standard high quality. Click to see Tony's schedule

What are the limitations of ADDIE?

The ADDIE approach can be used with any size of teaching project, but works best with large and complex projects. Applied
to courses with small student numbers and a deliberately simple or traditional classroom design, it becomes expensive and
possibly redundant, although there is nothing to stop an individual teacher following this strategy when designing and
delivering a course.

A second criticism is that the ADDIE model is what might be called ‘front-end loaded’ in that it focuses heavily on content
design and development, but does not pay as much attention to the interaction between instructors and students during
course delivery. It has been criticised by constructivists for not paying enough attention to learner-instructor interaction, and
for privileging more behaviourist approaches to teaching.

Another criticism is that while the five stages are reasonably well described in most descriptions of the model, it does not
provide guidance on how to make decisions within that framework. For instance, it does not provide guidelines or
procedures for deciding how to choose between different technologies, or what assessment strategies to use. Instructors
have to go beyond the ADDIE framework to make these decisions.

The over-enthusiastic application of the ADDIE model can and has resulted in overly complex design stages, with many
different categories of workers (faculty, instructional designers, editors, web designers) and consequently a strong division of

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labour, resulting in courses taking up to two years from initial approval to actual delivery. The more complex the design and
management infrastructure, the more opportunities there are for cost over-runs and very expensive programming.

My main criticism though is that the model is too inflexible for the digital age. Adamson (2012) states:

The systems under which the world operates and the ways that individual businesses operate are vast and complex –
interconnected to the point of confusion and uncertainty. The linear process of cause and effect becomes increasingly
irrelevant, and it is necessary for knowledge workers to begin thinking in new ways and exploring new solutions.

In particular knowledge workers must deal with situations and contexts that are volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous
(what Adamson calls a VUCA environment). This certainly applies to teachers working with ever changing technologies,
very diverse students, a rapidly changing external world that puts pressure on institutions to change.

If we look at course design, how does a teacher respond to rapidly developing new content, new technologies or apps being
launched on a daily basis, to a constantly changing student base? For instance, even setting prior learning outcomes is
fraught in a VUCA environment, unless you set them at an abstract ‘skill’ level such as thinking flexibly, networking, and
information retrieval and analysis. Students need to develop the key knowledge management skills of knowing where to find
relevant information, how to assess, evaluate and appropriately apply such information. This means exposing them to less
than certain knowledge and providing them with the skills, practice and feedback to assess and evaluate such knowledge
then apply that to solving real world problems.

This means designing learning environments that are rich and constantly changing, but enable students to develop and
practice the skills and acquire the knowledge they will need in a VUCA world. I would argue that while the ADDIE model has
served us well in the past, it is too pre-determined, linear and inflexible to handle this type of learning. I will discuss more
flexible models later in this chapter.

Over to you
1. Have I given enough information about what ADDIE is, by using the infographic, or do I need to cover this more fully in
the text? Do I need to say something about rapid course development here?

2. What are your views on the ADDIE model? Is it a useful model for designing teaching in a digital age? Do you agree with
my criticisms of the model?

3. Any suggestions about other, more flexible models that could be used?

What’s next
So far I have done drafts of the following (as blogs)

What is a design model?

The classroom model
Classroom models in online learning
LMSs
lecture capture
ADDIE

Still to come:

Competency-based learning,
Connectivist models, including Communities of practice and cMOOCs
Flexible design models
PLEs
AI approaches.
Conclusion

My next post in this series then will be on the appropriateness of competency-based learning for teaching in a digital age.

References
Adamson, C. (2012) Learning in a VUCA world, Online Educa Berlin News Portal, November 13

Dick, W., and Carey, L. (2004). The Systematic Design of Instruction. Allyn & Bacon; 6 edition Allyn & Bacon

Morrison, Gary R. (2010) Designing Effective Instruction, 6th Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons

FILED UNDER: BLOGS, COURSE DESIGN, EVALUATING COURSES AND PROGRAMS, LEARNER SUPPORT, PROJECT
MANAGEMENT, SELECTION OF MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGIES, TEACHING AND LEARNING, TONY'S BLOG, TWEETS
TAGGED WITH: 2014, ADDIE, BLOG, INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN, OPEN UNIVERSITY, TONY BATES

Comments

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Diane Gregory says:

September 9, 2014 at 6:13 pm

Finally someone has clearly identified the major weakness in the ADDIE approach. As a social
constructivist online art teacher educator I concur with your criticisms. I can see you are working toward workable
solutions. Thanks Tony.

Reply

Jolanda Morkel says:

September 10, 2014 at 12:23 am

Thank you for this valuable blog post. I have a problem with the ADDIE model too. I support your views but
would like to add the following:
– The “Design” stage as explained in the model, should perhaps be called “Problem Statement” or “Briefing”. “identifying
the learning objectives for the course and how materials will be created and designed” does not fit the stage title
“Design”. Design is a creative problem of formulating solutions to any given problem or challenge, in an innovative and
sustainalble way”. “Design” cannot be just one of the stages, “Design” encompases the larger process.
– The ideation stage is missing.
– The (design) exploration stage is missing.
– The focus is on product rather than process.

Reply

Tony Bates says:

September 13, 2014 at 4:14 pm

Excellent comments, Jolanda.

As I mentioned, I think there needs to be a planning stage even before design, and I agree that the model isn’t really
sequential but different parts of the process overlap and loop back in actual practice. I have seen learning objectives
identified in the design stage for instance completely re-written once assessment questions have been developed!

Reply

Paul Hibbitts says:

September 10, 2014 at 1:57 pm

Hi Tony,

While I have participated in a lot of (mostly) successful team projects using ADDIE, I prefer a more iterative approach
that is closer to many software user experience/UX design processes.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been practicing and promoting SAM (Successive Approximation Model,
http://www.trainingmag.com/content/criteria-ideal-instructional-design-process-model) as a possible alternative
to ADDIE, which brings some aspects of a more Agile approach to the overall instructional design process.

While I’ve been very happy with my own projects roughly based on SAM, I’d be very interested to hear about how the
approach has worked for larger, team-based efforts.

I’ve been enjoying and learning lots from your open textbook project!

All the best,

Paul

Reply

Guy Boulet says:

September 17, 2014 at 9:58 am

I addressed this issue in a paper a few years ago:

http://www.guyboulet.net/site/docs/Rapid_prototyping.pdf.

The main problem with ADDIE is that it is a cascading model where each phase depends on the results of the preceding
phase, assuming that the deliverable of the preceding phase are complete and accurate.

What if an assumption made in the analysis phase is incorrect and this leads to incorrectly targeted design and thus to
development and implementation of a solution that aims at the wrong target? You might only find it out at the evaluation

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phase, at the end of the project.

Because of that, I believe that iterative models such as SAM or Rapid Prototyping are more efficient for elearning
development as they offer early detection and correction of problems.

Reply

Niveditha Rao says:

November 3, 2016 at 3:38 am

Top 13 Qualities about an Perfect guidelines architect. http://www.slideserve.com/upsidelearning/top-

13-qualities-of-an-ideal-instructional-designer

Reply

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