Instructional Design Models

ADDIE process

Perhaps the most common model used for creating instructional materials is the ADDIE Model. This acronym stands for the 5 phases contained in the model:

Analyze - analyze learner characteristics, task to be learned, etc.

Identify Instructional Goals, Conduct Instructional Analysis, Analyze Learners and Contexts

Design - develop learning objectives, choose an instructional approach

Write Performance Objectives, Develop Assessment Instruments, Develop Instructional Strategy

Develop - create instructional or training materials

Design and selection of materials appropriate for learning activity, Design and Conduct Formative Evaluation

Implement - deliver or distribute the instructional materials
Evaluate - make sure the materials achieved the desired goals

Design and Conduct Summative Evaluation

Most of the current instructional design models are variations of the ADDIE process. Dick,W.O,.Carey, L.,&Carey, J.O.(2004)Systematic Design of Instruction. Boston,MA:Allyn&Bacon.

Rapid prototyping
Sometimes utilized adaptation to the ADDIE model is in a practice known as rapid prototyping.

Proponents suggest that through an iterative process the verification of the design documents saves time and money by catching problems while they are still easy to fix. This approach is not novel to the design of instruction, but appears in many design-related domains including software design, architecture, transportation planning, product development, message design, user experience design, etc. In fact, some proponents of design prototyping assert that a sophisticated understanding of a problem is incomplete without creating and evaluating some type of prototype, regardless of the analysis rigor that may have been applied up front. In other words, up-front analysis is rarely sufficient to allow one to confidently select an instructional model. For this reason many traditional methods of instructional design are beginning to be seen as incomplete, naive, and even counter-productive.

However, some consider rapid prototyping to be a somewhat simplistic type of model. As this argument goes, at the heart of Instructional Design is the analysis phase. After you thoroughly conduct the analysis--you can then choose a model based on your findings. That is the area where most people get snagged--they simply do not do a thorough-enough analysis.

Dick and Carey
Another well-known instructional design model is The Dick and Carey Systems Approach Model. The model was originally published in 1978 by Walter Dick and Lou Carey in their book entitled The Systematic Design of Instruction.

Dick and Carey made a significant contribution to the instructional design field by championing a systems view of instruction as opposed to viewing instruction as a sum of isolated parts. The model addresses instruction as an entire system, focusing on the interrelationship between context, content, learning and instruction. According to Dick and Carey, "Components such as the instructor, learners, materials, instructional activities, delivery system, and learning and performance environments interact with each other and work together to bring about the desired student learning outcomes". The components of the Systems Approach Model, also known as the Dick and Carey Model, are as follows:

Identify Instructional Goal(s): goal statement describes a skill, knowledge or attitude(SKA) that a learner will be expected to acquire
Conduct Instructional Analysis: Identify what a learner must recall and identify what learner must be able to do to perform particular task
Analyze Learners and Contexts: Identify general characteristics of the target audience including prior skills, prior experience, and basic demographics; identify characteristics directly related to the skill to be taught; and perform analysis of the performance and learning settings.
Write Performance Objectives: Objectives consists of a description of the behavior, the condition and criteria. The component of an objective that describes the criteria that will be used to judge the learner's performance.
Develop Assessment Instruments: Purpose of entry behavior testing, purpose of pretesting, purpose of posttesting, purpose of practive items/practive problems
Develop Instructional Strategy: Pre-instructional activities, content presentation, Learner participation, assessment
Develop and Select Instructional Materials
Design and Conduct Formative Evaluation of Instruction: Designer try to identify areas of the instructional materials that are in need to improvement.
Revise Instruction: To identify poor test items and to identify poor instruction
Design and Conduct Summative Evaluation

With this model, components are executed iteratively and in parallel rather than linearly.

Instructional Development Learning System (IDLS)
Another instructional design model is the Instructional Development Learning System (IDLS). The model was originally published in 1970 by Peter J. Esseff, PhD and Mary Sullivan Esseff, PhD in their book entitled IDLS--Pro Trainer 1: How to Design, Develop, and Validate Instructional Materials.

Peter (1968) & Mary (1972) Esseff both received their doctorates in Educational Technology from the Catholic University of America under the mentorship of Dr. Gabriel Ofiesh, a Founding Father of the Military Model mentioned above. Esseff and Esseff contributed synthesized existing theories to develop their approach to systematic design, "Instructional Development Learning System" (IDLS).

Also see: Managing Learning in High Performance Organizations, by Ruth Stiehl and Barbara Bessey, from The Learning Organization, Corvallis, Oregon. ISBN: 0-9637457-0-0.

The components of the IDLS Model are:

Design a Task Analysis
Develop Criterion Tests and Performance Measures
Develop Interactive Instructional Materials
Validate the Interactive Instructional Materials

Other models
Some other useful models of instructional design include: the Smith/Ragan Model, the Morrison/Ross/Kemp Model and the OAR Model of instructional design in higher education, as well as, Wiggins' theory of backward design.

Learning theories also play an important role in the design of instructional materials. Theories such as behaviorism, constructivism, social learning and cognitivism help shape and define the outcome of instructional materials.