ISD & ADDIE

ISD is a planning tool for developing instruction and materials for learners. It helps the instructional designer cover all aspects of the ADDIE model of Assess, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate when planning instruction. There are many different models in ISD and the designer would need to select a model that works best for the learning situation or themselves. The strength of ISD is that no stone is left unturned: the designer will touch on each aspect of ADDIE, sometimes repeatedly in some models. The designer gets the whole view of the process by systematically gathering information and analyzing it in order to determine the learning needs of the learner. Feedback and evaluations then continue the process where it may loop back around to the assessment aspect and start the process all over again. Change is a constant in ISD and it must be repeated to accommodate changes.

A drawback is that it takes time to go through the systematic process of ADDIE, but I believe the strengths outweigh this weakness. It’s better to take the extra time to complete the task to create effective learning than to skip some steps and end up with a sub-par product.

As an instructor, I’m pretty sure I have used ISD to develop my computer classes. I have assessed the needs of my students on the first day of class by asking them if there is anything else they want to learn in addition to the syllabus. I find out what their current knowledge is and start teaching from what they already know. I look for materials, websites and practice and drill lessons for them to complete to learn what they are missing in the needs analysis. Then when the instruction is over, I ask questions about the material or ask them to complete a task to see if they understand what was taught or if they feel comfortable with what they learned in class that day. If they still feel there is a gap or need, then I will search for alternative methods of teaching the new concept. I also like to review at the beginning of the class on what was presented in the previous class in order to reinforce the new concepts learned. From this feedback, I determine if we need to cover the same material again or move on to new material. ISD and ADDIE seem to be an ongoing process.

How do people learn?

I am a HUGE fan of Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences (MI) and actually teach MI in a Learning Theory class for Lateral Entry teachers at the community college level. I believe people are intelligent in more than one way, thus learn in more than one way. Therefore as an instructor, I try to offer multiple ways to learn the online course material for my students. There are the usual books, slideshows and paper handouts for the verbal-linguistic learner, but for the interpersonal learner there are discussion boards and chats, for the body-kinesthetic learner, I have assignments where the student will go onsite and interview or observe a classroom or get involved with a classroom. In my computer classes, these learners also get hands-on training on the computer. For the logical-mathematic learner, I offer webquests that are performed in a logical manner to get to the end result. For the intrapersonal learner, I give assignments where the student must reflect on the class or previous assignments to determine what they have learned. For the musical learner, I have added music to my slideshows and added video from YouTube to the online class that usually has music plus helps the audio/visual learners as well. I have not figured out how to reach the spatial or naturalist learners in an online class yet and hope this class will give me some ideas.

I also agree with the constructivist ideas of learning and hope the MI methods will help learners build new knowledge onto their current knowledge of the world through their strongest intelligences.