The Instructional Design and

Instructional Design

Development Process: A
‘How To’ Guide for
Practitioners

Ray Pastore, Ph.D.

1st Edition

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About this Text

Do you want to know ‘how to do’ Instructional Design? Are you

trying to design or develop training? Are you developing
eLearning? Are you interested in the field and want to learn
more? The following text is based on Dr. Ray Pastore’s
Instructional Design Video Series and is designed to teach you
‘how to’ be an instructional designer.

This text is based on Dr. Ray Pastore’s Instructional Design Video

Series. Captions from each of the videos were transcribed and
then organized for this text. As a result, the language of this text
might feel less formal than my research papers!

About the Author

Dr. Ray Pastore has extensive corporate, government, K-12, and

higher education experience. With a background in management
consulting and instructional design, he earned his Ph.D. in
Instructional Systems including a minor in Educational
Psychology from Penn State University in 2008 and is currently
an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of the
Instructional Technology master’s program as well as Esports
Club Advisor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He
has worked on projects for Fortune 500 companies, the US
Department of Defense, as well as a myriad of schools and
universities. He also runs a technology Youtube channel which
has several million views.

Research: Dr. Pastore’s research focuses on multiple

representations (multimedia), gaming and esports, mobile
learning, and metacognitive strategies that support learning
from a multimedia environment.

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Teaching: Dr. Pastore has been teaching face-to-face, online, and
hybrid courses for many years. He has taught at Penn State
University, Slippery Rock University, Walden University, the
University of Phoenix, and most recently the University of North
Carolina Wilmington. His teaching experience includes a wide
variety of courses on topics including: technology use in the K-16
classroom and corporate workplace, instructional design
practice and theory, project management, online course design
and development, programming, gaming, esports, virtual reality,
mobile learning, and multimedia development (CBT).

Personal: Dr. Pastore lives in Wilmington, NC with his wife and

three sons, or wife and family. In his free time he enjoys surfing,
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (Purple Belt), golfing, painting, gaming, and
spending time with his family.

Contact

Website, contact, and links for Youtube ID video series:

http://raypastore.com/

Special Thanks

Thanks to Jean Lohmann for editing this text. It was a difficult

process due to the nature of its design.

ISBN 9798651489978

Publisher KDP

Date 2020

Edition 1

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Citing this text:

Pastore, R. (2020). The Instructional Design and Development

Process: A ‘How To’ Guide for Practitioners. Kindle Direct
Publishing.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

1.0 What is Instructional Design (ID)? – p. 7

Before You Begin

2.0 Front End Analysis – p. 15

3.0 The Many ID Models – p. 22

Analysis

4.0 Needs Analysis and Needs Assessment – p. 24

4.1 Task Analysis – p. 36

Design

5.0 Learning Objectives – p. 45

5.1 Instructional Congruency – p. 51
5.2 Assessments – p. 52
5.3 Instructional Strategies – p. 63

Development

6.0 Common Deliverables – p. 71

6.1 Prototyping and Storyboards – p. 76
6.2 Style Guide – p. 81
6.3 Software IDs Use – p. 84
6.4 Theories behind Multimedia Development – p. 89
6.5 Multimedia Development – p. 92
6.6 Usability – p. 95
6.7 Pilot Testing – p. 97

Implementation

7.0 Implementation – p. 99

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Evaluation

8.0 Evaluation – p. 102

Beyond Traditional ID

9.0 Rapid ID: What, When, and How - p. 106

References

10.0 References - p. 110

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1.0 What is Instructional Design (ID)?
Are you wondering what an Instructional Designer (ID) does? Are
you considering trying to become an ID? Maybe you are hiring
an ID and/or need to write a job description. Maybe you want to
explain to a relative what exactly you do. Well, it would be
convenient if there was an easy way to explain it. Numerous
definitions of the field appear in many sources including books,
organizations, journals, presentations, the web, etc. But guess
what? It’s very difficult to explain because we can do so many
different things and fulfill multiple job roles.

For example, some might consider an ID someone that simply

develops eLearning courses or someone that only writes
assessments. In part, they are correct, these are SOME of the
things an ID is able to do but that isn’t all - not even close. That
would be similar to thinking a mechanic only does oil changes. ID
is much more than just developing eLearning. As a result, the
following section will describe, at a very basic (high) level, what
an ID does and the rest of the sections in this text will be spent
going into the minute details of everything explained here!

At the most basic level, instructional design can be described as

a systematic process used to develop instruction in order to
improve learner achievement of a learning objective that is
measured through some form of assessment (Dick, Carey, and
Carey, 2014). That is a very high-level description of what one
needs to be able to do to be an instructional designer - but all of
the steps of going from point A to point Z are missing from that
definition and there are a lot of them!

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Having said that, our field is all of this and so much more, and
IDs are expected to be able to be capable of even more. If you
were to browse through job descriptions in the ID field you
would see they barely mention what is described in this
definition, in fact, you would probably notice each one is vastly
different from one another - some looking for a developer, some
looking for an evaluation expert, others looking for an LMS
administrator, etc.

What do we really do? How can we do all of these different

jobs? As an ID, you should be able to fill multiple roles, for
example, assess a situation through analysis, determine
solutions, conduct needs analysis, create learning objectives,
design instruction, design assessments, develop instruction,
train trainers, train learners, develop materials for instruction,
implement training, evaluate training, manage training projects,
and write training proposals. This is far from an exhaustive list - I
could probably add hundreds of additional tasks. And I should
note that some IDs focus or specialize on only one or some of
these while others are a jack of all trades. The best way to start
describing ID is by explaining the ID process, which will give you
a clearer picture of what an ID can do.

The following image (Figure 1.0) depicts the instructional

process from start to finish:

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9
*This is an image of the Instructional process from start to finish
*The selected model is only linear in this image to show the
learner how the process works from start to finish. This does not
imply that the instructional process is actually linear or the
model you choose will be.

Ideally, the ID process has a clear start and end though this will
vary by project. Before instructional design happens, we (we as
in instructional designers) are presented with a problem. This
problem can come from many different places - the client, an
analysis, new software, a lawsuit, a new law, a proposal, and so
on. Once there is a problem, the first step is to conduct a
performance analysis. This performance analysis is where we
figure out what the problem really is, the cause of the problem,
and what interventions (solutions) we can use to solve the
problem. As an ID, the problem is either solved through training,
where we then solve it, or non-training, where we work with the
appropriate team/people to solve it.

If a training solution does not solve the problem, then we solve

the problem through other means. That might involve fixing an
error on a website or database, communicating a message,
motivating employees with more money, or a more flexible work
schedule. Whatever the intervention to the non-training
problem is, we help to solve it.

If a training solution does solve the problem, we then truly

begin the instructional design process. Thus, it is imperative that
instructional designers be trained in performance
improvement/performance analysis. You must be able to ensure
that training is the solution to the problem you are solving.
Otherwise, you might be working on a solution that will not
solve the problem and that could be catastrophic for your client
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or even your career. You could be blamed or even worse,
possibly fired for not solving the correct problem with the
correct solution even though you might have been listening to
your boss or client. Remember, you are the one that needs to
make sure the problem and cause are correctly identified before
starting a new project.

However, once we have a training problem/solution we can then

move into the ID process. At this point, we need to figure out
which ID model will work best given our current case. There are
thousands of models out there, each being a variation of what’s
called the “ADDIE Framework” (see section 3.0 of text for more
on ADDIE). I am not going to cover the 1000 different variations
of ADDIE that exist, but rather go through a basic version of the
ADDIE framework in this text, which I will stress throughout this
book, should be modified for every single project!

What model should we choose? Are we going to use Dick and

Carey’s (Dick, Carey, Carey, 2014), which is a very popular
model? What about Smith and Ragan’s (Smith and Ragan,
2004)? What about a rapid design model? What are we going to
choose? We choose the model that best helps us solve the
problem. Once we've selected our model, we're going to modify
it as needed for our project.

Take a very good look at the image in this section, Figure 1.0,
showing the high-level depiction of ADDIE so that you can see
how a basic ID process could work. After we have done our
front-end/performance analysis, we have our instructional
needs analysis. This is where we're going to identify learner
needs, project needs, the content, identify the gaps, and come
up with project goals and solutions. This is the stage where I

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usually write a proposal for a client so that I can begin design
and development of the project…and get paid!

Once that analysis is complete and we have approval from our

client/sponsor to move forward, we can begin to design. This is
where we design whatever we stated would solve our problem.
This is where we decide how to organize the instruction. Thus,
we choose an organizational strategy (i.e., Gagne’s 9 Events) for
the type of instructional we are going to develop (i.e. eLearning,
instructor-led, etc.). The organizational strategy is designed to
make sure your instruction is organized, for example, have your
objectives first, then present your content, then have some kind
of assessment and feedback. It is also during this process that
we create our learning objectives and assessments.

Additionally, during design, we have to select our instructional

strategies for retention. Instructional strategies are what helps
the learners learn. For example, think of an activity you did as a
student at some point during your education when a teacher
was presenting content such as a worksheet, case study, game,
explaining concepts, etc. Those are examples of instructional
strategies. We're going to put those into our instruction to make
it so that our learners learn. At the end of design all of our
content should be organized so that we can begin to develop!

Next, we move into development. We need to develop whatever

materials are required for our project, whether that's computer-
based instruction (eLearning), web-based instruction, an
instructor-led course, a game, or a simulation. We develop the
deliverables. Unfortunately, some people believe this
development phase is all an ID does. They assume we just
develop eLearning. As you can see this is only one part of what
an ID does and it doesn’t stop here!
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Now we're going to implement it, roll it out, and/or give it to the
client for actual use. This is where you hand the project off to
the client and it goes live, you teach the course, you train the
trainers, you install the software, etc. Depending on the
requirements of the project, implementation can be as simple as
handing a project to a client or as complicated as you conducting
the training yourself!

Finally, Evaluation. We conduct formative evaluation (checks

and balances for quality) throughout the whole ID process.
However, we also evaluate the overall effectiveness of our
training solution. For this final summative evaluation, we select
an evaluation model (i.e., Kirkpatrick’s model). This is where we
determine if the learners learned, if they enjoyed the training, if
it’s being applied to their job, if it solved the problem, and the
return on investment. Depending on the project goals,
evaluation may take place during training roll out or at a much
later time (months or years later). In general, not all
companies/organizations invest in evaluation but it is a vital step
in the process.

There you have it folks, that's the quick and dirty overview of the
entire instructional design process and explains “some” of the
things an ID could do as part of their job. Having said that,
there's a lot more to each of these steps and I will go into more
depth in each of the following sections. Keep in mind one of the
things that I find that new IDs have a lot of problems with, even
towards the end of a master's program, is the big picture. This
section was the big picture. This is how it all fits together. It's not
complicated, and sometimes we make it more complicated than
it really needs to be. I would recommend reading this section

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again once you have read through all of the other sections in this
text, it will really help you put the complete picture together.

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2.0 Front End Analysis
Front End Analysis (FEA) (also referred to as performance
analysis and performance improvement depending on who you
are talking to) happens before the instructional design process
and is something an ID is expected to be able to do. As an
instructional designer, you should understand what this is
before you start the instructional design process because it's
something that's always going to be done in an organization to
make sure that you're actually solving the problem and that the
problem is the correct one (yes sometimes you won’t be solving
a problem at all but we will get to that later!).

Why do you do this performance analysis? What is it? What is

the purpose? We do this to determine what the problem is and
then to figure out the appropriate intervention (solution). Is this
a training problem? Is this a communication problem? Is there a
glitch in the computer system? Is this a motivation problem? Are
there multiple problems?

Many times a client will come to the instructional designer with

a problem and possible solution. However, we can’t always take
their word for it (though sometimes we have no choice). We do
not know if they have correctly identified the problem, root
cause, and solution. Thus, we must do a front-end analysis to
determine if they are correct. Ideally in a perfect world, we have
as much time as needed to conduct a thorough front-end
analysis but in practice that is not the case. Time is limited.
Sometimes this means I get a (as in one) phone call with a client
and that’s it!

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How do we begin a front-end analysis? How do we figure out
what the problem is? Many times, the client's going to come to
us and tell us they have the problem and tell us how they want it
solved - this is my experience most of the time. Usually what
they want at this point is confirmation that their solution will
work and they want me to nod my head and say ‘OK’. However,
you always need to go in knowing that you need to find the
problem and cause then worry about the solution. So…

What I want to do here in this section is to explain the ideal way

to do this front-end analysis but please understand that
realistically you may never be able to go through this entire
process - it’s going to depend on the project. My advice is to
learn the proper way first and then learn how and when you can
cut corners. The first thing you need to do, especially when
starting out, is to select a front-end or performance analysis
model. This model will help guide you through the process to
find the problem. Following a model helps ensure quality and
project success.

Here is a sample model (Figure 2.0) that I use. Keep in mind that
the model is going to change based on the project. This is a
model that can, should, and needs to be adjusted for every
single project. The idea is to look at it and take what is needed
for the current situation. As I mentioned previously, sometimes I
need to figure out the problem, cause, and solution in one
phone call! Knowing what information you need and knowing
what questions you need to ask is vital to project success!

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Figure 2.0 – Front-end Analysis Model

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The first step in this model is to determine the problem. What is
the problem? This is the who what, where, and when. In order to
do that, I need to determine who the client is. Who are the
stakeholders? What are their needs? What is their
organization/infrastructure like?

How do we get this information? It can come from many

different sources. Interviews, meetings, observations, surveys,
document analysis, etc. It’s really different for every project.
Most of the time, it’s a meeting or two with a manager and
subject matter expert (SME). That’s it. After those 1-2 meetings,
I am able to write a proposal for them with a solution to their
problem. It is not the ideal next step, but it’s reality.

Next, we determine what the cause of the problem really is?

How do you determine the root cause of the problem? We don't
want to just look at the actual symptoms. We want to look for
the actual cause. There are many ways to do this, fishbone
diagrams, charts, brainstorming, data gathering, etc. Which
method you choose is up to you.

One way to find the cause that I particularly like is the ‘why’
exercise (Olivier, 2017). The idea is to keep asking "why"
multiple times until we come up with a cause. It’s really simple
and works to find the cause for many types of problems.

For example, if you were a mechanic, a client might come to you

and say ‘we need to fix my car, it’s dented’. That is a simple
temporary solution but as an ID, we don’t just want to solve the
immediate problem, we want to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Thus, we need to find the cause of this problem to prevent it
from happening again. So we ask ‘why?’.

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Me: Why? Client: Because another car must have hit/scratch it.

Me: Why? Client: Because it was parked on a narrow street.

Me: Why? Client: Because I didn't want to park it in the

driveway.

Me: Why? Client: Because there were two other cars in my

driveway.

Me: Why? Client: Because I haven't cleaned my garage. So my

other cars can't fit in the garage.

So now we have the root cause of the problem. Why did the car
get damaged? The symptom was the damage from parking on a
narrow street which I can’t control but we can control where
they park it. The reason it was parked in a bad spot was because
the garage was not clean. I got to the root cause by asking why,
why, why. The solution to this problem is a clean garage and this
problem will no longer happen.

Once we have identified the problem(s) and cause, it’s time to

figure out a solution, so we do a gap analysis. Even if the
solution is obvious we should still do the gap analysis to ensure
we solve the problem correctly. And if there are multiple
problems/causes, it may be impossible to solve all of them so we
can rank and prioritize them if needed. I like to do this by asking
‘how important is this problem’ and ‘what is the impact of
solving/not solving it’. Once we rank order and determine
solutions for each we will need to decide if there is enough time
and resources to solve each one.

How do we perform the gap analysis? We look at 3 pieces of

information: current state, desired state, and recommended
solutions. See table 1.0:
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Table 1.0

Current State Desired Recommended

State

What is the What does What is the optimal

current state of the client solution that meets the
the problem? desire? clients needs?

The current state refers to the current state that led to the
problem. What is currently happening? The desired state are the
effects of fixing the problem. What does the client desire?
Sometimes the client’s desires are not possible, which is why we
recommend a solution. The recommended solution is the
solution that we can do in time/budget. If the clients desired
state is not possible the solution needs to describe why.

I may need to present the client with multiple solutions so that

they can decide what they need. When doing this I make sure I
give them the return on investment (ROI) of each potential
solution. This includes telling them how much it will cost, what
resources are needed, how long it will take, and impacts. At this
point, we need to agree upon a solution with the client. Usually,
a statement of work with budget, schedule, and project plan are
created at this point.

Once we've identified our problem and we've come up with

some solutions for it with our client, we are ready to start on our
interventions (solutions). What does that mean? That means if
training was the problem, we use an ID model and begin the
design and development process (see section 3.0). Otherwise,
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we solve it with other means, for example, if it was a
communication issue, we deal with the communication issue
(hopefully with communication experts but sometimes as an ID
we need to fill that role too). Then we implement those
solutions. If there's change in the organization, we may be
implementing some change strategies.

Now, assuming you have completed the front-end analysis and

there is a training need, we begin the ID process.

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3.0 The Many ID Models
Before we dive into ID, we must first consider an ID model to
guide our design and development. Thus, a discussion on the
infamous ADDIE framework is needed.

ADDIE is the thing we love to hate and you will hear a lot about
it as an ID. Some of what you hear will be correct but
unfortunately, some will not. What is ADDIE? ADDIE is a
framework that instructional designers use to design and deliver
training. You will hear it referred to as the ADDIE Model, ADDIE
Framework, etc. with many different definitions of what that
means depending on who you are talking to. There has been a
lot of misinformation about ADDIE posted in texts, on the
internet, and through word of mouth in recent years. Even
trusted sources have posted misinformation! So what exactly
does ADDIE stand for? Can I use it? Can I modify it? Can I replace
it? What model should I be using?

ADDIE is an acronym that stands for Analysis, Design,

Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. It was first
developed in the 1970s at Florida State for the military and was
a linear model used to guide the design and development of
instruction (Branson et al., 1975). However, after a few years of
testing, it was realized that the linear model originally proposed
didn’t work so well in practice so it was modified to be more
dynamic, less structured, and as a template that could be
modified for a particular use.

How we perform each step of that framework varies by project,

company, and client which has led to a myriad of ID models.
There are many different ways to perform each step of ADDIE.

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Again, there is no set standard that tells us that we have to
perform step 1 (analysis) a certain way. Instead, the way we
perform analysis should be the way that best matches the
project we are on. This is why you hear of so many different
instructional design models - each is trying to prescribe the
‘best’ way to perform that analysis (or design, or development,
etc.). However, there is NO best model that works for
everything. The best model is the one that solves your current
problem.

ADDIE as a framework does not define how to complete the

process of analysis, design, development, implementation, and
evaluation. There are many different processes and models out
there that define how we should do an analysis. In fact, an
analysis will change for every single project you're on because
clients have different needs. For some projects, the analysis
might be given to you, you might only have a one-hour meeting
to conduct it, or you might have weeks to conduct a very
thorough analysis; the point being that it’s going to differ for
every project. This is why as an instructional designer you should
know multiple ways to perform each of these steps. Thus, know
many different models. When you meet with your client you will
recommend a model after you hear what they want to do. You
don’t recommend a model before hearing their problem,
budget, timeframe, etc. You can’t say, our company uses XYZ
model because your client may need you to use a different one.

Essentially this means that there are numerous different ways to

do an analysis, design, development, etc. And sometimes you
can perform some of these steps at the same time. Sometimes
you need to work in a very linear fashion. This is why you see
many different instructional design models out there. As you
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become a more advanced instructional designer, you will
determine your own preferences, what works for you, what
works for your clients, and what works for your projects.

When you're first starting out, my recommendation is to try to

follow a concise linear process to understand how to do each
of the steps. This way you learn to do the steps properly so
that you can learn to modify them as you become more
experienced. But be aware that's not how you will really always
do it. Regardless of what model you're following, they're all
following the ADDIE framework. ADDIE is the basic building
block, the framework for all of these. Regardless of the model
being used, it’s using ADDIE as its framework. Thus, you cannot
replace ADDIE and if you hear someone talking about replacing
ADDIE with X model, be wary of the snake oil they are selling.
You can however modify each step of ADDIE for your project so
that the process works for your client. Hopefully, that helps you
have a better understanding of what that term is. But that's all
ADDIE is - analysis, design, development, implementation, and
evaluation. Now that the discussion of ADDIE is out of the way,
let’s discuss the nuts and bolts of ID!

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Analysis
4.0 Needs Analysis and Assessment
Once performance analysis (front-end analysis) is completed
(the problem, cause, and solutions identified), we are ready to
begin the ‘formal’ instructional design process. As described
earlier, we begin with an instructional needs analysis and needs
assessment. Most often (in practice), I’ve done the front-end
analysis and needs analysis/assessment at the same time, so
what is being discussed here isn’t necessarily in a specific
order, rather, you need to do this whether it’s done during
front-end analysis or after. Just be aware that you need to
gather this information and usually this is all done together at
the same time.

The goal of the instructional analysis and needs assessment is to

determine the best way to solve the training problem identified
in the front-end analysis. But wait, didn’t we determine the
solution in the front-end analysis? Not necessarily! The front-
end analysis determined that training was the solution to the
problem. It did not tell us how to solve the training problem (i.e.,
instructor-led training, computer-based training, mobile
learning, etc.). The training needs analysis does this. I know this
can sound confusing and it is because I am trying to separate
two things that are usually done in unison so that you can see
the differences. This is why I stress - I do these at the same time
in practice.

In a perfect world, I spend a significant amount of time with my

client, the users, and their system/content to do a thorough
analysis. However, in many cases, I am working in the role of the
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consultant and I gather this information in one to several
meetings with my client as described in the front-end analysis
section. Knowing this, I come prepared to my initial meetings
ready to gather a ton of information. Why? Because usually
when I am in the role of the consultant, rather than a full-time
employee, I am doing this analysis before I have a contract -
Why? Because I must do the analysis to come up with a solution
so that I can estimate a budget/schedule.

Remember the point of performance/front-end analysis is to

determine if training is really the problem and the point of an
instructional analysis is to determine what training solution is
best. Once I have this information, I can then write up a proposal
that the client agrees upon. Once I have the proposal signed, I
start doing the design and getting compensation. Thus, many
times I am doing this analysis gratis hoping to win a contract.
That’s just the way the game is played. Having said that, there
are times the client pays me before I do any kind of analysis.
When that happens I make sure I charge an hourly rate vs. a
fixed rate. Additionally, if I am a full-time employee at a
company, I may not need to write a proposal but I will still
usually write a plan to get approved before I start a project.
Keep in mind all of this will vary based on where you work!

That is the what, now onto the doing! How do you do a needs
analysis and needs assessment? What is the difference between
a needs analysis and needs assessment?

Training Charter

As an instructional designer, one of the first things I like to do

when I am starting a project is to create a training charter. I start
this on day 1 during my first client communication. The training
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charter is designed to outline all of the basic project information
and will continue to be populated as I complete my analysis. This
is very similar to a business plan. Why do we do this? This is
done so that I have an organized document containing all of the
project details (this is similar to a project charter that a Project
Manager (PM) would create).

This charter should contain the information from your front-end

analysis (if one was completed).

Example data I include in this charter:

● Who is the client?

● What is the problem?

● What was the cause of the problem?

● How are we solving this problem (what interventions)?

● Who are the people working on this

project/stakeholders?

● Who are the managers?

● Who are the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)?

● What's the return on investment of solving it?

● Do we have a budget?

● Do we have a schedule?

● What other information is important?

Wait, isn’t this the stuff the project manager (PM) should be
doing? This is where the lines between a PM and ID become
blurred. You may need to fulfill both roles here - even if you

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have a PM. Additionally, there are times where some of this
information is withheld, or simply not given to the instructional
designer even though we are tasked with designing a solution to
the problem because no one realizes we need it. As a result, this
charter is a must so that the PM and Subject Matter Experts
(SMEs) know we need this information if we are to design and
develop some type of training. If we are having problems getting
any of this information, it becomes really difficult to come up
with a good solution, which is why good analysis is so important.
Good analysis helps ensure quality; bad analysis ensures poor
quality (not meeting client’s objectives).

Now, if you're an internal instructional designer or continuing

work for a client, you may know a lot of the analysis already
because you’ve already done most of the up-front work before.
You know who your client/customer/sponsor is and you know
the problem, so you may be able to skip a lot of this because it
would just be rework to do it again. So keep in mind, I'm talking
to the person who doesn't have anything, starting from scratch -
and that is how you should learn. To recap, the first part of an
instructional design project that I create should be coming up
with a basic ID project charter.

Sometimes we are told how to design/develop the training from

the client, so a needs analysis and needs assessment is a rather
short process (i.e. one meeting). Sometimes we have done the
instructional analysis/assessment during the front-end analysis.
Other times we are just brought into the process at this point.
Either way, we want to do an instructional analysis. This will help
us go from a training solution to a more detailed approach. For
example, we know that training is the problem but is it
computer-based training? Classroom-based? Do they have or
28
need for a learning management system? Are these adult
learners? Kids? Etc. We need to come up with a detailed solution
to the training need so that we can appropriately design and
develop training that will meet everyone’s needs. We can’t
design before we know this information. The worst thing that
can happen is project failure. For example, if you just listen to
the client that says they want five one-hour modules and agree
upon a price, finally get the content and realize it’s going to be
10 hourly modules. They may fire you for not recommending
this from the start. I’ve seen situations like this happen because
the client doesn’t know. You are the expert, so it’s on you. No
matter what happened in that situation, it’s your fault and you
look bad. This is why good analysis can make or break the
project.

Needs Analysis and Needs Assessment

Once we have created a basic charter, it’s time to do a needs

analysis. The needs analysis is a combination of the learner
analysis, context analysis, and gap analysis. The needs
assessment, often discussed in ID and often used
interchangeably with needs analysis is simply the needs of the
client identified during the gap analysis. In addition to that, I
usually do a very brief content analysis here as well. Each of
these steps is done at the exact same time.

Learner Analysis. The learner analysis seeks to determine who

the learners are that are going to be going through your training.
For example, you are going to try to determine: Who are the
learners? What is their level of education? Can they use
computers? Can they use smartphones? What is their age? What
are their motivations? What are their work conditions like? Are
they highly-skilled surgeons or are you training a new computer
29
analyst? And do either of those people have time to take your
training? Surprisingly, I’ve had to deliver training to surgeons
who didn’t have any free time for training. All their time was
dedicated to doing surgery or spent with patients. They simply
told me that they didn’t have one hour for a face to face
government-mandated training course. As a result, I needed to
come up with a solution that worked for them and our
company’s lawyers, which in the end was an eLearning solution.
This is why the learner analysis is very important. Does the
audience prefer a certain kind of training? Are they used to
online courses? Are they more comfortable sitting in a
classroom?

I've had to deliver training where not only did I have to teach the
students the content in the training course, but I had to teach
them how to turn on a computer, use a keyboard/mouse, etc.
I’m not talking 30 years ago either this was in the 2000s when
we had cell phones, internet, personal computers, and laptops.
The point here is: Make sure you know who your learners are
going to be so that your solution meets their needs.

Note: In a lot of texts, you'll see people discussing learning styles

during the learner analysis. Remember, there's not a lot of
research to support learning styles (as in none to show they
actually exist), so we're not looking for that in our learner
analysis. We might look at what the learner preference is, but
those are not the same thing. There is no learning style. We
might examine if the learners prefer and are used to learning via
video, online learning, computer-based training, classroom, etc.

Next, we have our context analysis, which examines the kind of

conditions where the learners will use their new skills. What kind
of conditions will these learners be trained in? Are we going to
30
teach them in computer labs? What are those computer labs
like? What kind of technology is there? Are we doing this
training online? If so, do they have a learning management
system (LMS)? If so, what kind? This is where we answer the
how? and where? What are the environments like? What
technology is available? What's the budget like for that
technology?

Many times I need to sit with the client and walk them through
this part, especially a smaller company. The reason for this is
that often a smaller company doesn’t have an LMS and doesn't
know what one is. Yes, they agree to want it when I explain what
it is but they don’t realize what goes into it, how much it costs,
etc. You must have answers (at least estimates) to these
questions when meeting with clients. They usually haven't
thought this through so you need to be able to do that
spontaneously. Often they believe you can sit down and ‘just do
training’, and they haven't thought through all the preparation
(analysis and design) that really goes into it. Many times I need
to walk them through it step by step while we figure out what
they want, how long it takes, how much it costs, and how quality
can be impacted by deviating away from what I am
recommending. Many times this happens during my initial
meetings with a potential client. A larger company most likely
(not always) has an LMS and they will want the training
integrated with it. Thus context analysis is extremely important!

Gap analysis. Now you might be saying, I just did a gap analysis
in my front-end analysis (FEA)? Yes, you may have and no, you
may not need to do another, but there are differences between
the gap analysis in the FEA and the one described in a needs
analysis. The difference is that in FEA we were trying to
31
determine if the problem was really a training problem. During
the needs analysis, we already know training is a solution to that
problem. This gap analysis is focusing on the best method to
solve that training problem. Realistically on most projects, you
are doing one gap analysis which confirms that training is the
problem and helps us determine how to solve that problem.
When I list out the steps as I am doing in this text, they are
broken up purposely as two separate gap analyses because
sometimes you are ONLY hired to do one of them (i.e., to do a
front end analysis to determine if training, communications, etc.
is the problem) and many times it may not be an instructional
designer doing that front-end analysis but someone in process
improvement, business architecture, etc. In that case, another
one like this would need to be done because you need the
correct information to determine how to best solve the training
problem.

Table 2.0

Current State Desired State Recommended

What is the What does What is the optimal solution

current the client that meets the clients needs?
state? desire?

In the gap analysis, we are able to compare the current vs

desired states (See table 2.0) to determine a solution that meets
our client’s needs (timeframe, budget, scope, and quality). The
current state is the state of the company, team, and problem.
The desired state is what they would like to have. The client
32
might also have a dream desired state, which is unrealistic, so I
might present them with multiple solutions, each with varying
levels of complexity (i.e., bells and whistles). You do this because
your client doesn't always have time or money for their desired
state. Sometimes you have to present them these options. I also
provide the proposed budget, timeline, and impacts for these
options. How do each of these solutions really impact the
company? What is the return on investment? For example, I
might present them with four scenarios and ask which works
within the time, budget, quality, scope. Which one of these do
they really want? Then they can select which best meets their
needs. At this point, the client must agree to a solution before
you can start designing…but there is still more to be done in the
analysis before I write my proposal and give them a budget so
let’s continue on before we get ahead of ourselves!

There is one additional thing I do here while I am doing my other

analysis - a content walkthrough (brief content analysis). This is
usually a short session where I sit with the SME and go through
the client’s content or it may even involve me looking at
documents/materials. The goal is to determine how much
content needs to be included in this training so I can come up
with a budget/schedule. This is not task analysis (described later
in this text). I do this because before I can give my client a
solution, I really need to see what I am dealing with. Sometimes
this is simply a quick 20-minute session with a SME who walks
me through the content or system. This then gives me an idea of
how long this training is going to be - something that is very
important when giving my client a price for this training. I find
that clients have a lot of trouble coming up with time estimates,
they usually always underestimate. They may tell me they want

33
a 30-minute computer-based training session but then after
looking at the content I realize it’s going to take 2 hours to cover
their material. If I don’t do this and I take their word for it my
budget and schedule will be way off and they will not be happy.
This content analysis is very important!

At this point, I have done my needs analysis. I should have a

solution in mind for my client. I need to now write a goal
statement and present a budget and schedule for that proposed
solution.

There are two kinds of goals. The first one is a project goal (think
project management goals), that is related to the overall project.
For example, a sample goal might be: the project will be
completed in budget or the project will be completed by quarter
three of this year. Those are your project goals. You don't usually
see them discussed in instructional design because they're
project management related but if you're trying to be an
instructional designer and you're going to be writing proposals;
you have to write project goals and instructional goals. ID is so
intertwined with project management that it’s a mistake to not
know both. They have to be taught together in unison like this.

The other type of goals are our instructional goals. These are our
goals for instruction. These are not specific, they are not
objectives. They are what you're going to do for the project. For
example - Train users to fly a plane; train trainers to use the new
computer software for accounting, etc. These get broken down
further when we start our goal/task analysis, which I usually
begin right after this phase after the client approves my project!

Additionally, when I talk about goals, I like to mention the term

objectives so that I can explain the difference between these
34
two terms. I think it needs to be very clear. A goal is not specific.
It's very general, abstract. It's not an objective.

An objective is very specific and measurable - easily measurable.

A goal can be measurable too but they are generally more
subjective. For example, the goal – ‘Fly a plane’, is not specific.
It's not broken down into specific tasks.

To illustrate this in another example - my goal is that the learner

will be able to perform a needs analysis. An objective for this
goal could be, given xyz case scenario, the learner will be able to
conduct a learner analysis. The objective is much more specific. I
could even get even more specific. For example, the objective
could be - Given a context analysis, the learner will be able to
identify what the environment is. Those are objectives. I can
write many objectives based on that one goal. Hopefully, that
clears up the difference between those two. It’s important to
know if you are discussing a goal vs objective.

*At this point in the process, we need to get approval/sign off. If

I am the consultant I would write a proposal and get the contract
signed. Otherwise, I would get the project approved by my
sponsor so that I could continue to design. Once the project is
approved I move onto the next phases. This may have seemed
like a lot - and it is. The interesting part is that most of the time I
can do all of this - Front-end analysis, learner analysis, context
analysis, and gap analysis in just a few meetings with a client.
With experience, you learn how to make the most of those short
meetings to get the information you need to solve the client’s
problem and write a good proposal.

35
4.1 Task Analysis
Once we have received approval to move forward with our
project, we're ready for our task analysis. This means you're
ready to break those project goals down into skills and
knowledge so that you can make sure that you know exactly
what the learners need to know. This analysis is the part of the
process where we gather and organize all of the content.

The reason we perform this task analysis is because you need to

know what they, the learners, need to know before you start
designing any type of training; how could you put together
training if you weren’t 100% sure what content needed to be
delivered? After we get all of the content from our Subject
Matter Experts (SMEs) and organize it, we're ready to start
creating our learning objectives and designing our assessments.
If we fail at this, you can be sure that your training is not going
to meet your instructional goals no matter how pretty your
graphics are. Task analysis is not difficult to complete but it
needs to be done correctly to ensure quality.

Tip - During this task analysis, I usually start working on some

development (i.e. developing a template)

Tip – once you are done with your task analysis, make sure your
SMEs and/or client sign off on it. It needs to be quality checked.
It needs to be signed off on so that we can start writing our
learning objectives. More than likely, you will have to work with
your SME to gather this content (assuming you aren’t the SME).

Breaking down your goals may seem very difficult at first and I
think the hardest part of a task analysis is knowing when to stop
breaking them down - how far must I dig? I see a lot of confusion
36
on task analysis on the web and in texts. It’s actually very simple.
In the most simple terms, you are making sure you know all of
the steps (or tasks) learners must know to accomplish their
goals.

To gather this information, we may need to talk to our clients,

do observations, document analysis, work with a SME, do
interviews, or conduct surveys. Keep in mind if your SME is not
available, you are going to run into a project hold up here. Be
sure the SME and PM know what resources you need here
because a SME that is not available will increase project time.

Steps to completing the task analysis:

I start by breaking up my high-level goals - what are the main

things the learner's going to be doing for this goal?

For example, let’s say one of our goals is for the learner to fly a
plane. What do they really need to know? They need to know
how to start a plane. They need to know how to steer a plane.
They need to know how to read the instruments. They need to
know how to eject in case of an emergency. And they need to
know how to land a plane and take off. I have this high-level list
of all of the things the learner needs to do to fly a plane.

Once I have those high-level tasks, I prioritize them. I usually put

them into a table and I rate them with my client. I rate on a 1
through 10 scale based on importance, length, difficulty, and
cost (4 ratings for each item). The goal of this rating system is to
find out if this goal is important; do the learners need to know
this? How long will it take to train someone to do this? Is this a
hard cognitive task and will it be difficult to actually train
someone to do it? How long will it take to train this task? How
much will it cost to train someone to do this task? This
37
breakdown helps my client to see the big picture and helps them
understand how the instructional process works. This is also
great when there is a pressing need to roll out training fast
(rapid design, which is discussed later in this text). As a result, I
might decide to eliminate a task because it’s not that important
or we have limited time.

My table might look like this:

Table 3.0

Goal: Fly a plane

Tasks Importance Difficulty Length Cost

Read instruments 10 1 10 1

Eject from plane 1 5 1 10

Tip – If you have not done a thorough analysis, you may run into
problems at this point in the process because a lot of times, a
client has a great idea, but they don't always know what they
really want and they didn’t give you enough time to do a proper
analysis. Not only did they not know what they want, but they
don't have the budget for what they really want/need yet they
expect you to deliver it, and you might have promised you could
based on false assumptions.

Once we get into the task analysis and really figure out what the
client wants you may need to readjust the budget/timeline.
Many times we have already formed a contract and now we may
need to revise or we risk scope creep. This is not a good situation.
This is why I MAKE SURE that I have done a proper analysis and
at least looked at their materials and made sure it all fits with
38
their solution. Once you break down the tasks and see what is
required for this project, you find out that you are not able to
fulfill what was promised - you are in trouble! Make sure you
perform the content analysis I suggested early in the project and
you will mostly eliminate this issue. But if you run into this case,
and as a new ID, you will; start by prioritizing as I did in my table
above. Because if I prioritize, I can say, OK, well, we only have X
amount in the budget or X amount of time. We're going to do
these five things. We're going to skip these two for now. Maybe
we're going to do them in the second round, for example, do the
first two tasks now, to get started, and we're going to come back
to tasks three and four at a later date. That's why I like to
prioritize and this scenario is what happens all of the time when
you are forced to write a contract without being able to conduct
a very thorough analysis - that thorough analysis would have
given me time to work with the client to figure out what they
really need and want. The quick analysis only gives me a glimpse
and it’s very easy to miss something since many times the client
under/over estimates what needs to be done.

Now that I have the high-level tasks for each goal, I start to
break down all of those tasks even further. Eventually, I get to
the point where I've listed every single thing they could possibly
need to do and maybe more. I keep breaking this content down
into simple steps. This is where my learner analysis really
becomes important because I need to know what do my
learners really know? What is their prior knowledge? When can I
stop breaking this down? Because I can break down the task of
flying a plane to a micro-level where the learner will identify
what a plane is but my learners probably already know that!
Maybe I do need to break it down that far but that is the point -

39
you, your client, the SME, etc. will need to determine that
stopping point.

For example, let’s take a task that everyone will know - how to
properly brush their teeth. Do I need to teach the learner what is
toothpaste? What is a toothbrush? What are different types of
toothbrushes? You need to ask, do I need to break it down that
far? What is the exact content these learners need to know vs.
their prior knowledge?

Here is a sample task analysis for brushing your teeth. Notice

how I have every task required to brush your teeth listed in the
task analysis. You must have all tasks you are going to have in
your training in the task analysis:

40
Brushing your teeth

• 1.0 Put toothpaste on brush

• 1.1 Open the toothpaste cap

• 1.1.1 take of seal if new toothpaste

• 1.2 Put toothpaste on toothbrush

• 2.0 Brushing

• 2.1 Brush time

• 2.1.1 Brush for 2 minutes

• 2.1.1.1 Brush each quadrant for 30

seconds

• 2.2 Pattern

• 3.0 Gargling

• 4.0 Selecting a proper toothbrush

• 5.0 Mouthwash

• 6.0 What is toothpaste

• 6.1 How is toothpaste made

41
Once you have the content organized, as shown in the list
above, we are ready to move on. However, notice in the above
example the task analysis is written out in a list format. You can
create the task analysis any way you want, preferably the way
that makes sense for the project. Here is another example, this
time it’s in graphic format. This format can be easier to visualize
and is great when there is a lot of data.

Figure 3.0: Sample Task Analysis

Instructional
Goal

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

1.0 2.0 3.0

1.1 1.2 1.3

1.1.1 1.1.2
42
Once it’s complete, we are ready for the client to sign off
because there are going to be two things happening here. First, I
am going to develop my analysis document (assuming the client
wants one. I will always do this for large projects). Second, I am
going to start working on my learning objectives and assessment
items. So take pause and make sure your client or sponsor is
prepared or ready for you to move forward. I keep adding
quality checks like this in the ID process so that you don’t run
into scope creep later on. Scope creep means extra, new, or
rework that the client adds which can hold up your project.

Let's assume my client wants me to write this up into an analysis

document (mentioned in the previous paragraph) or I want to
for my records, what does that document look like? Here's what
you would include in a sample document to a client. One thing I
will mention - my clients love getting this document even when
they haven’t asked for it. It shows them I am organized, on top
of things, am going above and beyond, and know my stuff.

Analysis document:

The first thing that I have is I have a summary of the case - the
training charter. Who’s the client/company? What's the
problem? What's the budget? What's my schedule? When am I
having this done by?

Then we have the results of our gap analysis. We discuss how we

collected data and what the results were. Describe the front-end
analysis findings, the who, what, where, when, why are we
doing this project.

Then we have a section for the learner analysis and context

analysis - the results. We discuss how we collected data and
what the results were.
43
Next, we write the project solution including our goals.
Assuming we were able to do task analysis as part of this, I
would present my high-level task list table with this document.

44
Design
5.0 Design – Learning Objectives
Hopefully, by now you have your task analysis completed and
you are ready to write your objectives. I usually do all of this
(task analysis, objectives, assessment, and strategy) at the
same time but for a novice, I am presenting it in a logical order
so you can see the big picture and see how each part is done
correctly. See the example below to see what I create in this
stage of the process. Essentially, I take each task and ensure that
it's tied to a learning objective. This ensures that everything I
need to teach is taught:

Table 4.0

Task Objective

Order the steps for getting Given a list of steps the learners
a law passed in the correct will put them into the correct
sequence (low-level) order with 100% accuracy.

Identify the capitals in the Given a list of states, the learner

US (low-level) will be able to state the capitals
for each with 100% accuracy

45
Use coordinates to locate a Given coordinates, the learner
global position (High-level) will be able to identify a position
on a map with 100% accuracy

Once I start analyzing my tasks and writing my objectives, I need

to think about what kind of knowledge they are. This is
important because I need to make sure the objective really
meets my client’s needs and is designed for optimal learning. For
example, I need to know if my client just wants the learner to
memorize random terms vs. being able to apply something to
their job. Thus, I examine each task. Now the academic way of
doing this is to examine each task and organize it via a learning
taxonomy so let’s talk a minute about them and I will discuss
what I really do in practice:

While there are many different learning taxonomies - Bloom’s,

Gagne’s, etc., I like to break my knowledge down into low/high
levels. I have found that when designing, breaking it down
further does not aid my instructional strategies. It actually ends
up wasting my time. Low-level refers to factual information,
such as recall, which “…can be remembered but cannot be used
in new situations” (Mayer, 2014, p. 21). High level refers to
problem-solving/transfer knowledge that is applied, used, and
can be “organized into an integrated representation” (Mayer,
2014, p. 21). If it helps you to break it down further using a
different taxonomy that is acceptable just make sure you find
the method that works best for you and your team. Many
instructional designers omit this step since you already have an
order of content from your task analysis but I find this can be
46
particularly useful when determining the strategies that I am
going to use to present this content.

On the left-hand side of the table 4.0, you can see my first three
tasks. On the right-hand side, I have the objective for the task.
You can see in the first task, Order the steps for getting a law
passed in the correct sequence that this is a low-level task. What
I need to do is to write a learning objective that aligns, at the
low-level, with that task. You can see in that table that my
objective is, given a list of steps the learners will put them into
the correct order with 100% accuracy. Thus, my objective is also
written at a low-level. My objective isn't some problem-solving-
level objective. It's aligned with the given task. This is very
important. They need to be aligned or you start having quality
issues with your instruction.

Now let's talk about how to write a proper objective. There are
four key components that I like to see in an objective, usually
referred to as ABCD.

If you look online, a text, or talk to other instructional designers,

the ABCD method is very common. But some people have their
own preferred method. But they all have the same basic
information. ABCD - it's very easy to remember. What does that
mean?

A - Audience
B - Behavior
C - Condition
D - Degree

Audience, Behavior, Condition, Degree (ABCD)

Let’s go through it.

47
A is the Audience. Who are the people looking at this objective
or taking this training? The audience. The learners, the
managers, the admins, etc.

B is the Behavior. What are they actually going to do? This is

where you write an action verb to define their action. Are they
going to state something? Are they going to describe
something? Are they going to evaluate something?

Tip - you can't use words like “understand” for this action verb.
"Understand" is not a correct action verb. Why - because ask
yourself what "understand" means. What does "understand"
mean? I've asked several people in a class to write down their
definition of "understand" and they all have a slightly different
definition. In fact, they want to use the word "understand" in
their definition. Go ahead and do it yourself. Try to define
"understand." But if I say the word "identify," I'm very clear. That
is a good verb to use to write an objective. The point being that
your behavior needs to be clear and concise to match the task
the learner is going to perform. The two worst offenders - the
words “remember” and “understand”.

C is the Condition. Under what conditions? For example, given a

pencil and paper in a classroom, given a map, or using a
calculator. What condition are they going to be able to complete
this objective in?

D is the degree - how much success? 100% accuracy, 10%

accuracy? What does success mean?

I have an example here, which is color-coded with each part of

the objective.

48
Given a map of the United States, the learner will be able to
identify the state of North Carolina with 100% accuracy.

Who's the audience? - the learner.

What's the behavior? Identify. The learner is going to identify

the state of NC

What's the condition? Given a map of the United States. The

learner is going to need to identify the state when given a map
of the United States.

What is the degree? Success is 100% accuracy.

Some common mistakes I see people have when writing their

objectives:

The first mistake is that people try to make the objective an

assessment item. This is incorrect. You write your assessment
next. The objective just tells us about the assessment item, it is
not the assessment item itself.

Another common mistake is writing multiple objectives in one

objective. Write only one. If you're writing multiple objectives in
one objective, you're not using your task analysis or you didn't
do your task analysis correctly. You need to go back and make
sure those tasks are really broken down. Then write your
objective. This means you should have one action verb. You
shouldn't have multiple action verbs - just one per objective. An
objective is one sentence, not 10 sentences. This is another error
I see beginners make when they start writing a learning
objective.

Here is a tip as you start becoming more familiar with objectives,

and especially in practice - I don't write the audience (A of

49
ABCD), for every single objective unless there are multiple levels
of learners/users (i.e., managers, employee, etc.) because
usually, we know it's the learner. Additionally, if it's just going to
be 100% accuracy for everything, I may not define the degree (D
of ABCD) either. This helps me save time and reduce redundancy
where it’s not needed. It just depends on the situation. But I
always have the behavior and the condition. And for those of
you who are new, you should always have the audience and
degree in there as well so you learn when to and when not to
include them.

50
5.1 Instructional Congruency
This section is going to discuss the relationship between
objectives and assessment items.

What is instructional congruency and why is it important for

you? I already briefly described it in the previous section on
objectives but I wanted to describe it here in more depth just to
reiterate how important it is. Instructional congruency means
that your objectives are in line with your content, which is then
going to be in line with your assessment items, an idea, which is
discussed throughout the ID literature (Dick, Carey, and Carey,
2014). In other words:

objectives = content = assessment

We are at the point where we have written our objectives which

means you should know how we are going to present this
content and how to assess it. Let’s assume your objective is low-
level knowledge, like verbal recall. This means that when I'm
developing my content for that objective (my instructional
strategy), that I will present to the learner, it needs to be
presented in a manner that supports verbal recall. That also
means when I develop my assessment, I'm assessing that
objective at the verbal recall level. Everything should be in
alignment. By doing this, we are ensuring that the content we
present, and how we assess that content, is in line with our
client’s needs that we established when we did our task analysis
and created our learning objectives. This is another quality check
in the instructional design process. Take a look at the example
below (Table 5.0). You can see that our original task was for the
learner to identify the state of North Carolina. Then see that our

51
objective describes that further by stating how that will take
place. So we know when we are developing our content, we
need to make sure the learner will be able to complete that
objective (more on developing strategies later on in this text),
and finally we can see our assessment tests that objective. Thus,
instructional congruency.

Table 5.0

Task Objective Assessment

Identifies Given a map of the Please circle your

state of United States, the response on the image
North learner will identify provided
Carolina the state of North
[learner is provided
Carolina with 100%
with a map of United
accuracy
States image] Identify
the state of North
Carolina.

52
5.2 Assessments
As soon as I write an objective, I determine how it’s going to be
assessed, which should come directly from the objective (i.e.,
instructional congruency). I create my objectives, assessments,
and instructional strategies at the same time. You must assess
every single learning objective or you can’t be sure the learners
actually learned it! This section is going to overview
assessments, describe several types, and provide you tips for
developing them. Keep in mind this section is an overview of
assessment design. I am going to provide some basic tips for
writing assessments but there is much more involved than this
simplified description. In fact, I teach an entire course on
assessments exclusively and could write a book on only this
specific topic, so keep that in mind as you read through.

First, I would like to talk about two types of ‘evaluation’ that

must be discussed before we talk about the assessments that we
do in ID and make it clear that there is a difference between
evaluation and assessment. The assessments that I am referring
to in this section are quizzes, tests, and surveys, which can play a
role in evaluation. However, evaluation in ID is usually done to
assess the effectiveness of something, like a course or program.
Evaluation is discussed in a later section in this text. This section
solely focuses on assessment.

Educators generally like to categorize assessment into two

categories: Formative and Summative. Formative refers to
interviews, observations, quizzes, homework assignments. It’s
an informal assessment. Summative assessments are final, like a
final exam in a class, the SAT or other major test. A job interview
could be considered a summative assessment.
53
I think it's important to understand the difference between
these two because you need to know what you are designing an
assessment for. Designing a simple class survey doesn’t have the
same implications that a test like the SAT can have.

Issues of validity and reliability become much more important

when talking about high stakes tests. You should understand
what reliability and validity mean because they can impact you if
you are developing high stakes tests. I am going to simplify it for
you to understand these two terms that many people use
interchangeably (even though they shouldn’t!)

Validity – Is the content in the questions correct? Are you using

the test correctly? Those two questions are the key to validity.

If the questions are wrong or the content is wrong, you have

weakened validity. If you aren’t using the test correctly, it's not
valid. For example, would a test requiring someone to carry 100
pounds be valid when the job requires you to type on a
computer all day? Nope. It's not valid because they won’t need
to ever carry 100 pounds. You aren’t testing correctly in that
example. Now a test that required the user to type might be
valid. This is the simplest way to think of validity.

Reliability – If the learners were to take this test again, would

their score be similar to the first time?

Reliability is the ability for a test to provide similar results over

and over. If person A scores a 5/10 the first time they take it,
then 10/10 two days later even though they haven’t studied
anymore, the test is most likely not reliable.

What is the relationship between these two? Something can be

reliable but not valid. Not the other way around. If something is
54
not reliable, it cannot be valid. Let me provide an example - Let's
say I know I weigh 200 pounds. If I step onto a new scale and it
says I weigh 150 pounds, I know it’s incorrect. If I step on that
new scale 10 more times and it keeps saying I weigh 150
pounds. Guess what, the scale is reliable but not valid. It's
reliably bad!

Pre- and Post- Assessments

The idea of pre- and post-assessments is an important

consideration you may want to make. I am a big fan of pre-tests
because they can tell you what your audience knows and how
much they actually learn from your training intervention. For
example, when I read a research study and they didn't use a
pretest, I'm always baffled because the results are very difficult
to make sense of because I can’t tell if the intervention worked
or if the participants already had the prior knowledge. This goes
for corporate training too. In order to evaluate prior knowledge,
there must be a pre-test.

That does not mean that the pre- and post-test need to be
exactly the same. They can be different but of course, that
means more time developing two different tests and developing
tests is no easy task!

Let me demonstrate why this is important. If I develop a pre-test

and on my post-test my learners improved by 80%, what does
that tell me? It tells me my instructional intervention worked! It
was a success! What if the improvement was only 5%? What
does that tell me? It tells me that my instructional intervention
either didn’t work (assuming they scored low) or they already
knew the content (assuming they scored high).

55
In practice, on most projects I am brought into I find we aren't
testing learner’s prior knowledge. But it's something I did want
to bring up here, that pretest is extremely important and can tell
us a lot about our training. When I am leading the project - a
pre-test is mandatory!

Writing Assessments

There are many types of assessments and the goal of this section
is not to list them all but to describe some of the most common
ones and provide you with tips for developing them. I find
instructional designers (and teachers) have a lot of problems
writing assessment items. Why? Because they are hard to write.
Especially when we start writing questions for high-level
knowledge.

First, let’s take a look at some common types of questions and

types of knowledge they are good at assessing. Now please keep
in mind this a guide, these are not hard fast rules. But these are
the types of knowledge these questions routinely assess:

Table 6.0

Assessment Low-level High-level

Type knowledge knowledge

True/False x (*not as common)

Matching x (*not as common)

Short Answer x (*not as common)

Multiple Choice x x

Performance x x

56
Notice how each type of assessment can measure each type of
knowledge! That doesn’t mean that it’s the best choice, just that
it can be done.

Tips for all questions. Keep in mind these are tips, not rules. If
you have a reason why you would break one of these, go for it.
The goal is that you do not want people who know the correct
answer to get it incorrect because you wrote a bad question. We
want to write clear and effective questions. Here are some tips
for writing good questions:

- Make sure your answer is correct

- Ensure grammar is correct

- Don’t use words like Always or Never because they are

absolute

- If you have to use the word ‘NOT’ make sure you

highlight it in all caps, underline, or bold letters so that it
is not misread

- Don’t copy text/instruction from the content

- Make all incorrect answers plausible to someone that

doesn’t know the correct one

- Avoid patterns for answers (choose random)

- Avoid ‘none of the above’ or ‘all of the above’

- Avoid ‘which of the following are correct/not correct’

Types of Questions

True/false are very good at measuring low-level verbal

knowledge. They can assess higher-level knowledge but there

57
are better types of questions I would use instead. They are very
easy to write and score. Unfortunately, the biggest disadvantage
is that a learner might not know the answer but has a 50%
chance of getting it correct. Questions with more than 2
potential answers are much less susceptible to this.

Multiple-Choice are good at being versatile, they are the Swiss

Army knife of assessments. However, I often hear that multiple-
choice are not able to measure problem-solving type of
knowledge. They can actually do it really well. However, it's hard
to write multiple-choice questions that are excellent and
effective - it takes a lot of practice. They don't require learners
to write, which makes them very easy to score. If I'm doing
corporate training, I can assess a large group of people fairly
quickly with multiple-choice via an LMS. It's probably the most
popular type of assessment you see in education, corporate, and
government because of these advantages.

Additionally, multiple-choice allows you to do a lot of different

kinds of analysis on the questions. For example, item analysis
(which is beyond the scope of what I am discussing here) is a
great way to analyze these questions.

The biggest disadvantage is that learners can’t apply their

knowledge. They can't go above and beyond. There's no project.
If poorly written, these questions can cause all kinds of issues,
especially when you have questions that include "which of these
is not" or "is the answer A, C, and B" and someone knows the
answer, but they can't get it right because they misread the
question or answers. Poorly written questions are very common
mostly because it’s difficult to write good ones.

58
Another big problem is that we mostly only write questions that
assess factual knowledge. We're not addressing those higher
levels because it is more difficult to write a multiple-choice
question that addresses higher levels. Keeping to your
objectives, as discussed in the previous section, will ensure this
will not occur.

Another disadvantage is that learners can “guess”. However, the

statistics are more in favor of multiple-choice over true/false
when guessing, which is why I much prefer them. On a question
with 4 choices, someone has a 25% chance of getting it correct.
The more questions you create, the more difficult it is,
impossible even, to do well on a multiple-choice test if you're
only guessing.

One may make educated guesses by using the process of

elimination, which have a much greater chance than that 25%
because they've eliminated one or two that they know definitely
aren't the answer. But that's a different story than just pure
guessing. Random guessing won’t work on a test with 30
questions.

Short-Answer are generally used for verbal low-level questions.

They're very easy to construct and they help eliminate random
guessing. The biggest problem with them is that scoring is
subjective. If you're assessing it on the computer via the LMS,
which is typical, what happens if the answer is typed in all caps?
Is it going to be recognized correctly? What if they misspell it? Is
the computer going to recognize it as incorrect when you're not
assessing spelling? You're assessing whether they knew the
answer or not. Maybe they did know it, they just typed
incorrectly. Should they really miss the question? Those are the

59
kinds of things you need to consider when choosing short
answer questions.

Performance (essay, case studies, problems, like ill- and well-

structured problems, games, and simulations). These are great
at assessing both low and high-level knowledge. The greatest
advantage is that they can assess complex learning through real-
world examples and/or projects.

They assess the ability to do high-level work. They're consistent

with learning theory, like constructivism, where students learn
through experience because they're going to need to
demonstrate knowledge to get to the problem solution.

However, they can be difficult to create, which means they also

can be difficult to assess. Scoring can be complex. A lot of people
do not have the knowledge of how to develop a good rubric.

Let’s take a look at rubrics. First look at the ineffective rubric.

What would you consider in error in this rubric?

Bad rubric:

Table 7.0

Great – 3 Ok – 2 points Poor – 1 point

points

Written Supports Somewhat Somewhat

Expression main ideas supports main supports main
with ideas with ideas with
examples examples and examples and
and uses uses at least uses no
some sources sources

60
 several
sources

Spelling No spelling A few spelling Quite a few

errors errors spelling errors

Correct Correct Almost the Very short

Length length – 3 correct length work under 1
pages page

Usually, when I see a rubric like this I want to scream - and that
is without reading it. Why? The first issue is that I see an even
number of rows and columns. It’s not that it’s incorrect because
of that but 99% of the time when you see that, it means it is
wrong. What is incorrect about it?

Titles - What does ‘Great’ mean? ‘Ok’ mean? Or ‘Poor’ mean?

Are those objective or subjective terms? They are subjective.
Two different people might have two different takes on what
each of those means.

Value - How important is written expression worth vs spelling?

Based on this rubric they are both worth the same amount of
points. But is spelling just as important as written expression?
Was spelling part of the learning objectives or were we just
assessing it now because we think it’s important? We need to
list the value for each item.

Objective - Is each description objective? That is, would 5

different people looking at the same paper score it exactly the
same? No. Why? Take a look at the written expression for 2 and
3 points. What is the difference between the words ‘several’ and
61
‘some’? There may be none. Additionally, that 2-point box for
written expression is assessing two different things – ‘examples’
and ‘sources’. What if they get one and not the other? Is it
clearly defined how to break up those points?

Now let’s examine what a better rubric looks like:

Table 8.0

3 points 2 points 1 point

Use of Supports Supports at Supports at

examples each of the 5 least 3 of the least 1 of the
(worth 75% main topics main topics main topics
of grade) with an with an with an
example example example

2 points 1 point

Use of sources (worth 5% Uses 2 or more Uses 1

of grade) sources source

3 points 2 points 1 point

Spelling (worth 10% of grade) 0 errors 1 error 2-5 errors

3 points

Correct Length (worth 10% of grade) 3 pages

62
First, take a look at how the rubric is broken up into four
different sections. This is done because some of the items didn’t
need the same exact number of columns. Next, look at the
value. We see ‘Use of examples’ is worth 75% of the grade but
‘Use of sources’ is only worth 5%. This way we apply the correct
value to each item.

The titles are simply points, this helps avoid confusion over what
terms may mean to each scorer. Additionally, notice how each
item in each box is objective - there is no argument over what is
correct or not. This helps ensure multiple scorers score the same
and that learners know if they are correct or not.

This is what a rubric should look like. It is effective and concise.

63
5.3 Instructional Strategies
While working on our task analysis, learning objectives, and
assessment items, we also need to start thinking about
instructional strategies. Just a note here - I am starting to plan
these out from the first time I speak with my client. I am always
thinking about my design. However, these become fully
developed during my task analysis and objectives.

I find that one thing that a lot of new instructional designers get
confused about is what are instructional strategies. I am not
going to go through and explain every instructional strategy here
because there are thousands; my goal is to show you how they
are used so that you understand how to create quality
instruction.

There are three types of instructional strategies - organizational,

delivery, and development (Smith and Ragan, 2004). In this
section, we are going to focus on organizational and delivery.
Development will be discussed in the development section 6.5
of this text.

Organizational strategies are used to organize the course,

lesson, presentation, etc. They're your skeleton, your outline.
The most well-known organizational strategy is Gagne’s 9 Events
(Gagné, 1985).

While this is great for organizing my content, it doesn't really tell

me how I am going to make my content fun, motivating, etc.
Thus, it's a guide to help me organize my course. It doesn't
matter if I'm doing a lecture, computer-based instruction, a
video, etc. I must incorporate an organizational strategy like

64
Gagne's Nine Events (or parts of it that make sense for my
project) into my instruction to help me structure and organize.

Next, I have my delivery instructional strategies. These are

things that I use to design my content so that learners can learn
and are motivated to learn. Some examples would include
Keller's ARCS Model (Keller, 2009) (for motivation) or various
learning strategies like problem-based learning, games,
gamification, reading aloud, worksheets, drill and practice, etc. -
they are too numerous to name. How do I determine what
delivery strategy I need to use? I look at my content, consider
my learners, and determine what is best and plausible given my
project restraints.

What kind of project restraints? First, I need to consider the

content - I look at my task analysis and objectives. Many times I
know exactly how the content should be presented based on my
tasks. But in addition to presenting it, the learners need to
remember it! So I determine the domains of learning that I'm
going to use for that content type. In Bloom's Taxonomy (Bloom
et al. 1956), there are three domains of learning - cognitive,
affective, and psychomotor. Cognitive is our mind, our thoughts,
our knowledge, what is happening in our head as we think and
learn. Affective is our emotions, attitudes, beliefs. Psychomotor
are hands-on and physical skills.

The domain each task from my task analysis falls into will help
determine the strategies I am going to use. For example, if my
task involves being able to recall content, I know my
instructional delivery strategy falls in the cognitive domain, thus
I would want to use delivery strategies that support learning
from that domain. Keep in mind one course may use many
different strategies and hit on all 3 of the domains. Once we
65
determine what domain my content falls under, I look at the
knowledge type (high- or low-level) and look at strategies that
support learning from that domain/knowledge level.

So how are these organizational and delivery strategies

actually applied? How does this help you design? Let’s examine
the following:

In the table below I have two organizational strategies: Gagne's

Nine Events and Dick and Carey's Instructional Strategies Model
along with my general organizational strategy (Dick, Carey, and
Carey, 2014; Gagné, 1985). My general strategy simplifies these
organizational models so that it’s easier to see the big picture
and see how all of these organizational strategies are really
saying the same exact thing.

The following are adapted from Dick, Carey, and Carey (2014)
and Gagné (1985):

Table 9.0

General Gagne’s 9 Events Dick and Carey

Organizational
Strategy

Introduction Gaining Attention Pre-Instructional

activities
Informing the
learner of the a. Gain
objective attention/motivate

Stimulating recall b. Describe objectives

of prior knowledge
c. Recall prior
knowledge

66
Content Presenting Content presentation
Presentation Material
a. Content
and Learning
b. Examples

Providing learning Learning participation

guidance/facilitate
a. Practice
Eliciting
b. Feedback
performance

Provide Feedback

Assessment Assess Assessment

Performance
a. Entry behavior
test

b. Pretest

c. Posttest

Utilization Enhance retention Follow-through

and transfer activities

a. Memory aids
for retention

b. transfer

67
During the introduction (See Table 9.0) our goal is to get the
learner ready to learn. We need to motivate them, tell them
what they are going to learn, and recall any prior knowledge
they may have. This sets the stage for the course they are going
through.

Now that our learners are ready to learn it’s time to deliver the
content. The order of the content should have been determined
by our task analysis and the strategies to get them to learn
should be used here (i.e., problem-based learning, gaming, etc.).
What are we going to do to get them to learn? How are we
going to deliver the content? How are we going to ensure that
our learners learn? Are we going to lecture? Have videos?
Games? Case studies?

Our goal here is to teach the learner and have them learn using
a strategy that matches our learning objectives. If the objective
is low-level, like recall a name, use a strategy that supports that.
If the objective is high-level, like solving a problem, use a
strategy that supports that like problem-based learning. Your
strategies should align with your objectives. This ensures that
the learners are learning what they need to as identified in your
task analysis. Keep in mind that the learners must know the
content well enough to meet the desired learning objectives
because they are going to be assessed on it! The assessment
should be aligned with our learning objectives and should
already be created per the previous section of this text (5.2).

And then finally, follow-through activities, which are memory

aids for retention and transfer. This could include a job aid or
how-to videos, follow up instruction, practice, mentorship,
sandbox, etc. Just a note - A sandbox system means a practice
system. For example, if I was teaching someone how to use their
68
new computer system i.e., a new learning management system,
they could go in and practice without messing up the real system
because it’s on another server. A lot of companies will have a
sandbox system when they're installing something so that people
can practice using it before it's actually launched.

The following table shows when in the organizational strategy

various delivery strategies can be implemented:

Table 10.0

General Delivery Strategy (How and where

Organizational they fit into organizational strategies)
Strategy

Introduction Keller ARCS

Content Presentation Problem-based learning

and Learning Game-based learning
Worked Examples
Lecture
Video
Activities

Assessment Tests
Projects
Assignments

69
 Utilization Job aids
Apprenticeship
mentorship
Coaching
Sandbox/simulation
Drills

Now that we know our organizational and delivery strategies,

it’s time to start working on our deliverables!

70
Development
6.0 Common Deliverables
What kind of deliverables are instructional designers expected
to create? There's a number of common deliverables that we
create. It would be impossible to go through every deliverable
you may ever encounter but the goal of this section is to explain
some of the more common ones that you will be expected to
develop. Project requirements and the type of training you are
developing will help to define what deliverables you should be
developing but this is a beneficial general guide for someone
brand new and not sure what you develop as an ID.

*keep in mind these are deliverables you usually create for the
client. I am not discussing proposals and other PM/internal
deliverables in this section

Instructor Guide

An instructor guide is a combination of the learner guide

(described below) and the instructor notes. It includes
everything the learner is going to do and see plus includes extra
directions for the trainers. For example, if you were facilitating a
train the trainer session, you would deliver an instructor guide
as part of the training to the new trainers which would include
PowerPoint slides, worksheets, activities, and notes.

What does an instructor guide look like? It’s a guide for the
teacher - a cookbook for delivery. It has all of the content and
tells them when and how to present it. It’s very detailed and has
word for word directions. For example, it might be a printout of
PPT slides with notes on the side of each slide telling the
71
instructor what to say and how long to spend on each slide. In
the beginning of the booklet, it might tell the instructor how to
introduce the topics, include an ice breaker, and give directions
for delivery. It goes through step 1, step 2, step 2, step 3. It’s
similar to a lesson plan that a teacher uses. For example, if
you're going to be delivering training over an eight-hour day, this
guide would contain the schedule and materials for those 8
hours. Here's everything you're going to say and do. Here's the
presentation, handouts, and all materials. There is no one way
to develop this guide, it’s going to include what is needed for the
training being delivered.

Learner Guide

Along with the instructor guide, we have a student or learner

guide, which is usually a slimmed-down version of the instructor
guide. In fact, it's nearly identical to the instructor guide except
it doesn’t contain all of the instructor notes. For example, it
might include activities, worksheets, and all materials the
learners will need. It does not include any instructor notes.
Learner guides are very common in face-to-face instruction.

Presentations

These usually go with my instructor/learner guides. They can be

printed on a slide per page, multiple slides per page, or simply
be an electronic file. A suggestion - learn many types of software
to develop presentations. Don’t always rely on PowerPoint
(PPT).

72
Computer-Based Training (game, simulation, software are
included here as well)

For a computer-based training module or course, where there's

no facilitator, you're not going to need an instructor guide. But
now we are going to be delivering a stand-alone piece of content
for the learners. This would include the files - both executable
and development (if requested). It would include all narration,
images, videos, etc. that were included in the development as
well. I used to deliver these via CD/DVD but now I simply put
them onto a cloud server or the clients LMS depending on their
needs. Similarly, I would deliver the same things if I were
developing a game or simulation.

Video

Video is a very common deliverable. We might be creating a

bunch of vignettes, little short tutorials, or job aids. I've created
large videos where I've had to work with a production company
to create very large training videos and I've done small in-house
videos as well. Creating quality video can get expensive fast and
I personally like to hire a professional rather than attempt to do
it all myself.

Narration

It's very tough to find someone with a really good (professional)

voice. Usually, as an instructional designer, you're not
necessarily doing the narration yourself, you're getting a
professional to narrate. Remember, if you want to produce
something with professional quality, hire a professional voice
talent. As an instructional designer, you need to be able to
produce it. Production includes learning how to take out

73
breaths, how to instruct the talent to speak correctly, how to
have the right tone and pitch, and then put it all together.

In recent years, a lot of text to speech programs have made their

way into the market. I have tested these extensively and none
are nearly as effective as a human voice. They often sound like a
robot. I think they may be used for a word or sentence here or
there but I would not deliver full narration to a client using one
unless the client requested it. Hopefully, these will become
better in the near future as I think they have a lot of potential. If
you are looking at this after the date of publication there may
very well be a good option out there.

Job Aids

A lot of times we'll be expected to develop job aids, which are

simple tutorials designed to jog someone’s memory while on the
job, especially if there is a lag in between training and use. These
can be developed many different ways: video, word document,
etc.

Images

You will be using images quite often, regardless of the types of

training you are developing. One recommendation I have for all
instructional designers - purchase a gallery of images online that
you can keep using. There are tons of great images online and
they are relatively inexpensive. Subscribing to just one or two
can have you covered for most image needs. Otherwise, you
need a graphic designer or you need to design them yourself.

Other materials

Along with the materials described above, there will always be a

need for additional items depending on the learning outcomes,
74
client, students, environment, etc. So be prepared to develop
other materials as needed. For example, for instructor-led
training there may be a need to hand out worksheets. For
computer-based training, there may be a need to have some
supplemental materials. There may be a need to recommend an
LMS and help with installation, etc. There are many reasons you
may need to develop this extra material so be prepared to do it
when needed.

Chart highlighting training deliverables:

This chart is a very general guide showing the types of

deliverables based on the type of training being delivered. For
example, for face to face training, you probably need an
instructor guide (assuming it's train the trainer), a student guide,
possibly videos, job aids, and other materials.

Table 11.0
Instructor Student CBT Video Narration Job Other
Guide Guide Aids materials

Face-to- x x x x x
Face

Online x x x x x
learning

Self- x x x x x
Paced

On the job x x x x x

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6.1 Storyboarding
Storyboarding is a sample of what our product is going to look
like. For instance, if we were creating computer-based training
(CBT), we would storyboard each screen so that our client could
approve it before we develop it and/or so that we could hand it
off to a developer. This is not something that needs to be done
all of the time, for example, it probably doesn’t get done for
face-to-face instruction. But since most IDs tend to design
computer-based training most of the time, it needs to be
discussed because it does need to be done for computer-based
training.

This happens in between or during design just before

development. As soon as we have our solution, we can start
deciding what the training will look like, so we storyboard.

Initially, the interface (prototype) can be designed while we are

doing our task analysis but the actual storyboards (interface with
content and strategy) cannot be developed until we have
completed design. If you think about it, how could we develop a
storyboard for something when we don’t know what the
objective is? Interface yes, storyboard, no.

While many IDs are one-stop shops (as in you do it all) you may
be working with a graphic artist or programmer at this point to
make sure what you are designing in your storyboards is feasible
and works. Be sure you develop a style guide when beginning
your storyboards to help with development (I discuss this in the
next section of this text - 6.2).

One reason we create storyboards is so that our programmers

can see what they are expected to develop (though most often
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we are developing it ourselves, it just depends on the project).
But the most important reason you create them is that you want
to make sure that your client signs off indicating that the project
is 100% correct. You want to do this before you spend great
amounts of time, energy, and money developing something you
want to ensure its right. Think of storyboard as a quality
checkpoint. You must get approval from the project sponsor
before you start development. This ensures that you are not
going to have to redevelop something based on an error you
have made. Trust me, scope creep/redevelopment happens.
Clients will change their mind. Getting a sign off here ensures
you got approval to start development.

What information does a storyboard contain? How do I begin? It

contains the content needed for the project you are working on.
There is no magic format. I have seen several variations/formats
of storyboards and they all worked just fine. The point is a
storyboard does not need to be a professional piece of work.
You probably hear stories of a storyboard for a movie that was
drawn on a napkin in a bar. A storyboard can be very simple. I
like to start my storyboards with a very simple drawing, usually
done very early in the instructional process, possibly when I am
presenting a solution to my client. I don't do all my storyboards
like this, but my first one I will. I'll probably put two or three
mock-ups together to show a client, and I draw them by hand.

This early hand-drawn process is called paper prototyping. It's

when you draw it by hand, a real quick sketch of what it could
possibly look like. Why do I do this? I do this for a number of
reasons. One, I can draw so much faster than I can develop in
PowerPoint, Word, Captivate, etc. to create a simple looking
storyboard/template. This allows me to make changes on the fly
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and really brainstorm the look and feel with the client. I can sit
with a client and draw several examples in minutes with them
sitting there providing feedback as I go. I can create a sample in
five minutes. I can ask them if they like this idea? Do they like
where I'm going with this design? Do they want buttons at the
top or bottom? I can draw with the client in real-time. It’s a
great way to get an interface sample very quickly.

You don't have to paper prototype. It's just something I

personally prefer and I think is very helpful. A lot of times, I have
an idea in my head and it's very easy for me to sketch it out and
then work on it on the computer when the idea is more
solidified.

What does a storyboard look like? As I mentioned already - a

storyboard should include all the information that is required for
development for your project and those requirements will differ
by project. If you're not the developer, talk to your developer to
make sure what you are proposing is feasible. I find most
instructional designers do the development themselves so they
are the designer and developer. The idea is you can take your
storyboard, give it to a developer, and they can develop it.
You've giving them the directions, the map. Figure 4.0
represents a sample blank storyboard that was developed in
PPT.

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Figure 4.0: Storyboard Sample

Per the example, you can see where you would put critical
information like the file name, slide #, and any other identifying
information that you may have.

On the left of the storyboard, we have our files section. Here you
would be able to put all of the file names that would be used in
the slide. Are you using images, what are the image file names?
What are the button file names? What are the sound file
names?

Then we have a mockup of the screen. This is very useful when

you have a vision in mind and want the developer to get an idea
what the screens should look like. I prefer to develop my
storyboards with this visual though some designers just use an
alt text with no mockup. I think using the mockup takes longer
but does help with quality control, though either way is fine.
Again there is no right way to do a storyboard. The right way is
the way that works for the given project.

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Notes for developer is a place for additional information that you
may need to mention to the developer. For example, pause this
slide at 1:00 minute in, etc. This is your chance to give the
developer any potential information they may need for this
specific slide. Text/Narration is an area where you may need to
add the verbal part of the slide. I will put the actual text or
narration that needs to be in the slide. Finally, navigation and
interactivity is where I say what will happen and when. For
example, the next button goes to slide 4. The back button goes
to slide 2. There should be an invisible button or image that
performs this action. There should be animation here.

There is no one format or one way it needs to be developed. The

example I'm showing here is done in PowerPoint, but you can do
a storyboard in anything. Sometimes if I am trying to save time I
will do my storyboard in the software I am developing in (this
is a big tip). This works great when I am the developer. For
example, if I am developing in Captivate, I may create my
storyboards in Captivate and rather than them being traditional
storyboards, they may just contain the content, a skeleton of the
final version without the actions but a perfect storyboard for the
client to sign off on. This can save me development time. Doing
this depends on a few things: Am I the developer? Do I have
time for proper storyboards? And will the client be ok with this?

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6.2 Style Guide
During prototyping and storyboarding, discussed in the previous
section, you sit down with the developer(s) and SME and create
a style guide for development. Why? Because we need to make
sure what we want to develop is going to meet the technical
limitations/standards of the client while retaining a high level of
quality. The point of the style guide is to define development
styles. It’s also very useful for a client when they need to edit
the work at a later date! This differs from storyboards because
they define what each screen will look like whereas a style guide
defines the styles I can and should be using for my storyboards.
It also may contain micro information that is not needed on each
storyboard.

What does it mean to create the style guide? It means I’m

defining all styles (similar to CSS code for those that know a bit
of programming). For example, I'm defining my fonts. Are we
using Arial? Times New Roman? Just imagine how difficult it
would be if me and five other people were designing or
developing this and we all used a different font? Or we just
didn't tell the developer what the font was going to look like and
they chose one that the client didn’t like? You can’t afford that
kind of rework. The style guide is a quality control document for
development. I create it for all projects even when I am the
designer and developer. This way when I go back to edit my
training months or years later I know what styles to use.

Other styles in addition to fonts include colors for background,

text, and anything else on the page. We define all colors.
Usually, there's a color family, a list of three or five colors that
work well together.
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Screen resolution. Screen size. Are we creating this for a phone
or a huge monitor? Because that makes a significant difference
in our layout. Are we printing this or not printing this? How are
images developed? Are we creating them in Illustrator or
Photoshop?

What are we using for buttons (i.e., software? CSS?)? What do

our buttons look like? Are we creating a template for them?
What kind of spacing are we using? After a period (.), are we
going to have one space or two spaces? What kind of white
space are we going to have on the page in general?

Formatting. Are we using a style like APA for text? Are we going
to have hidden data within each of these files? For example,
SCORM or metadata? Are we going to have comments? Are we
going to have developer notes hidden in the code?

We define all of this in the style guide. What you include is going
to be dependent on your actual deliverables. But you need to
have a style guide no matter what you're doing, whether you're
developing a document, whether you're developing PowerPoint,
something in Articulate, a game, etc. It doesn't really matter
what you're developing. You always need to have some kind of
style guide, even if you are the only developer.

Why? Because I've worked on projects where I develop it and

guess what? The client comes back to me six months later and
needs an edit. Can I actually remember what I was doing or do I
have to go back and reverse engineer it to figure it out? The
style guide saves me undue stress!

I personally always create a style guide. I was taught to do that

from the start of my career, so I always have. But I've come into
companies/projects where something was developed by a
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previous developer and there are no comments in the software,
no style guide, no storyboards, no anything. In those cases I've
wasted so much time trying to take it apart in ways it's not
supposed to be taken apart, just to figure out what the
developer did so that I can edit it. A style guide saves a lot of
time. It's very quick and easy to do. It does not take a long time
to create a style guide. You will benefit greatly by creating one.

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6.3 What Types Of Software Do IDs
Use?
This section will discuss much of the common software
instructional designers use during development. Keep in mind
this section is going to be outdated very fast. In just a few years
this could be vastly different. Much of the software I learned
years ago is no longer used today (Director, Authorware,
Toolbook) though some of it still is (Photoshop, Dreamweaver,
Captivate (Captivate was called Robodemo back then)).

What types of software do instructional designers use? It varies -

We can end up using quite a few software packages for one
project to very little, it all depends on the types of project we
are on. I know a few IDs that only use one software program and
that’s it! Others use a different type of software for each
project. It’s going to vary quite a bit. What I'm going to do is
describe some of the most popular basic types of software that
we use and the types you should know before going into
interviews. Obviously, this list is not an extensive or exclusive
list. These are the main pieces of software I want to see on a
consultant’s resume. This is the software I expect my students to
know. It’s basic ID software!

I've broken this out into authoring, video, document

organization, audio, image editing, programming, and learning
management software.

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Table 12.0
Authoring Video Audio Document Images LMS Programming

Captivate Camtasia Audacity InDesign Photoshop Moodle HTML and

Dreamweaver
Articulate Adobe Audition Acrobat Illustrator Any
Premiere other CSS
PowerPoint MS Word
Final Cut Design and
Lectora Management (SQL)
OBS
Javascript

Authoring software. There are two main big software packages,

Articulate and Captivate. Articulate and Captivate. Articulate and
Captivate. Articulate and Captivate. Articulate and Captivate.
Yes, I repeat these on purpose because they are that popular. If
you have never used Articulate and Captivate, think of
PowerPoint on steroids.

Both of these are competing with each other – it’s the biggest
competition in our field, which camp do you belong in? I am
asked this all of the time. I don’t personally have a preference.
They are both very similar in my opinion. I have both, use both,
and teach both. However, one big disadvantage of Articulate is
that it can only can be developed on Windows PCs. Captivate
has the advantage that it runs on both a Mac and PC.

Most eLearning is created with one of these two pieces of

software. There is other authoring software in the field that
people are using, but these are the main two packages. So be
sure to know one or both of these and include that on your
resume and in your portfolio.

Having said that, there is a 3rd authoring software package that is

often overlooked, which is PowerPoint. PowerPoint doesn't do
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nearly as much as either of those two pieces of software, but it
can be used as a development tool, for lectures, or for
presentations. I've seen it used for computer-based training and
it does work really well in some cases. Don’t be quick to dismiss
PowerPoint, it can be very powerful and it’s also great because
your client can easily edit the file!

Video. There are three pieces of video software I think are

important. One is Camtasia, which is used for screen recording
and for making small quick videos. Next, we have more
advanced software: Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro. Those
are both a lot more advanced than Camtasia but I suggest
learning one of them. They are designed for professional video
and while I don’t think you need to master them you should
know what they can do and when to use them. I would expect
someone making professional video to use one of these pieces
of software. Finally, I would recommend learning OBS. OBS is an
open-source software used for streaming videos to Twitch and
Youtube.

For document design, we most often will use Adobe InDesign.

We use this to make our instructor guides, workbooks, etc. We
need to know Microsoft Word to develop documents. Pay
attention to and learn the settings for formatting so that you can
quickly make documents you are sending to clients look nice.
Finally, you need to know Adobe Acrobat, which is used to
create and edit PDFs. I also prefer Acrobat because I can sign
documents for clients and get them paperwork very fast. This
saves a lot of printing and mailing problems.

Audio narration. I strongly suggest Audacity. There's a lot of

professional audio software out there, but I just can't find a
reason to use anything else but Audacity. It's free and it's open-
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source. Adobe Audition is nice too but I find it cumbersome
compared to Audacity.

Image editing. Adobe Photoshop for editing jpegs/pngs and

Adobe Illustrator for creating logos. Image editing is a very
important skill an ID should have. You don’t need to be an artist
or a graphic designer but you need to be able to edit basic
images.

Learning management systems (LMS). You need to understand

how to develop in a learning management system as well as
manage it. It's pretty easy as they are user friendly and the great
thing about learning one LMS is that the rest are all pretty much
the same. So learn one, learn them all! The most common you
see in highered are Moodle, Blackboard, and Canvas. But every
company I've been at, every company I work with, every school I
work with has their own. Some have proprietary ones and
others have out of the box solutions. But they all basically
function the same. It’s sort of like email – you might have
several different email carriers, for example, Gmail and Outlook,
but they both send and receive email. LMSs are no different.
They all have a slightly different development interface but
function the same.

That is a pretty basic list for an instructional designer. I think this

would be an excellent starting point for someone looking to
improve their tech skills and develop their portfolio.

I didn't speak about hardware here and I'm not talking about
programming. Instructional designers don't do a lot of
programming. But we do dabble in HTML, HTML5, CSS, and
JavaScript. We don't really get into database languages or things
like that unless we're really getting into development. That's
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more computer science, not instructional design. I love coding
but we just don’t do it enough in ID. I do recommend dedicating
some time to learn basic programming logic and some
HTML/CSS but going above that isn’t going to help you the way
that learning Articulate and Captivate will.

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6.4 Development Strategies - Theories
Behind Multimedia Development
What is multimedia? We define multimedia as a combination of
both verbal (words) and nonverbal images (Mayer, 2014). Verbal
refers to audio narration and/or text. Non-verbal refers to
images, graphs, charts, icons.

It’s important for us to understand this definition so that when

we speak to our clients we are able to communicate what we
mean. For example, I have sat in groups and asked ‘what is the
definition of multimedia?’ And guess what? Everyone is very
silent and finally, one brave soul will raise their hand and they'll
say “radio, or newspaper”, or a type of multimedia, rather than
defining the term itself. It’s not that they're incorrect, we all use
terms like this, but we all have slightly different definitions.
Always make sure you and the client have the same operational
definition for terms like this so they know what you are talking
about when you tell them you are developing ‘multimedia’.

From this definition, the multimedia principle was developed by

Mayer and colleagues, which has found that we learn best from
text and images vs text alone (Mayer 2014).

But this multimedia principle is not new, It's been written and
discussed since the 1960s when we were only able to test the
theories on paper. It wasn’t until the 1990s, when graphics were
improved enough for learning enough for learning, that we
could test them on the computer.

The background theoretical framework of this theory is that our

working memory can only work with or process a few units of

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information at one time. This idea comes from Miller (1956),
who theorized that humans could hold 7 units in our working
memory at one time, depending on how interesting they were
to us. We now know that number is probably closer to 5. Either
way, we know we have a limited capacity to work with a limited
number of concepts at one time before we start overloading our
brains!

The application to practice here is that when I'm presenting a

learner with some type of content, I can present them with a
few concepts at one time before I need to get them to
remember or discard them. If I try to give them 12 concepts at
one time, we're going to overload their working memory.

Imagine pouring water into a glass. The water represents

content and the glass represents our memory. The more this
glass fills up, the more strain we put on our cognitive resources.
The heavier the glass gets, eventually what happens? We get to
the top of the glass and it overflows. Water is all dumped,
spilling everywhere. Our memory is no different than that glass
of water. It's how we remember.

We can only fill our memory up with so much information

before we need to use strategies that allow our learners to
remember it. So when you're doing a presentation, computer-
based training, or video etc., you have to remember that if
you're trying to get learners to remember something, you have
to reinforce it and get them to remember it, before moving on
to new things, or it's gone (i.e., you need to follow organizational
and delivery strategies mentioned in the previous sections of
this text).

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Why is this important? Because we want to find the best
possible way to deliver content to learners so they actually
remember it. This is what IDs are paid to do!

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6.5 Development Strategies -
Multimedia Development
From the idea that words and pictures are better for learning
than just words alone, Mayer and Colleagues (2014) came up
with principles called the multimedia principles.

Before I list these, I want to caution you, take these with a grain
of salt. We have research that shows that words and pictures are
better for learning than just words alone. I did a meta-analysis
on this and I found that it's about 12% better for both recall and
problem-solving knowledge (Pastore, Briskin, and Asino, 2016).
However, that is dependent on many variables, for example,
how motivated your learners are.

One thing I do want to point out, very little of this research has
tested these theories in real-life settings. Most often they were
tested in very controlled environments with university or K-12
students. Do what's best for your learners, but know these and
make sure you consider them.

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Table 13.0

Principle Description
Multimedia Presenting words and images that explain
Principle for one another are better than just words
alone

Split Attention Text with images causes users to split their

Principle attention between them, causing them to
go back and forth between the two to learn
the concept. This increases cognitive load.

Modality Presenting narration and images allows

Principle learners to focus on the images and hear
the words, reducing load vs images and
text.

Redundancy Presenting redundant text and narration on

Principle the screen decreases learning and increases
cognitive load

Coherence Extra details inhibit learning

Principle

Spatial and Text and images that explain for one

temporal another should be close together in both
contiguity time and space

Signaling Adding signals, cues, bold text, highlighted

Principle words, etc. can help the learners identify
important pieces of content

Interactivity Allow learners to control the pace of their

Principle learning

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*Table’s content is adapted from Mayer (2014)

Look at each of these principles and consider them when you

are designing your storyboards or developing your content.
Which ones can you implement? In addition to these principles,
we must consider usability in our designs!

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6.6 Development Strategies -
Usability
In this section, I will list some basic guidelines for usability when
designing multimedia or web-based training. I do recommend
following any of the number of course or training quality
checklists out there when developing instruction. There are
many out there depending on the type of content you are
developing. The following are usability guidelines that should be
considered for each project but please note this is just a sample
and not meant to be an exhaustive list. Any quality checklist out
there is going to be more comprehensive and focus on the
specific type of training you are trying to conduct:

*Make dialogue simple and natural. Speak the user's language.

This is very important, especially if you are trying to develop
training for another culture, different levels of learners, etc.

*Minimize cognitive load. That's how many concepts I'm trying

to get a learner to work with at one time. When I teach several
concepts, I must provide an opportunity for the learners to learn
it before moving onto the next topic.

*Consider the multimedia principles (see previous section on

multimedia 6.5)

*No busy backgrounds; Background should not overtake text

*Buttons should be the correct size and easy to find (Fitts' Law).
For example, a button that is too small on a mobile device might
not be easy to press.

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*Be consistent. For example, don't have a blue theme on one
page, a green theme on another page, and a red theme on the
next page unless you have a specific reason for doing that.

*Colors. Two to four colors is more than enough.

*Fonts should be legible. No unusual fonts unless you can justify

it.

*Text should be clear and easy to read

*Layout should be very organized.

*Make sure that there is feedback throughout the instruction.

For example, I might have a little note at the top of the screen
that says you're on page 2 of 20.

*Clearly marked exits should be everywhere.

*Deal with errors in a positive and helpful manner.

*Always develop for the technology that your users are going to
be using.

*Always consider the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds deals with
placement on the screen. Imagine a tic-tac-toe board placed on
your screen. The rule of thirds says that images should be placed
along the lines and connecting points rather than smack dab in
the center.

*Always provide help documentation.

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6.7 Pilot Testing Software
If one of your deliverables for a project is to create some type of
software (i.e., eLearning, computer-based training, video, etc),
you have to make sure that it's actually going to work right on
the end-users systems.

How do you do this? How do you test an executable file? What

are the phases? What is the process for doing this? I like to do a
number of things.

I have two phases in development where I test and retest my

software. They are alpha and beta phases.

During alpha testing, I'm going to look for big, major problems. I
actually start this step before I sign a contract with the client to
ensure things are going to work as I promised. For example, if
we've agreed upon a software to only find out that the client
didn't really give me the right information about their back-end
system. Then there could be significant problems.

I know to go and check that before I start anything. But they

don't always know your terminology, and they may say they
have an LMS or another term, but many times they aren’t
experts in this area and you need to actually confirm what they
are telling you is correct.

Once I know it works, I start to stress the system. What does

stress test mean? If I'm installing on a server or LMS, I make sure
that works. Then, I develop a few screens, a mock-up, a video,
etc. and test away. I make sure it runs on the hardware and
software my clients need it to run on. This way I can be sure

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before I get to develop that what I am developing is really going
to run correctly on their system.

Next, I perform beta testing. Beta testing is done when I already

have a developed product and am nearing or at completion.
Here we're looking for little glitches and errors. For example, a
link isn’t working. There is a spelling mistake, etc. Very small
minor details.

During beta testing, I start to involve the users. Usually, the way
I do that is I'll start with one or even a small group and walk
through with them. Here I can observe them while they're going
through and I can fix all of the errors. I may do more testing
depending on the scale of the training and number of problems I
encounter but usually, one small group test is enough. Once I
feel my software is complete it’s time for implementation!

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7.0 Implementation
The following section will describe the implementation phase in
Instructional Design. If you recall from previous sections, the
ADDIE process isn’t linear, so implementation takes place
throughout the entire process. Additionally, there may be
different parts of the project that can be implemented at various
times depending on your deliverables and client needs.

The basic premise of implementation is that I've delivered my

product to the client and it’s being rolled out to their users. I've
developed it and handed it off. It is done (hopefully for your
sake). Many times this is where my job as an ID stops. I hand off
the project and that’s it. However, sometimes I am responsible
for implementation.

Regardless, one of the first things I do during implementation is

to create a lessons-learned document. This describes what I
have learned during the project thus far. It also includes any
special notes about the client or project. This is very useful if I
need to come back to the project or client in the future.

Assuming that I am responsible for more than just handing this

off to the client, then there are many other practices I have to
do to ensure my implementation goes smoothly. This could
involve installing the software on an LMS, setting up the LMS,
doing a train the trainer session, etc.

Many times, if they have an LMS, I may have to install the

software for them on the LMS. For example, I may have to add a
link in the LMS or even set up a course shell for them to teach
the course. If I'm lucky they will have an LMS administrator and I
don't have to do that. But you need to know how to do that so
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that you can have that as an option, This can make life much
easier for both you and your client.

Another necessity may be to train-the-trainer (TTT). Train-the-

trainer sessions can mean many things. Am I training a trainer to
train all of the trainers? Am I training many trainers to deliver
courses? Am I training trainers to be subject matter experts?
There are times when you might even be the trainer, training
the end-user.

Next, we need to consider change management and

communication. If there is a significant change, I may need to
help ensure that it’s being managed correctly. For example, this
might involve implementing a change model, such as ADKAR
(change models are beyond the scope of this text). This is why
an ID needs to ensure they understand the change process so
that they can identify when it’s needed and can walk the client
through it.

Communication is usually part of the change process and

implementation. Are stakeholders aware of the training and its
impacts? Who is responsible for ensuring they have that
information? I have worked with clients who have a
communication team and others where I was expected to do it
myself.

A final note here, as you are doing implementation, you need to

be thinking ahead - to evaluation. Are you collecting the
appropriate data for evaluation? This is described in the next
section but be aware that you need to know what type of
evaluation the client might want to do so that you can collect
that data during implementation.

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Remember, a poor implementation can make the greatest
training seem terrible. You have to make sure that
implementation is done well and it's smooth, successful, and
error-free.

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8.0 Evaluation
The following section will discuss evaluation as it relates to
Instructional Design. There are a number of reasons why an
instructional designer needs to know how to do an evaluation
(*note we are not talking about assessments for objectives in
this section). Those can include something as simple as a quality
check to something difficult like trying to determine if a project’s
return on investment was met. We could be evaluating a course
or a program’s success. We can evaluate lots of different things.

The two types of evaluation that IDs focus on are formative and
summative. Formative evaluation is a small, simple evaluation,
like a review or pilot test.

In the instructional design process, we use these to assess our

quality, for example, I might have a subject matter expert review
my design. These types of formative evaluations are consistently
happening during many parts of the ID process. If you paid
attention in my other sections within this text I point out when
and what is a quality check!

Next, we have summative evaluations. Summative is the final

evaluation. For example, determining the ROI, determining if
students learned, etc.

The difference between formative and summative is fairly easy

to understand. Formative is rather simple (i.e., quality check)
and summative is more final (high-stakes).

When conducting a summative evaluation we first need to

determine why we are going to do it. What is the purpose of the
evaluation? From this purpose, we develop key questions which

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help to guide the rest of the evaluation. These key questions are
the ‘what’ we seek to gain/learn/get from this evaluation. There
can be one question or many depending on what we want to
find out! Once we have our key questions we can select an
evaluation model. The model we choose should be the model
that best helps us answer our questions.

Most often this is Kirkpatrick’s model. When I say it’s used most
often, it’s used over 99% of the time (yes I made up that 99%
statistic but I have rarely seen an alternative being used).
Kirkpatrick’s model is a buzzword within the field. If you're going
to learn one evaluation model in our field, this is the one you're
going to learn because it's hands down the most popular. It does
a good job of addressing the impact of training courses,
programs, and products so it's really good for use in our field for
a number of reasons.

Having said that, let’s talk about Kirkpatrick's model. There are
four levels to Kirkpatrick's model (Kirkpatrick, 1994):

Table 14.0

Kirkpatrick’s model

Level 1 – Learner satisfaction

Level 2 – Learning

Level 3 – Transfer to job

Level 4 – Return on investment

Level 1 is learner satisfaction. Did the learners enjoy the

training? Did they like it? What did they dislike? Our goal here is
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to determine if the learners were happy with the training and
what they believe could be improved. While learner satisfaction
isn’t always important (i.e. certain types of strenuous training)
the data it provides can help inform the instructors, clients,
developers, etc. what can be improved in the future.

Level 2 is learning. Did learning occur and if so, by how much?

Thus in order to perform that measurement, it’s beneficial to
offer a pre- and post-test so that you can compare the results.
Keep in mind that learner satisfaction is not necessarily
correlated with learning. So you can have satisfied learners that
didn’t learn anything and vice versa. This is why you must
measure learning to be sure. Additionally, this helps determine
training effectiveness and can be used to help support levels 3
and 4.

Levels 3 and 4 are more difficult to capture and as a result not

performed as often in most organizations.

Level 3 is transfer of behavior. Are the learners doing what they

learned on the job? To collect this data you may need to observe
behavior, analyze performance data, interview employees,
and/or distribute surveys. This can be done at any future point
after the training, 1 month, 6 months, or a year - it’s going to be
up to the client. I cannot recommend a timeframe because the
project goals and client needs should indicate when this could
happen.

Level 4 looks at the impacts. What was the return on

investment? Before we start the training project, we always
figure out what we believe the return on investment of this
project is going to be; some kind of performance metric that we
can objectively measure. Then we try to assess if this occurred.
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This would depend on the project goals, for example, less errors
in assembly, money savings, more productivity, etc. It’s going to
depend on the project.

If we were writing an evaluation report out for a client it would

be organized similar to the following:

1. Background/Client

2. Stakeholders

3. Key Questions

4. Model selected

5. Data collection and Findings

6. Recommendations based on findings

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9.0 Rapid ID: What, When, and How
Rapid instructional design. What does that mean? Why do we do
it?

Rapid ID is designed for those that are experienced IDers, which

is why I put this section at the end! For new instructional
designers, we like to explain the ID model as linear with no room
for modification (as I have explained earlier). These new IDers
usually learn the term ADDIE, and they learn it as this very linear
process, which confuses a lot of people because, sometimes,
when they get out there in the field, they think that it has to be
this linear model, which is not the case whatsoever as I’ve
explained in previous sections of this text.

Here is a summary list of when/how you can do rapid design

and/or cut time from the instructional process. Additionally,
throughout this entire text I have given tips for cutting time:

1. Analysis is completed – without a proper analysis the project

will fail. 70% of projects fail and poor analysis and management
are usually the cause. This doesn’t mean analysis always needs
to be completed for every single project. For example, you might
know these clients and have done other projects with them so
you can take some/all of that original analysis and use it.
2. Constant access to SMEs, Developers, and Graphic Artists (and
person who signs off – i.e., client)
3. Project can be rolled out in sections – for instance, one
module can be rolled out by itself without the other 10 modules
4. Already have learning objects from other projects that can be
reused and repurposed for current modules
5. Very limited interactions, graphics, and instructional strategies

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6. Use easy to develop software such as Articulate, Captivate, or
PowerPoint

The point of this section is to teach you how to take the ADDIE
process and make it faster. How do we change the framework?
How do we change the process of analysis or design? And can
we change all those processes? That's really the big question,
right? Can we change each of these processes?

Initially, we should discuss cutting project time. The easiest thing

to do, the easiest time savings in instructional design, without
changing the process at all, is changing your development tool
(authoring tool). Why do I think that's the easiest thing to do?

Well, using a tool like Captivate, Articulate, PowerPoint, or MS

Word vs programming/game development is going to save a
significant amount of time and money. Thus, the easiest way to
cut time on a project that has to move quickly is to use a simple
tool for development. This is important before we move
forward.

Let's talk about modifying the process. How can we modify the
instructional design process? Can we really modify ADDIE? Yes.
For example, I can do analysis many, many different ways. But I
still have to always know what the problem is and have a
solution - right? I still need to know who is the client? No matter
what happens or how I modify the analysis, I have to have the
basic pieces of information. If I don't know the problem, I can't
solve it. So no matter what, you can't change that. You've got to
get the problem. You've got to come up with a solution. That
cannot be changed.

An example where I can modify the analysis: Let’s say I’ve been
working with a client for a while. I know them. I know who the
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learners are. I’ve done a previous full analysis. I don't need to
redo it now. I've already done analysis. So now, I’ve cut down ID
time significantly because I do not need to redo an analysis. So
this second project with this client will cost less and take less
time.

Another example of cutting the analysis: Let's say that a client

comes to me and they say, here's what we need. We need this
eLearning course developed. We need you to start immediately.
Okay, so there is no analysis. They've told me the problem. I
have to take their word for it. I will always caution them that I
really hope that this is the correct solution. I can't guarantee it's
going to solve their problem if I have not done a complete
analysis but sometimes you do need to take their word for it and
do a project like this because you need the work! Just be aware
that you may be developing training for the wrong problem
because they got it wrong.

Design and development. This is the nuts and bolts of rapid

design. There are many things you can do here to save time. Roll
out sections as they are done, reuse content, and create
skeleton courses that can be completed later.

If the training can be broken up into sections, can we roll out

section 1 while we are working on section 2 and so on? This can
allow us to implement pieces as we go so that training is
happening and we won’t need to sit on section 1 for twelve
months while we finish all ten sections of a course.

If you can reuse content, you can cut down time significantly. It's
one of the reasons that we have SCORM (the idea that we can
reuse - *note SCORM discussion is beyond the scope of this text).
If I'm working with a client and I've already designed some
108
training for them, I may not need to redesign a new look and
feel, new graphics, etc. I may be able to reuse the course shell.

Making a skeleton version is probably my least favorite option,

but I've done it when needed. A skeleton version means very
little graphics, no video, no interactions, no instructional
strategies, no knowledge checks, etc. It’s a skeleton designed to
get the content out there with the idea that it will be completed
later.

Depending on the client's needs I may do some or all of this.

When doing rapid design we need to be careful that we aren’t

cutting important corners, that may impact the outcome. Using
this type of strategy really depends on the project but it’s
become a very popular selling point in an age where time is of
the essence. If you are going to implement this be sure to
explain to your client the advantages and disadvantages so that
they can better make a decision on this type of design.

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