Implementation and Evaluation: A dream or a blueprint

The final phases of ADDIE are often our "ultimate goal" when trying to incorporate an innovation into our teaching and learning practice. I would like to suggest that we rather look at the IE as our blueprint. A blueprint for what the next cycle of ADDIE should be in this particular scenario.

Instructional design should be, and almost always is, an iterative process. Just because you have completed one cycle of ADDIE, does not mean that you have now successfully implemented an innovative prototype and can move on. We should be using the implementation phase to document EVERYTHING that happens when we are able to put our plan from the first 3 phases into action. With the evaluation phase, everything that has come before, especially your notes from the implementation phase, is very important. Here you take time to reflect on where you have come from, what the initial problem and assumptions were, how you expected the change to be accepted and adopted, and what has actually happened. Once this is done, you are more than likely to come up with new questions for analysis, and so the cycle begins again.

As a reflection of this, and guideline, here is the completed diagram for this module:

Hopefully, this completed diagram is one that you are able to plot your assignment on. If not, that is OKAY! Context is important, theory is important, and as a result, your assignment should be different from that in another institution, department or module. The important thing is for you to be able to philosophically discuss why yours is different and why it should remain that way.

Congratulations on completing your first cycle, or at least a part of it, with ADDIE. From here we can only move forward, and back, and forward again :)

Development and prototypes......are you ready?

In the development phase of the ADDIE process, you are expected to apply what you have now established about your context, i.e. your students' needs and abilities, the shortcomings in the curriculum, the possibilities of the tools. This application needs to use the information from the analysis phase as well as the design phase.
One of the aspects I find comforting about this type of approach, is the fact that each phase encourages you to ensure that you have enough information and have done enough to move on. If for some reason you reach the development phase and are not sure of the exact steps you should be taking now in order to deliver the teaching and learning activity in full, then it means you have missed out on something and need to go back to the design or analysis phase. And this for me, is very encouraging.

By now you should all be at  a space where you have a clear idea of the problem, a decent plan to address the problem, and the tool you need to do so. The development phase is the fun part!

But what are you developing? Why are you developing? The answers may seem simple. Your assignment instructions tell you that we expect a prototype at the end of the module. Your programme tells you that everything you do is to facilitate learning.
So what is a prototype? Michael Allen, in the book "Leaving ADDIE for SAM," defines a prototype  as follows:
"A prototype is, by definition, rough and incomplete. A prototype is not a fully functioning instructional component......" 
In a HPE context, I would liken a protoype to a skeleton with a few muscles, and the epidermis attached. It gives me the basic idea of my work (a body with soft tissue attachments and a protective covering), but doesn't truly give me the ability to learn about the human body in its' entirety. Your protoype for this module may be one with ALL the muscles, but it will still take time, feedback and testing to decide if you have included all the layers of the skin and the internal organs.

I hope this makes sense and possibly eases the tension a bit regarding what is expected of you. Again, I will remind you that this protoype and the assignment you leave this module with is the beginning of an innovation in your teaching practice and will be very rewarding in the end.

Our weekly diagram is expanding and with this addition today, we also reach the end of the cycle with regard to what is reasonably expected of you to complete for the module. You can see now how the design and development phase could almost be seen as one activity. The next two phases are not always possible to complete in the short time you  are engaging with the module, but are important and should still be completed in good time.

Design and Develop: Partners in crime

For the next two weeks you will be expected to work through, and reflect on, the design and development phases of your innovation in lEarning. For this post, let us focus on the Design phase, with a hint toward the Development phase of the ADDIE model.

Generally, the design phase is one in which you will create a solid plan for the prototype, set objectives for the teaching and learning activity/module, decide on assessment methods and make final decisions regarding the tool or media that you will be using. It is also imperative that you receive feedback on these ideas as you are formulating them; from colleagues, students, or fellow MPhil colleagues!

So, as illustrated below:

•Determine objectives or outcomes for the learning activity

•Determine the teaching approach or method aka classroom/online activities

•Determine the assessment activities linked to these objective and learning activities

•Confirm the tool or media used

•Put everything on paper

•Create a rough version of the prototype

As with any other teaching and learning intervention, remember that this lEarning process is one which should be theoretically grounded. As an example, please see the following articles (also loaded in your SUNLearn Reading folders). These authors remind us of the importance of a theoretical basis for our work, specifically drawing on learning theories. Flynn et al The second article uses the ADDIE process in their intervention and may therefore apply to what you are doing now, especially as an example of how the ADDIE can be used. Gedik et al

One of the important outcomes of the design phase, once a good theoretical background is laid, is for a rough idea of the prototype to be selected and developed. Examples of these could be using a wiki for gathering information in a group assignment (e.g. wikispaces.com), using tools such as clickers or audience response systems (socrative.com) for in-class questions/games/interaction, creating interactive teaching and assessment online classrooms via a learning management system or Google (blendspace.com), perhaps you would like to create short videos/podcasts (screencast-o-matic.com), or encouraging critical thinking and analysis/scaffolding of information to understand the connections between concepts (cmaptools.com). The possibilities are endless. The important thing to remember is not to be carried away by the excitement of the tools, but rather to refer back to the theoretical basis for the change and the guidance from your analysis phase.

So there you go.....Analysis done! Actually not, remember, the value of any design-based process is that you constantly review/analyse/evaluate what you are doing in each phase and apply this to your design.
You have found a problem and thought of possible solutions in your Analysis phase. Now you will start designing your intervention and analyse the feasibility of your idea as you go through feedback from those around you. When you reach the next phase, analysis of what you are developing will help you to go back and refine your design, and finally, your evaluation of the entire process may end up in a new needs analysis or highlight gaps in your initial analysis. We grow as we learn and we learn as we change the landscape of our teaching environment.

Happy designing!