Running head: ADDIE RESEARCH PAPER1

ADDIE Research Paper

Lauren Blanton
EDET 703: Design and Development Tools II
January 20, 2015

On my honor as a University of South Carolina (Aiken) student, I have completed my

work according to the principle of Academic Integrity. I have neither given nor received
any unauthorized aid on this assignment.
Lauren E. Blanton

January 20, 2015

ADDIE RESEARCH PAPER

There are various models within the Instructional System Design, ISD, family.
One of these models is ADDIE: a mnemonic that stands for Analysis, Design,
Development, Implement, and Evaluate. The goal of ADDIE is to build effective training
and performance tools. ADDIE was first introduced in 1975 by Florida State University.
ADDIE was created for the U.S. Army by Florida States Center for Educational
Technology. The inspiration behind the five phases in ADDIE comes from another ISD
model called the Five Step Approach. The original ADDIE model contained nineteen
steps that were grouped into the five phases. In 1981, Dr. Russell Watson made
alterations to the steps within each phase while keeping the phases the same. The
ADDIE model was considered to be a linear process. The phases were written in a way
that you had to do one step before you could do a different one because they depend on
one another. ADDIE was intended to correctly and successfully determine ways to teach
and learn how to perform a task (Clark, 2014).
ADDIE is most commonly used for improvement needs. ADDIE can be used by:
the military, instructional coaches, teachers, administrators, managers of businesses,
and any other individual who needs to improve some type of process around them. The
purpose of ADDIE is to allow users to list their goals they want to achieve and to create
a unit that improves the outcomes the users are looking for. ADDIE has been
successfully used in: educational fields, Wal-Mart, and more. Jeff Clay has used the
ADDIE model for eLearning to provide structure to the training methods used in various
workplaces. Clay provides webinars for companies to offer assistance in implementing
ADDIE (Implementing the ADDIE Model in Corporate e-Learning, 2012).
During my research, there appeared to be more dislike for ADDIE than there was
support. Some of the pros and cons are strictly opinionated. Some websites that listed
things as a pro, were listed on a different website as a con. Therefore the best way to
know the pros and cons of ADDIE is to implement the model for personal goals. Many
sources stated that ADDIE is out-of-date and there are now newer models available.
However, some of the newer models out there can be related to the process of ADDIE.
ADDIE is a widely accepted model and many instructional developers commonly use it.
ADDIE is flexible and can be used with traditional and individual instruction. ADDIE is
not bound to one evaluation strategy; different evaluation strategies can be used
(Hanson). ADDIE gives a structure to creating a unit and has a focus on implementation
and evaluation (Quinn, 2010). A common downfall to ADDIE is that it is a type of linear
process; meaning the each phase must be completed before moving onto the next. The
ADDIE model is also more costly and time-consuming because if changes are made
throughout the process then it requires more time to regroup than newer models would
(Hanson).

ADDIE RESEARCH PAPER

There are five phases in the ADDIE Model: Analysis, Design, Development,
Implementation, and Evaluation. Each phase has a series of questions that are directed
to what the developer wants their final outcome to be. Analysis is the first phase of the
ADDIE model and this is the phase where the instructional goals and objectives are
created. During this phase, the designers discover the learners skills and previous
knowledge. This allows them to determine where to begin with their instruction. Other
topics that are considered during this phase are: the completion timeline, the intended
audience, learning difficulties of any member of the audience, and others issues that
would be crucial information to successfully completing a goal. The analysis phase
introduces the goal, what the problem is, and starts looking into what should be
expected from this instruction. The second phase of ADDIE is known as the Design
Phase (ADDIE Model, 2013). The design phase focuses on developing the materials
that will be used during the instruction. The designer will create learning objectives
based on what was discussed in the analysis phase. Once the learning objectives are
created, then the rest of the information can follow. The content matter is selected,
lessons are planned, assessments are made, and subject matter experts are used. This
phase is the beginning of the bulk of the ADDIE model. Each part of the design phase is
created in a logical order to meet the instructional goals more successfully. The logical
order varies between developers and will be decided based on what is expected for the
outcome. The third phase of ADDIE is the Development Phase, which is where
designers and developers create the content. The content that is used is the content
that was decided upon during the Design phase (TrainingIndustry.com, 2014). During
the design phase, programmers are brought in to help either integrate technology or
develop technologies to use. The development phase is reviewed multiple times and is
revised based on the feedback that was collected in the previous ADDIE steps (ADDIE
Model, 2013). The final instructional unit is created during the Development phase. The
project has been reviewed and revised; now the unit is ready to be implemented (ADDIE
Instructional Design Model Overview, 2014). This leads us into the fourth phase:
Implementation. When the implementation phase occurs, everything that relates to the
unit should be fully functional and ready to use (ADDIE Model, 2013). Before the unit is
officially used, there is a procedure created for training the learner and the teacher. After
they both are trained, materials are given to the students. After the information has been
presented, the effectiveness of the materials is evaluated. During evaluation, which is
the fifth phase of ADDIE, there are two different methods to use. The first evaluation
method is called formative evaluation and it is present in each of the five phases of
ADDIE (Design Theories and Models, 2014). The formative evaluation is done within
small groups of people and allows changes to be made before the final product is used

ADDIE RESEARCH PAPER

and evaluated (ADDIE Instructional Design Model Overview, 2014). The summative
evaluation is the final evaluation that is completed at the end of the instruction. This
involves testing that is specific for criterion-related reference items. While formative
evaluation is completed within every phase, summative evaluation is completed only at
the end of the process. There are chances for the users to provide feedback during the
evaluation phase (ADDIE Model, 2013).
With ADDIE, the process of describing each individual step is different due to the
vast possibilities of situations that ADDIE could be used for. Users fit the profile of the
implementation of each step to meet their goals and needs. While searching through the
different phases and the different descriptions of each, the main differences were about
what each phase does. The differences were not extreme, but there were descriptions
that were worded or described differently. For the analysis phase, the majority of the
websites agreed that this phase was for identifying the learning problem and
determining the learners previous knowledge. While each website mentioned
determining the previous knowledge, only one website told they would get the
information by conducting a needs analysis or by using a pre-test (Lamb, 2015). Overall,
the descriptions were similar but some websites provided more detail than others. With
the design phase, each website I researched mentioned that this phase is where the
prototypes are developed. Some websites said that the learning objectives are made in
this phase while others said that the learning objectives were made in the analysis
phase. I think this is a somewhat small difference but I think they depend on who is
using the ADDIE model. Some developers want to create the objectives before they get
into the bulk of the material that needs to be taught so they know how much detail they
need to go into during the design phase. Others do the learning objectives during the
design phase after they have selected the material they want to incorporate into their
training. This is more of a personal preference to the developer. The third phase,
development, is used to create all of the materials that will be used during the
instruction. Throughout this phase, the materials are tested in hopes to improve the
product. One of the websites I studied stated that the learners and teachers are grouped
together during the development phase. Every other source that I worked with simply
talked about the development phase as the creation of the materials that were to be
used. This phase is solely meant to create the needed materials, and debug and
improve any tools the developers want to implement. During the fourth phase of
implementation, the teachers and learners are grouped. The teachers are given a group
of learners that they will teach the material to. Before the teachers begin teaching, they
are trained for how to cover the information for the learners. The learners were trained
on how to use the new tools that were given to them. Then the learners are given their

ADDIE RESEARCH PAPER

materials that are needed. These procedures were the same across every website that I
researched. The order in which the tasks were completed may have been different, but
each task was still covered based on the final goal of the unit. The last phase is the
evaluation phase and is well known for having two types of evaluation: formative and
summative. All of the sources agreed that formative evaluation is used during each of
the five phases. Formative evaluation allows for changes to be made before the final
submission. Since formative evaluation allows the developer to receive constant
feedback through each phase, it is logical to be used within each phase. The final
evaluation used is called summative evaluation. The summative evaluation is used for
the final instructional model. Only a couple of the sources mentioned using data and
statistics from the instruction to assess the successfulness of the unit. Other sources
mentioned providing opportunities for user feedback. I believe that the statistics option is
better for successful evaluation because numbers never lie. Statistics show if the
learners truly did learn the material. Asking learners how they felt about the unit is
different than determining if learners comprehended what they were supposed to.
In order for ADDIE to be useful for me, I summarized each phase into one
sentence. The analysis phase requires me to determine who my audience is and what
problem I am trying to improve or accomplish. The design phase is where I will create
the course outline and determine what support materials are needed. In the
development phase, the actual course and support materials are made and the project
is reviewed. During the implementation phase, the unit is put into action and learners
are given the materials to determine the effectiveness of the unit. During the evaluation
phase, the unit will be examined to determine if the unit was successful for learners
success in the knowledge presented.

ADDIE RESEARCH PAPER

References
ADDIE Instructional Design Model Overview. (2014). Retrieved 01 18, 2015, from
eLearning.net: http://elearning.net/addie-instructional-design-model-overview-2/
ADDIE Model. (2013). Retrieved 01 18, 2015, from Instructional Design:
http://www.instructionaldesign.org/models/addie.html
Clark, D. (2014, 11 3). ADDIE Timeline. Retrieved 01 18, 2015, from Big Dog & Little
Dog's Performance Juxtaposition:
www.nwlink.com/~donclark/history_isd/addie.html
Design Theories and Models. (2014). ADDIE Model. Retrieved 01 18, 2015, from
Learning Theories: http://www.learning-theories.com/addie-model.html
Hanson, S. (n.d.). Pros and cons of ADDIE. Retrieved 01 18, 2015, from Lynda.com:
http://www.lynda.com/Education-Higher-Education-tutorials/Pros-cons
ADDIE/161318/175138-4.html
Implementing the ADDIE Model in Corporate e-Learning. (2012, 08 17). Retrieved 01
18, 2015, from Training Press Releases:
http://www.trainingpressreleases.com/news/webanywhere/2012/implementingthe-addie-model-in-corporate-e-learning
Lamb, A. (2015). Instructional Design. Retrieved 01 18, 2015, from Eduscapes:
http://eduscapes.com/instruction/3.htm
Quinn, C. (2010, 03 27). The Great ADDIE Debate. Retrieved 01 18, 2015, from
Learnlets: http://blog.learnlets.com/?p=1489
TrainingIndustry.com. (2014). ADDIE Model. Retrieved 01 18, 2015, from Training
Industry: http://www.trainingindustry.com/wiki/entries/addie-model.aspx
Understanding ADDIE and RAD. (2010). Retrieved 01 18, 2015, from Monarch
Media:http://www.monarchmedia.com/enewsletter_2011-2/addie.html