Design

In the design phase, taking the output of the analysis phase as the new input, the designer outlines how the instructional goals will be achieved by specifying instructional objectives, an assessment plan, instructional strategies, the delivery system, etc. This phase usually results in a design brief that is endorsed by all of the stakeholders (e.g., client and subject matter experts) and functions as a blueprint for the following ADDIE phases. Meanwhile, it is common for designers to revisit and sometimes adjust details in the design brief throughout the entire process.

Specifically, if it hasn’t been completed yet, designers should determine the instructional objectives that learners are expected to master in order to achieve the goals. Then, an assessment plan is drafted to describe how these objectives will be assessed. The overall delivery system of the instructions should be determined at this point as well because it governs the media formats that are appropriate for individual instructional units. Typically, instructions tend to be delivered differently in face-to-face environments versus synchronous distance systems versus asynchronous environments. Another group of elements to be outlined in this phase are the instructional contents, the sequencing of the units, and the instructional strategies. The contents and the sequencing of them should be in line with the objectives and guided by the task analysis conducted during the analysis phase. The instructional strategies require considerations on factors like the motivation level and cognitive development level of the learners, the nature and complexity of the knowledge and skills to be mastered, the human and capital resource available for instruction, and so on.

As indicated in the following chart, for the Redshift project, the team first drafted A Blueprint for a Support or Resources tab/section for Redshift Education based on the outputs from the analysis phase. In the blueprint, five instructional units were specified. Later, to accommodate the scale of the project to the time and resources available for the team, three units were selected and delineated in the design brief document. Each instructional unit contains multiple sub-topics. After the design brief was endorsed by the client and the subject matter expert, the project advanced to the development phase.

Click on Develop to explore the next phase of the ADDIE model.