ADDIE - Development stage


Moving along on this series of blog posts on the ADDIE model of instructional design we will talk about the Development stage today.

The development stage of ADDIE is the fun stage where you actually build what you have designed. The main challenge in this stage is to estimate how long would it take to develop the various pieces of the course pie, including arranging for specialist support where necessary. Examples of specialist support could be voice over artist for eLearning, video editing for training videos and arranging subject experts for podcasts. This development could include but is not limited to the development of pieces such as:

·      eLearning - Through PowerPoint or specialist eLearning development software such as Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate, Lectora, RISE etc.
·      Using the LMS native abilities to develop learning
·      Training videos and interactive videos
·      Learning chat bots – useful for interactive branching scenarios
·      Curated content – Finding information (videos, articles, podcasts etc.) on the Internet that is relevant to and aligns with the learning we are trying to provide.
·      Augmented reality/ Virtual reality learning packages

Then we bring all these ingredients to develop the delicious learning soup.

A point of consideration during this stage is that the learning should be regularly reviewed by someone else. This is both to avoid developer bias and to get a fresh set of eyes to look at the development. The benefit here is that if a development approach is taken with a particular development piece that may not be very good, then that development can be stopped then and there.  

This is called failing fast or fail fast.

Failing fast is good as it stops the wrong practice at the onset instead of letting it go on and be discovered at a later stage where the replacement costs become a lot higher. Think of it as someone stopping you and telling you that the road ahead does not lead anywhere which causes you to get back to your original path and find a better way. So its good to fail fast and fail fast regularly.

The other good practice during development is to be in constant touch with the client and show them what is being developed. No client minds being updated on how the development is coming along and pretty much all of them appreciate you keeping them up to speed. However, they do mind not being informed about how you are going with the development especially if they do not like how you have developed things.

Also, if the client does not like or reject any development piece then it is advisable to still keep a copy of that development piece as clients have been known to change their minds or realise that something developed earlier was not a bad idea. I once had a client who rejected something I had developed a month before the project due date only to come back to me a couple of days before the due date and asking me to re-develop what I had shown her earlier. Luckily for me, I still had the original development and so it was just a matter of re-inserting that piece and tweak it a bit. Client was happy how quickly I had ‘Rebuilt’ it.

Finally, check that all the key development points have been addressed and any special requests made by the client have also been incorporated.


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