Instructional Technology/Development

Development of instructional material, although seems easy, is not a simple task. It composes most of the work in any instructional development project. However, the success of this phase depends entirely on critical elements of the previous analysis and design phases of the ADDIE development model. If solid analysis and design have been completed, the development phase should not suffer any "show stopper" issues. However, there are always unforeseen issues that instructional developers resolve that may require short trips to the drawing board to modify designs and other elements. The sooner that the issues are discovered, the easier they are to resolve. The further that development occurs, the harder it is, especially with complex multimedia and coding processes, to change. The Analysis phase provided training outcomes and objectives for which your training needs determined. The design phase developed a "blueprint" from which your development would rise from.

The development is the phase where the design plan is put into action, developers begin to systematically develop instructional material, student guide, lesson plans, multimedia content and assessments (if not already done so).

There are five sub-processes that make up the development phase:

Templates, styles, and prototypes

Actual development of materials

Evaluating developed material

Performing developmental testing

Performing operational testing

1. Templates, styles, and prototypes

This step involves developing the look, feel and structure or interfacing of the material that you are to develop. This may require collaboration with technical editors for the styles of hard-copy materials (i.e. books, job aids etc), to the look and feel of the web interface that the student will utilize for their online learning experience. Regardless, it is important to ensure that the client is satisfied and concurs with the styles and prototypes of all media before continuing on in a full development mode.

2. Actual development of materials

The development of materials does take the longest time during the development phase. A Project development team may consist of at least one instructional designer and one or all of the following additional specialties: Writers, technical editors, graphics and multimedia specialist, web-developers, software programmers, instructors, and instructional designers. There are typically two common types of development: New development and Redesign, or redevelopment.

New development is typically what it says; the designer, or design team are starting from scratch with the design document as your guide. All of the source materials required for the project will be have to be researched, templates utilized and documents standardized according to the customer’s requirements and design specifications. Data research can be accomplished by either a subject matter expert or a knowledgeable instructor. The important point here is that the information must be accurate and relevant to the project design and strive to meet the objectives.

Redesign of instructional material is essentially taking existing instructional material, and updating it to a new specification or requirement. This involves less research as the existing material can be reused. It is important to note that the role of the subject matter expert will be centric in that existing information will require evaluation for currency, accuracy, and with the ISD’s assistance, relevancy to the overall project‘s training objectives.

3. Evaluating developed material

After the development of all of the training material and assessments are complete, an evaluation of the materials is required to ensure that the design has been met, all of the objectives are taught and the assessments ensure students’ knowledge and performance are evaluated. A review team may be utilized to provide an objective view of the material. Typically during this review, all of the material is critically evaluated for a many number of things. For instance, typographical and grammatical errors are noted, web developed multimedia is evaluated for functionality. This is also usually a first real front to back look by the instructors on the overall course structure from a student’s point of view. All errors are corrected and the materials then go to Developmental testing.

4. Performing developmental testing

Developmental testing (also referred to as “Pilot Testing” or “Alpha Testing”) is where the instructors get a chance to try out the instructional material using developed lesson plans (instructor guides; facilitator guides) to test the materials in a classroom setting without students. Up to this point, the instructors have had little interaction with the development of materials other than recommending instructional strategies during her design phase. They require time to understand the material, provide instructional input and discover any possible delivery issues that might need to be resolved. This is also a chance for the development team to take one last look at the revised material before Operational testing in front of a student audience.

This review is important to stand back and evaluate the material to determine if it is accurate, if it’s relevant, complete, and from a student point of view, will it get the point across.

5. Performing Operational Testing

Operational testing is the first time that the instructor will teach a student body the instructional material. This allows students to interact with the material and the instructors to fine-tune their delivery methods and lesson material. Students interact differently that the project designers, so additional issues are normal for this first run. By informing the students that this is the first running of the instructional material, students can provide candid feedback.

It is very important to evaluate the students learning by using the assessments to gauge transfer of learning. A typical process is to provide the students a pre-test at the beginning of the course, and then provide that same test at the end of the course to measure instructional and learning effectiveness of the course as a whole. Additionally, end of course surveys and critiques are common to not only identify specific course problems, but gauge how the students fell, not only about the material, but he instructor and the classroom environment as well.