Action Plans in Design: The ADDIE Model in Action

Action Plans in Design:

The ADDIE Model in Action

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 157

Introduction:

An Action Plan is a set of steps or guidelines created to address particular tasks. In instructional design, Action Plans often are used for a number of tasks such as determining the steps for developing an instructional resource. In an online environment, developing instructional resources can become more complex. Thus, creating an Action Plan to manage development resources and plan for contingencies can assist you in finding the best balance of media and resources for your course.

The Actual Plan:

Moving towards the next step, from the Design Plan to the Action Plan, needs careful planning to avoid all sorts of mishaps. As pointed out below, from the lesson topic or theme to the way the instructor is going to assess learners, several steps need to be carefully thought to guarantee success.

The following chart presents the steps to follow with a simple example of the creation of a reading exercise for students whose CEF level is A1+.

Click to enlarge image.

As shown here, this action plan does include several steps that need to be finished prior my online course is ready for kickoff. Due to time constraints and my independent way of working, I would try to work most of this myself to mitigate delays in course media and material production. The one single problem with depending on others is the fact that things may not be ready when promised, or there can be something else that was not really asked for.

Click to enlarge images!

Since I have been developing hybrid and blended courses empirically for my university students, the most important recommendation I can give is that instructors must feel confident in the use of software to produce media for the course. In the case of the members of the IT Department, the simplest suggestion I can provide is, beware of what is being understood by other team members, since the result may not be what you thought of.  That is, teachers must either self-train themselves or request that training from the university. But it has been my experience that at times, when you need things to be done timely, you should be prepared to do it yourself at your own pace.

Action Plans in Design from jonacuso