Designing a Curriculum the ADDIE way!

How to create a culturally appropriate lesson?

When I was in college in the Philippines, my professors trained us to create lesson plans and instructional materials. I did not have difficulty making lesson plans and instructional materials, but it does not mean I created perfect materials. I often find mistakes while I am using the materials, which creates confusion while implementing the lesson plan. This confusion is transferred to my students and resulted in some students being frustrated to not understanding the lesson. I took notes on the mistakes and improved them to the next class or, worst, improve for the next school year.

During this term in my EdD journey, we had an assignment to create integrated lesson plans and evaluate them using the ADDIE framework. I told myself that I was going to nail it. I used the lesson plans that I created from the past years that are proven effective. I do not have any idea what is an ADDIE framework, I never used it and never heard of it. After I learned the ADDIE framework and evaluated my instructional materials without using the ADDIE framework. In this blog post, I will share what the ADDIE framework is and how it is helpful for educators in developing a culturally appropriate curriculum.

Using the ADDIE Framework

"ADDIE” stands for Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate. It is a systematic approach to designing a curriculum (McGriffin, 2000). Curriculum developers use this framework to ensure the appropriateness of a program to meet the target goals.

Analyze - the instructional problems are identified, the goals and objectives are established (Nuryadin et al., 2021). There are four subcategories for this phase:

1. Instructional goals answer the question: What do you want your students to learn?

2. Instructional analysis answers the question of how do you want your students to learn. It is the step-by-step process of how to carry out the instructional goals.

3. Learner analysis answers the questions who are my learners, and what do my learners know?

4. Learning objectives are what the students should know at the end of the lesson, and it is the form of strong verbs. This is based on the knowledge of the curriculum designer from the instructional analysis and learner analysis.

Design - In this phase, the teacher uses the analysis phase information to design a curriculum for the learner to meet the learning objectives.

There are three critical elements in the design phase: the assessment, the course format, and instructional strategies.

1. The Assessment - designers think of how they will assess their learners before planning how the course will be delivered and the instructional strategies. It follows the idea of beginning with an end in mind. It helps the educators to plan and focus on the essential elements of how the content will be delivered.

2. Course format – how will the lesson be delivered. It can be modular, self-phase, or blended.

3. Instructional strategies – a compilation of activities and resources that will be used in delivering the content

Develop - In this phase, the curriculum designers create lesson plans and materials to meet the instructional goals and learning objectives. The development phase has three stages:

1. Create a Sample for evaluation

2. Developing course materials for the program. The information from the instructional strategies should be used in developing course materials.

3. The Run-through phase is the real-time rehearsal to check the time allotment and effectiveness of the course materials and instructional strategies.

Implement - this is the phase where the developed instructional plan and materials will be used in the actual context. Before implementing the program, facilitators should be doing the following:

1. Undergo training to familiarize yourself with the objectives, activities, media to be used and assessment.

2. Prepare the learners by assessing their prior knowledge and checking if they have the necessary materials and knowledge about the learning management system.

3. Arrange learning Space. If you are teaching in an online environment, ask yourself if you have the necessary materials and if your students have the materials.

Evaluate - the last phase of the ADDIE Framework. This phase is divided into two parts: the formative and the summative. The formative and summative evaluation. It is used to improve the lesson plan/ materials and the curriculum. Each phase of the ADDIE framework has an evaluation.

1. Formative evaluation is done before implementing the lesson – focus on evaluating the plan and materials. The lesson plan is considered before applying it to an online learning environment.

2. The summative evaluation is done after implementing the lesson (evaluating the plan's effectiveness and the materials). Skills and attitude assessment are provided through authentic assessment, and attitude assessment is done after each period in a simple discussion board post.

I used the ADDIE framework to evaluate an integrated plan that I created. I saw a lot of missing components as I did not use the framework in developing the plan. When developing a curriculum, developers should use a systematic approach to not cut any elements. Constant evaluation of the material is vital, and necessary modification should be done for the successful implementation and the goals to be met. When educators use the ADDIE framework, they produce research-based materials that have been through a lot of evaluation and run-through before implementing it to a larger population.

You can view my integrated lesson plan evaluated using the ADDIE framework:

Ducker_Module 7.pptx

Download PPTX • 1.86MB

References:

Alalshaikh, S. (2015). Cultural impacts on distance learning, online learning styles, and design. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 16(3), 67. https://www.nbcc.org/Assets/COVID/CulturalImpactsonDistanceLearningOnlineLearningStylesandDesign.pdf

Drew, C. (2019, November 14). 4 Types of thinking. https://helpfulprofessor.com/thinking-skills/

Elearning inforgraphics.com (2017, August 8) Instructional design for infographic: The ADDIE model infographic. https://elearninginfographics.com/the-addie-model-infographic/

Garcia., E. & Weiss, E., (2020, September 10). COVID-19 and student performance, equity, and U.S. education policy: Lessons from pre-pandemic research to inform relief, recovery, and rebuilding. https://www.epi.org/publication/the-consequences-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-for-education-performance-and-equity-in-the-united-states-what-can-we-learn-from-pre-pandemic-research-to-inform-relief-recovery-and-rebuilding/

Lavesque, S. (2019). Instructional design: ADDIE model. https://www.uwb.edu/it/service-catalog/teaching-learning/hybrid-and-online-learning/instructional-design/addie

McGriffin, S. J. (2000). Instructional System Design (ISD): Using the ADDIE Model https://www.lib.purdue.edu/sites/default/files/directory/butler38/ADDIE.pdf

Nuryadin, A., Lidinillah, D. A. M., & Muharram, M. R. W. (2021). Pre-Service Teachers’ Experiences in Developing Digital Learning Designs using ADDIE Model Amid COVID-19 Pandemic. Jurnal Basicedu, 5(5), 4013-4025. http://jbasic.org/index.php/basicedu/article/view/1446/pdf

Peterson, C. (2003). Bringing ADDIE to life: Instructional design at its best. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 12(3), 227-241. https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/2074/.