Human Performance Systems, Inc. | HPSI |
HPSI's president Karen Medsker is a leading authority on instructional design and its application to workplace training. She is co-author with Robert M. Gagne of The Conditions of Learning: Training Applications (Harcourt Brace, 1996). She conducts workshops on Instructional Systems Development (ISD), incorporating Gagne's model.
The process of designing and developing training can be viewed as a system, enabling us to identify different functions in that process and how they interact with each other. Many such models have been developed, and they are often called Instructional Systems Design (ISD), Instructional Systems Development (ISD), or Instructional Systems Design and Development (ISDD). (While design and development are separable activities, the overall process that includes both activities has been variously named.) Andrews and Goodson (1980) reviewed over 60 such models. Many large organizations today, including the military services and corporations such as IBM, AT&T, and Ford Motor Company have developed their own ISD models, tailored to their particular circumstances.
A generic and simplified ISD model is sometimes known as ADDIE (analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate).
In the analysis phase, the performance requirements of the job or task, and the needs and characteristics of the learners are analyzed. The performance gap (difference between actual performance and mastery performance) must be specified, so that all necessary but no excess content can be selected.
During the design phase, tasks are broken down into skill and knowledge components. All necessary learning components are identified to ensure complete instruction, and, to ensure lean instruction, extraneous components are excluded. Specific instructional objectives are identified, and test items are developed to measure learner achievement of the objectives. Instructional strategies are designed and media choices are made for each objective, according to researchÐbased principles, such as the events of instruction and conditions of learning discussed in The Conditions of Learning: Training Applications (Harcourt Brace, 1996).
In the development phase, materials are written and produced according to the specifications derived during the design phase. Depending upon the media and delivery systems selected, courseware may be created in the form of books, computerÐbased instruction, or multimedia instruction using interactive videodisc, among others.
During implementation, instruction is tried out with representative members of the learner population. Formative evaluation yields data to inform revision decisions, to improve the instruction. Summative evaluation assesses the overall value of the training or compares the new training with training it was intended to supplant. The "revise as required" feedback loop indicates that the ISD process is iterative. All activities are directed toward the goals of the instruction, and all phases of the process feed information to the other phases.
The systems approach to training and the associated ISD models grew out of a need to increase drastically the effectiveness and efficiency of instruction. The critical need to train large numbers of people quickly during World War II led to research and development efforts that gradually came together as ISD. The Interservice Procedures for Instructional Systems Development (IPISD) model (Branson, Rayner, Cox, Furman, King, & Hannum, 1975) is a wellknown example of an ISD model (Figure 2.3). The IPISD model was constructed to address primarily procedural tasks in military training contexts (Branson & Grow, 1987). Many other ISD models have been constructed to satisfy specific organizational requirements.
Early applications of ISD brought about measurable and often dramatic increases in the effectiveness and efficiency of training efforts. Mager (1977) describes an AT&T study of a 45-day course in the fundamentals of long-distance telephony. Use of task analysis increased job relevance; individualization of the instruction increased learning efficiency; these techniques along with tryÐouts and revision cut the course length to 9 days, improved job performance, and saved AT&T $37,000,000 in the first five years. These and other early successes led to wide acceptance of ISD.
Training developed according to ISD principles is generally recognized to be job relevant, effective, and time efficient. However, ISD may not be appropriate to all training development efforts. Because the initial costs of an ISD project are relatively high, ISD is most practical and cost effective when the following conditions obtain: