Recently we’ve been recruiting for a number of Instructional Designers to support our business and I’m amazed and frustrated at the number of CVs that I see that contain the word ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation).

I can’t believe that people still use (or pretend to use) this outdated, over-rated and totally discredited model. ADDIE is based on the waterfall method which grew in popularity during the 70s. Back then we thought we knew it all. We could sign-off requirements, design and build software, test it and hand it over to users who would love it. Only when projects started to fail did we realise that software development and e-learning in particular can’t be developed using a waterfall.

Developing e-learning is a journey of discovery. At the beginning, very little is known about what is needed. Only through discussion of the business problem and exploring the possibilities can an outcome that be achieved that provides real business benefit. The Subject Matter Expert may sign off a storyboard but until they really see the content in its final format, they won’t know if it will result in the behavioural change that is required.

Agile development is a much more appropriate and sensible model for building e-learning. It’s based on the premise that requirements are discovered by the project team working closely with the Subject Matter Experts – by exploring various approaches and confirming requirements are being met all the way through the project. This way the requirements and the development are refined as the team’s thinking develops. The Agile model not only works well for large scale software projects but translates incredibly well to e-learning.

So a call to all you Instructional Designers out there – burn the ADDIE books and enter into the dynamic world of project management for 21st Century e-learning.