I’ve used the concepts of Instructional Systems Design (ISD) throughout my professional career in the training industry. Being relatively new to firearms, I thought it might be of interest to apply it to this community.
This thread summarizes the ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation) of ISD to firearms training. After reading it, you should have a basic understanding of the ADDIE process, and how to apply it’s concepts.
Why would we want to use an ISD approach like “ADDIE” to firearms training?
Chris Baker @LGChris of www.LuckyGunner.com talks about why Firearms training fails in his 2017 article, “Five Reasons Firearms Training Sucks”. Ok, so that’s not the exact title Chris uses, but let me paraphrase one of those five reasons:
Perceived value of the Time/Money for training is too low. People don’t feel like they are getting their worth out of the time and money they spend.
That is a great point – everyone is looking for value for their time and dollar these days, now more than ever. But some firearms training falls short. Can we do anything about it? I believe applying some ISD might help. So let’s talk a little about ADDIE, and what it is.
ADDIE has been in common use in aerospace since it was developed in the mid-80s.
ADDIE consists of five steps:
Analysis
Design
Development
Implementation
Evaluation
Depending on the scope of a training program, an ADDIE implementation of an ISD project can be highly complex, and involve many months or years.
In the next post, I’ll provide a short summary of each step in the process, and a way you can apply it. My hope is that by doing so, you’ll recognize areas in which you can improve your training course, and your students will benefit as a result.
OMG!! I AM TIRED OF READING ALREADY!! IS THERE A SHORT VERSION!?
YOU BET! SKIP TO THE “THREE QUESTIONS” BELOW. ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR TRAINING, AND SEE IF YOU CAN MAKE IT BETTER!! THAT’S IT!!
“Three Questions” to ask yourself about each Step in ADDIE:
Analysis Questions
1. What do you know about your training audience, and what are their expectations?
2. How are they achieving their desired outcome now?
3. How do you plan to add value with your training, to improve that outcome?
Design Questions
1. Have you defined, specifically, what it is you want to achieve with the training?
2. Can you summarize, in writing, the overall desired end knowledge or performance of the student (Terminal Performance Standards)?
3. Can you list all the supporting elements (Learning Objectives) of your planned training? Do they support the TPS’s?
Development Questions
1. Does your training course design group LO’s into learning modules of suitable length, neither too long nor too short, with appropriate breaks, to facilitate learning?
2. Have you piloted the training material using a SME, and did you incorporate their feedback into the design of the training?
3. Does each learning module reflect and support one or more specific Learning Objectives, and do all your LO s, when complete, cover the entirety of your intended TPS?
Implementation Questions
1. Did you include a means of evaluation for students to test themselves as they go, to support knowledge retention and transfer?
2. Do you offer a way to intrinsically (verbal reinforcement) or extrinsically (tokens) reward your students?
3. Does your training offer a way for the students to provide feedback at the end of the class, to make your training better?
Evaluation Questions
1. Has the student been afforded the opportunity to provide feedback to you, the instructor as you go?
2. Do you provide an opportunity for “end of course” evaluation, so that students can provide feedback to you on their learning experience you can incorporate into future training?
3. Did you meet the TPS and all of the LO’s? What did your students say was missed?