Welcome to my very first Podcast! I created this Podcast using Audacity to record and iMovie to edit. This podcast introduces you to the Dick & Carey model of instructional design. Enjoy:)
The Dick & Carey Instructional Design Model Podcast (click on this link or the picture above to access the Podcast)
Dick & Carey Model Transcript:
Welcome to the Instructionalcoaches.com podcast, the show that brings ideas and strategies to teachers, instructional coaches, instructional designers, and curriculum developers. My name is Kristi Druvenga and I am your host.
Have you been in survival mode for the past year? Has the pandemic forced you to rethink your ink and redesign how you deliver your content?
One good thing (possibly the ONLY good thing) that came out of the COVID 19 pandemic is that it forced us to think outside of the box. To create other means of teaching, learning, and training.
One way many of us kept our heads just above water was to digitize our materials to be used in distance learning/training using a model similar to the Dick and Carey model we will be discussing today.
First off, let’s get to know this model a bit. It looks at instructional design as a system’s view of instruction based on research as opposed to the view of instruction as isolated parts.
It was first introduced in 1978 by Walter Dick and Lou Carey and included major refinements of the ADDIE model of instructional design. In comparison to the ADDIE model, the Dick and Carey model gives the instructor more opportunities to adapt instruction to fit the needs of their students or differentiate instruction.
At its core, the Dick and Carey model is all about the relationship between elements in the design process such as context, educational content, learning behavior, and instructional technique.
Dick and Carey believe that the instructor, learner, materials, activities, delivery system, and learning all work together to produce the desired outcomes.
All of these components are addressed in their 9 step approach. Yep….you heard that right, 9 steps!
I know, I know, that it sounds like a lot! Breather! I thought the same thing at first glance. After digging into it a bit further I found that it’s actually pretty straightforward and fairly easy to follow
Don’t worry, I will walk you through the 9 steps. Just keep breathing and put one foot in front of the other. Ok, ready?
Here we go!
Step #1: Instructional Goal
The first step in the Dick & Carey model is to clarify your goals and objectives. I LOVE the fact that it starts with goals and objectives. I mean, how can it start any other way really? The purpose of this step is to identify the end goal.
Writing course goals and learning objectives first is a foundational step in the backward design model of instruction. The process of backward design is to ensure that course goals, learning objectives, and methods of assessing learners are intentionally designed.
Course goals should reflect what you want your students to know and understand. They should be somewhat broad and should reflect essential questions for your course.
We will get into learning objectives a bit later in the show.
Before jumping into instructional decisions we first need to figure out what we want our students/learners to know and be able to do when they complete the course.
This includes skills they will develop and knowledge they will gain from taking the course. This will help focus the student on what they will learn and will help keep them focused on the end goal.
This is also great to keep the instructional designer/instructor focused on what exactly they want the learners to get out of the course they are creating.
One important thing to remember at this stage is to keep the goals and objectives relevant to real-world application so your audience can see how this will benefit them outside of the virtual classroom. The key in wording learning goals and objectives is to make the skills acquired transferable where they can be used beyond the online course and adapted to other genres.
I like to start my goals using the same verbiage.
Finish this sentence to create your course goals.
Upon successful completion of this course, students will know how to..
Step #2: Instructional Analysis
The next step is determining what your learners already know so you can figure out how to fill each learning gap. To do that, you will need to assess your learners.
car backing up sound effects
Yep, you heard me right. You are assessing your learners before you even get a chance to teach a thing. How? Why?
Raise your hand if you were ever forced to sit through a training where you already knew everything!!!!! BORING!!!!!
I once had to sit through a Google Basics training where we “learned” how to use basic computer skills such as accessing your email, using the internet, linking links. Mind you, at this point in my teaching career I had been using the Google Suite for 10+ years. It was a HUGE waste of my time. I know that more than half of my colleagues felt the same way. The instructors/administrators would have known this if they just asked.
I mean, that was 2 hours of my life that I can’t get back!!!
I am yet to meet one person on this earth that wants their time wasted in an unnecessary training.
There are many different ways to figure out what your audience already knows and needs so you can
- fill the knowledge/performance gaps
- determine your starting point for instruction
- Figure out how your audience learns best
There are many ways you can do this in an eLearning environment including…
- vocab quizzes
- elearning assessments
- K-W-L chart (what i know, what i want to know and what I learned)
- Quick Writes
to name a few. Collecting evidence from your learners will really help you provide a more comprehensive, and personalized learning experience!!!!
Remember, step #2 is designed to figure out what your audience already knows about the topic and what they still need to learn about. This includes skills the learner has already mastered as well as background knowledge. Many teachers call this a pre-assessment. The purpose of a pre-assessment is to help your learners know exactly where to start in a self-paced setting or help the instructor know where to start their initial instruction. This is NOT a graded assessment, rather it’s used to drive the instruction.
In the standards-referenced-grading world, we start instruction where the majority of the students score.
Step #3: Learner Characteristics
Determine your learner’s behaviors and characteristics. This is the step where you conduct audience research to determine your learner’s behaviors, traits, and personal preferences. This includes motivational factors, such as what prompted them to want to take the course in the first place. Focus on characteristics that pertain directly to the goals and objectives of the course.
This step helps you narrow down the specific content that is vital for learning.
My personal preference is to learn through visuals and creating tangibles.
Examples include:
- surveys
- interviews
- introductions
Step #4: Learning Objectives
In addition to course goals, you also need to develop learning objectives that clearly describe the task or process that needs to be mastered as well as criteria you are going to use to gauge your learner’s progress.
Each learning objective must be directly connected to the course goals. They are focused on what you want your learners to do. Each objective should target one specific aspect of student performance.
The difference between goals and objectives is that goals generally refer to the higher-order ambitions that you have for your students. Objectives refer to specific, measurable competencies that you will assess in order to decide whether your goals were met or not.
The performance objectives need to include specific conditions in which the task will be carried out.
By the end of this course, students will be able to: (this is then where you will insert an action word. I like to use Webb’s depth of knowledge vocabulary such as analyze, construct, compare or Blooms higher-order thinking verbs such as produce, demonstrate, create. Your verbs should match the level of the skill that students are required to do.
If you are wanting your students to memorize something you would use a lower order thinking verb. In this case, memorize is the world that you would use. Yes, it is sometimes appropriate to use lower-order thinking skills. It fits within the learning progression in the emerging category. Keep in mind that your end goal or objective should be at a higher level for proficiency.
This is the step where I like to develop my grading criteria. I plug my objectives into a learning progression and create my grading criteria within a proficiency scale or rubric. This is very helpful in figuring out the steps you will need to take in designing your course/unit and give you an idea of what the instruction will look like in each step.
Step #5: Criterion-Referenced Test Items
No eLearning strategy is complete without an effective online assessment plan. The assessment plan needs to include both formative (or assessments/quick checks that will be used throughout the learning to check student progress) and summative (your final assessment) as well as a plan for sharing progress with stakeholders. All assessments should be designed to assess the learning objectives and should include a grading rubric or proficiency scale that focuses on the grading criteria the learner is expected to meet.
Formative and summative assessments help gauge if your students are learning and help make decisions on where to go next, levels of support, and items that need to be tweaked if they are not. The trick in planning online assessments is finding the ideal assessment types for your learners as well as offering a variety of assessment types. Assessments could look more formal like a digital assessment, presentation, or writing sample or could be more informal and more authentic like a Podcast, video response, interactive scenarios, gamification…
It’s important to include both formal and informal assessments throughout the course. I prefer to use more authentic assessments where students create tangibles with their learning, quick checks, and discussions.
Step #6: Instructional Strategies
Now that you’ve done all the research and developed the course goals and learning objectives, it’s time to create sound instructional strategies for your audience. This is where you take into consideration the learning theories that are best suited for your subject matter and learner needs. Your activities will be based on not only your course goals and learning objectives but also what you are wanting to get out of your learners.
In the education world, it is important to choose research-based or research-referenced instructional strategies. The purpose of this step is to outline how instructional strategies relate to the goals and objectives.
Instructional strategies include choosing the best lesson/ eLearning design that fits the needs of your students.
Step #7: Instructional Materials
This is the step where you will select existing instructional materials and create materials to fill the gaps including instructional materials such as lesson plans, tools, online resources such as tutorials, and links to informational sites….
It’s important to use a wide variety of instructional materials to appeal to a wider audience.
Why re-invent the wheel when the wheel has already been created?
I look at this as finding what I can to fit the needs of the unit/course and personalize it with my own developed materials when needed to beef it up and fit the individual needs of the course/unit. Work smarter, not harder.
Let’s face it, creating your own materials can be fun. This is probably the favorite part of my job as an instructional coach and learning designer because this is where my creativity can shine.
But, I am a realist and it’s also very time-consuming. So use existing materials when possible.
The key to finding and creating your own instructional materials is to start with the course goals and learning objectives. There MUST be alignment between all steps when using the Dick and Carey model of instructional design! All parts MUST work together and build off of one another in order to create a comprehensive aligned unit.
The role of the instructor really depends on the method of delivery.
Step #8: Formative Evaluations
This takes place even before you unveil your course to your intended audience. The purpose of step 8 is to collect data for revising materials. This includes using focus groups or releasing the beta version to colleagues and a student or two for critical feedback so that you can iron out any issues prior to launching to your intended audience.
If you find any weak areas in your course, now would be the time to fix them to ensure that every element is as effective and clear as possible.
This will hopefully only require minor tweaking but it could also include a complete rewrite if necessary. Remember, the focus is on student learning. Keep in mind that is better to remedy the problems now, rather than risking public scrutiny later if things aren’t right.
Step #9: Summative Evaluation
The last step in the Dick and Carey model of instructional design is assessing whether or not your course actually achieved the desired outcomes. This can really only be achieved through learner feedback and post-assessments or performance-based exams like on-the-job observations. This could also include customer satisfaction ratings. The purpose of the last step is to study the effectiveness of the system as a whole.
An important part of the process that is often overlooked is taking action once the final data is collected. Applying the Dick and Carey model in eLearning helps you overcome this obstacle. Keep in mind that the eLearning strategy should be adaptable and evolve with the needs of your learners. Use these steps to ensure that you not only cover each step of the instructional design process but formulate a plan that will truly benefit your learners.
That’s it for our show today. Thanks for joining us and we will see you on the next edition of the instructionalcoaches.com podcast.
This could be a K-W-L chart (what I Know, want to know, and hope to learn), inventory, survey,
Why use the Dick & Carey model for instructional design?
It focuses on the entire design process and the connection between each component.
It breaks complex instruction into smaller more bite-sized chunks.
It’s the model that is preferred by novice Instructional Designers.
Hold on, hold on…
I’m not saying that this model is perfect. It does have some flaws. Instruction is most often designed from the instructor’s perspective and may not always take into account the student’s perspective.
References:
Dick, W. (2012). A model for the systematic design of instruction. Instructional Design: International Perspectives: Volume I: Theory, Research, and Models: volume Ii: Solving Instructional Design Problems, 361.
Utama, A. A. G. S. (2016). The Usage of e-learning model to optimize learning system in higher education by using dick and carey design approach. Journal of Information Systems Engineering and Business Intelligence, 2(1), 50-56.
Kurt, S. (2021). Dick and Carey Instructional Model – Educational Technology. Retrieved 24 July 2021, from https://educationaltechnology.net/dick-and-carey-instructional-model/
Instructional Design Using the Dick and Carey Systems Approach. (2021). Retrieved 24 July 2021, from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/WC294