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Selecting an Instructional Design Model

Design Method · All design methods
Evidence · 1 claim (1 mixed) · 1 study (1 theoretical), q1 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description

Dousay separates a process from a model. A process is the series of steps needed to reach an end result. A model is a specific instance of a process that can be imitated, personalising the generic steps for a particular context. In this framing ADDIE (analyse, design, develop, implement, evaluate) is the underlying process, present whichever model is used. A model's prescribed steps can be mapped back onto ADDIE's phases: PIE (plan, implement, evaluate) folds analysis, design and development into planning, and Diamond's model has two phases that split ADDIE differently.

Selecting a model is therefore a matter of fitting a version of the process to the project. More than three dozen models appeared in the literature between 1970 and 2005, and 34 have been covered across editions of Branch and Dousay's Survey of Instructional Design Models. The method is to decide which fits, adapt it, or combine it with another.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

  • A clear view of the project's delivery format and of what it must produce, since those are the selection criteria
  • Familiarity with more than one model. A designer who knows one model will fit every project to it

Constraints

  • Models are rarely tested against outcomes. Their credibility comes from practitioners finding them useful. See the claim on how models are validated [~W]. Choosing a model is a judgment about fit, not a choice of the proven option
  • No model captures real practice. In the chapter's crowdsourced advice from practitioners, Carr-Chellman says models "teach you the basics, but the real ID process is not captured by a model" and Persichitte says "Models are not discrete steps to be checked off"
  • Many models were built for corporate and adult training. K-12 designers may find them a poor fit. The chapter names UbD, ID4T (Carr-Chellman) and Streamlined ID (Larson & Lockee) as more accessible to teachers

Implementation Variability

  • A design-layers model (Gibbons, 2013) can sit on top of an ADDIE-based model: the layers organise the problems, and the model's steps solve them
  • Some models target gaps other than instruction: motivation (Keller's ARCS-V), technology integration (SAMR, TPACK-IDDIRR, Action Mapping) or speed (SAM)

Target Learners

  • Designers early in their practice, for whom the choice among many models is itself a barrier
  • Any designer starting a project whose context differs from the last one

Target Learning Goals

  • A design process matched to the delivery format, the setting and the deliverable
  • Internal consistency, meaning each phase's decisions stay aligned with the others (the aim the chapter attributes to Plomp's OKT model)

Instructions

  1. Name the delivery format: synchronous or asynchronous, online, face to face, or blended. For online contexts the chapter points to Dick and Carey; Bates; Dabbagh and Bannan-Ritland; and Morrison, Ross, Kemp and Kalman
  2. Name what the project must produce.
  3. For classroom instruction: Gerlach and Ely; ASSURE; PIE; UbD; 4C/ID; 3PD.
  4. For a product handed to another organisation: Bergman and Moore; de Hoog et al.; Nieveen; Seels and Glasgow; Agile.
  5. For a whole system such as a full curriculum: IPISD; Gentry; Dorsey et al.; Diamond; Smith and Ragan; Merrill's Pebble in the Pond
  6. Map the candidate onto ADDIE to see which phases it compresses, expands or omits, and whether that suits the project. Plomp's OKT model, for example, adds testing and revision of the solution before full implementation
  7. Check for non-instructional gaps (motivation, resources, time) and add a model aimed at them where needed
  8. Adapt rather than adopt. Tailor the model's steps to the learners, stakeholders, resources and delivery mode, as a business moves from mapping its process to modelling it
  9. Iterate. Run the chosen model as a systematic and iterative process, with evaluation at each phase rather than only at the end

Examples

Key Sources

  • Dousay, T. A. (2018). Instructional design models. In Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology (1st ed., pp. 277–295). EdTech Books. https://edtechbooks.org/lidtfoundations/instructional_design_models
Page metadata
Field Value
type method
id selecting-an-instructional-design-model
title Selecting an Instructional Design Model
description Choosing, adapting or combining an instructional design model for a project. ADDIE is treated as the underlying process and each model as a context-specific instance of it, chosen by delivery format and by what the project must produce.
status review
generated by claude/unspecified on 2026-09-24
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