ADDIQutE - is it good enough to fly?

Before I started doing instructional design work, I taught a lot. Specifically, I taught human geography, physical geography and GIS topics occasionally. The reason someone like me can shift into "just instructional design" is because I'm already used to organizing information.

But instructional design isn't quite the same as teaching at all. Correction - it has nothing to do with teaching. It has a lot to do with training and being very specific about what you want the learner to know. That's the opposite of what some professors (yes, I was and continue to occasionally be called "professor", when I teach online) do. Professors often go on about something. They get off track, lose focus and sometimes miss their own point (not the good ones). They also often have job security. 

I digress. See? I still have it. The professor thing.

But back to instructional design. 

As I get more engrossed in this job, the more I like it in some ways. The only thing I hate about this job is the tight deadlines. I think it produces low quality sometimes and oversimplifies things that often require deep thought. So I ask myself, where can I catch that problem? Do I catch it in Analysis? Sometimes. Do you have a good SME, because that's when you can make sure you include the RIGHT information in the BEST way possible? If you do not have good SME support, you might have to figure out the problem during Design and Development.

After Development, many instructional folks let go and let the trainers handle the Implementation. Evaluation (largely) is ignored or swept under the rug. Managing the results of an evaluation is a type of going backward that management may find a waste of time. It takes work. It's old news. Moving on! Our backlog is too high, so let's "table" that until later...and it goes to the attic. 

So I started thinking, where or when (or both) can I make sure that my content has a chance to get a QUALITY check and get TRIED out? Well, you could put it after things are put into place (this is the way Implementation is defined at my organization), and call it QuT - Quality checked and Tried. Get someone to just try out the material, before it's delivered.

If your organization is more along the lines of "implementation" being the actual delivery, then the order may look like ADDQuTE where QuT replace Implementation. ADDIE works in different ways at different places.

My new addition to ADDIE makes your material ADDIQuTE (adequate). Sometimes that's the best you can do. 

Analysis

Design

Development

Implementation

Quality check

Try

Evaluation