ADDIE Implementation in the Workplace

Implementation Makes the Difference

When companies launch a course, they enter the ADDIE implementation phase. During this phase, the companies must successfully deliver their courses to their learners. Each course represents a significant investment of corporate resources and time. It's very important for the course to make a significant and meaningful impact on the learners.

On the strategic level, companies rely on training programs to reduce costs and improve profitability by improving people's performance in many different ways:

• Increase sales and customer satisfaction
• Improve efficiency and productivity
• Ensure legal compliance and reduce liability
• Guide people through new and changed processes
• Introduce new people to the company's methods and culture

Companies that want to achieve these goals need well-written training programs that are launched successfully. However, it's important to remember that great course content doesn't guarantee a successful launch. In this section, we'll assume that the company has done its homework and created an excellent training course. Instead, we'll focus on the challenges that companies face during the ADDIE implementation phase.

How Scope Impacts Training Delivery

When companies deliver training programs, they often involve hundreds and perhaps even thousands of learners. Even a small course can involve dozens of people. Some of the biggest challenges during the ADDIE implementation phase fall into the categories of training administration and logistics.

Some companies have very skilled in-house training departments. These people know how to coordinate and deliver training programs to thousands of people across the world within a short time frame. However, other companies don't have this depth of training delivery experience and a nationwide course rollout can become quite a challenge.

If you've followed the ADDIE model, you've conducted a course pilot session. Perhaps some learners gathered together in a classroom or tested out the online learning course. You've asked a sample group of learners to help you review the course. However, there's a lot of work to ramp up from this single session to a full nationwide or global course delivery.

In many ways, the training delivery phase must recognize the powerful impact of Murphy's Law—if anything can go wrong, it will. It's extremely important to carefully plan the training delivery process. Let's look at some of the factors that companies must consider when preparing to launch classroom and e-learning courses.

Launching a Classroom Course

Here's a list of some of the questions that people have to answer when they start a large-scale training delivery project. This list is not comprehensive, but it gives a good overview highlighting why training delivery often requires active project management.

Course Delivery Aspect	Some Key Questions
Course Materials	How many copies of the course materials need to be printed? Will course materials be printed in-house or outsourced to a printer? How will course materials be shipped? Who will be responsible for shipping?
Instructors	How many trainers will be needed for the project? Will the trainers come from an in-house team or from an outsource provider? Will the project require the trainers to travel? Should the trainers be geographically-based? How will the instructors learn to teach this course? Will the project require a train-the-trainer session? When and how will trainers receive their schedule? Who will be the SME to answer trainer questions? Who will be the technical contact for trainers?
Course Schedule	What locations will courses be offered? What dates and times will the course be offered? How will this schedule be communicated?
Classroom Space	Will the classroom require any specific technology—computers, AV projectors, etc.? Will learning happen on-site or off-site?
Registration	How will learners be enrolled for the course? Will they enroll themselves or will someone enroll them? How will course rosters be tracked? How will rosters be communicated to instructors? How will instructors record attendance and test scores? Will this course be entered into a learning management system?
Travel	If people need to travel, who will book it? How will travel and expenses be coordinated? Will travel come from the overall project budget or a separate budget?
Logisitics	Who will manage training administration? Who will manage training logistics? How will course statistics be tracked? Who will be responsible for collecting and communicating these statistics?

Many of these questions have to be answered well before the implementation phase begins. If a company starts a large scale delivery project without answering these questions, the project can quickly turn into disorganized chaos.

Launching an E-learning Course

An e-learning course oftern requires significant systems integration tasks. Here are some sample issues for an e-learning course that will be delivered online to learners.

Course Delivery Aspect	Some Key Questions
Hosting	Where will the course be hosted? How much storage space will be required for the e-learning files? How many learners will need to access the course total? How many learners will access the course at any time? How much bandwidth will be needed (peak use and monthly)?
Integration	Will this course need to integrate with an existing learning management system (LMS)? Will the LMS track course enrollment and course completion data? Will this course output test scores and other data to an LMS? Is this course SCORM and AICC compliant?
Access	How will learners enroll for the course? Will learners be able to access the course through the web or will they need to connect to an intranet?
Learners' Connections	Will any users connect to the course via dial-up? Will any users connect to the course via a VPN? Can the course recognize the learner's connection speed and optimize course delivery?
Learners' Computers	Will learners have all necessary applications loaded onto their computers? Will learners need to download any applications or plug-ins?
Security	Who will be responsible for security issues related to the course files?
Help Desk	Who will help learners who have difficulties accessing the online course? Who will answer technical questions? Who will answer content questions?
Registration	How will learners be enrolled for the course? Will they enroll themselves or will someone enroll them? How will course rosters be tracked?
Logistics	Who will manage training administration? Who will manage training logistics? How will course statistics be tracked? Who will be responsible for collecting and communicating these statistics?

There are many ways that an e-learning course can implode during the delivery process. An online course can be so popular that the hosting site crashes when everyone tries to access it at the same time. The course might not integrate properly with the company's learning management system. The file might have a broken link so learners receive the dreaded "file not found" error.

These technical issues often require the training project's team to coordinate with the company's IT department, but the collaboration can mean the difference between a rough and a smooth launch.