Using Formative Data to Make Evidence-Based Decisions During Re-Design

This paper describes how a novice instructional designer and his team followed the systems approach to redesign and implement a library workshop offered each year to over 4400 Freshmen enrolled in approximately 200 undergraduate English classes at a large university in the southeastern United States. The design team combined ADDIE with four instructional models: Dick, Carey, and Carey’s Systematic Instructional Design, Keller’s ARCS Motivational Design Process, Gagné’s nine events of instruction, and Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. The redesign consisted of four phases—an instructional analysis and three phases that included elements of design, development, implementation, and evaluation. The design team was able to (a) align the workshop’s objectives with the English teacher’s expectations, (b) maintain a high-level of student motivation during the redesign, (c) improve student learning for several objectives, (d) make the instruction replicable, and (e) reduce the number of library consultations from students who had attended the workshop. The team made evidence-based decisions throughout the redesign, using formative data to make improvements. The design team felt that using multiple instructional theories simultaneously helped them execute the systematic design process by providing greater detail about each phase of ADDIE.