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ADDIE Design:
Design Lessons & Materials


Learning Objective: The learner will be able to state what the importance of lesson design is and outline the steps to perform the design.


Lesson design causes us to think over the instruction in terms of the effectiveness of lesson elements. It provides the chance for a critical assessment of the instructional approach and causes us to consider learning styles and set guidelines.

Below you will find steps to follow in lesson design. First you design a lesson template and then you focus on each lesson.

1. Create a lesson template
Start by creating a generic template for the lessons in this instruction. In the template include all those aspects that should be covered in each lesson keeping in mind that their use may be altered during lesson authoring. Keep in mind the “See, Hear, and Do teaching approach. Below see some suggested elements.



  • Anticipatory: A prompt or activity that focuses the learner on the subject of the lesson.
  • Objective: What the learners will be able to do after the lesson and how will it be demonstrated.
  • Lesson content: Skills, concepts, and vocabulary that the learners will acquire.
  • Modeling: images, graphs and other information showing how the skills or concepts work for others and achieve results.
  • Hands-on: An opportunity to perform the skills with supervision and determine if the learners "got it".
  • Evaluation: Questions are used to make sure the learner reached the desired level of understanding.
  • Closure: Show what was learned and end the lesson.
  • Practice: The learner practices what was taught.

Based on Dr. Madeline Hunter's research


2. Plan each lesson
Once you have a generic template begin planning each lesson. With the objectives of this lesson in mind think through the items in the table above and how they can be accomplished.

Make notes as to what activity or media you suggest be used and brief comments as to why. Ask yourself:

  1. What can be used in this lesson as an anticipatory set?
  2. How can the content of this lesson be delivered effectively?
  3. What media can be used for different learning styles?
  4. What specific models apply to this skill set?
  5. What hand-on opportunities can be provided online for this lesson?
  6. What practice or appropriate simulation can be provided for this lesson?

As you start developing answers to the above questions keep in mind the different learning styles. Provide diversity of learning to increase retention by appealing to different senses.

Depending on the learners you might have lessons that are based on discovery. For example, using simulation cases that the learner sees unfold. Such experiences tend to be engaging especially to adult learners. Cases can also be used as self assessment followed by a lesson.

Remember there are auditory learners, visual learners, and kinesthetic learners. These styles can be broken down further but here it suffices to say each should be addressed in each lesson. If you are not an educator by training you might think we are suggesting unnecessary repetition, however, what we are suggesting is alternatives. Teaching in one modality and reinforcing with another so all learners learn and are more likely to retain what was learned.

Incorporate these learning style issues into your lesson design. Do not assume that these things will happen otherwise or that the content author will address them. They will likely not be address unless they this is required. Most people will teach to their learning style and are unlikely to incorporate other styles.




Supplemental refresher about learning styles:


  • Visual learners:
    Tend to process information better when it is in the form of pictures, diagrams, graphs. Visual learners like handouts and often take good notes and draw diagrams.

    To reach visual learners provide visual aids such as chart and graphs. Tables and bulleted lists also help. Online learning is a good medium for these learners as the web is visual in nature.


  • Auditory learners:
    Learn best by listening to conversations or presentations. Taking notes may get in the way of your learning. These learners might enjoy the online audio activities such as streaming audio or audio-conferencing.

    To reach auditory learners provide them with presentations they can play back. A PowerPoint presentation with embedded audio is easy to produce and deliver. They can play it back any time and as many times as they want so these presentations are ideal for online deliver. This media used to be a problem due to size but now there is inexpensive compression technology with makes it very easy to produce and very, very easy to deliver.

    In addition to the above you can provide session for live conferencing either between students or with the instructor.


  • Kinesthetic learners:
    Learn best by hands on activities and working within groups.

    For these learners provide 3D simulations or learning games that provide a realistic feeling. Steering around or moving items in a realistic demo or simulation can provide the kinesthetic learner with some of the feel of and actual experience. You can also provide experiments they can do at their site.

    For these learners it is also important to provide group discussions or workgroups they can participate in. While this is not the real thing, it is a way of fooling the mind into feeling much of what is felt through interaction. Instead of reaching out and touching someone or gesturing, the learning will tend to use more emoticons. Such learners should feel free to gesture or move things around the screen.





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