EXD Model: A novel framework to design effective e-learning experiences

Creating an online course is creating a digital product after all, where the pedagogical and technological dimensions must be considered, together with a student centered design to produce a great online learning experience. A new Instructional Design model is needed to integrate in a more natural way with the reality of a constantly changing industry and better adoption for sectors other than the academic.

The evolution of Instructional Design

Instructional design is an activity that has been transformed by three factors: cognitive psychology, constructivism, and technology. As a way of example, in the XIX century education had more of a transmitting and instruction perspective and it was only until the XX century that the discussion started to move into the capacity that teachers have to adapt to varying situations and studen’s context, moving away from conductism and centering around the student.

In 1990, with the incorporation of IT in education, the interest in constructivism grew, particularly because of its approach to let students be actively engaged in their learning process. Shortly after, the role of instructional designer had to evolve. In the year 2000 the concept of techno-pedagogycal designer appeared, defined as a specialist that integrates learning theories, cognitive psychology along with technology tools and instructional design models, in collaboration with the domain expert (teacher).

With the evolution of the Instructional Designer role due to IT, the models he has under his toolset also evolve. For instance, these models moved from being a linear structure based on conductism, as the case of the ADDIE Model, into cyclic structures that place the student at the center, like the SAM model of rapid prototyping, which come from the software development industry.

The need of an Instructional Design Model for e-learning

All across consultancies, SMEs, startups, corporations, universities and schools, a full online mode (e-learning) is being adopted, which has opened great challenges and opportunities, from pedagogy to technology in the educational  and training sector. 

Even though Instructional Design models have changed over time to adopt best practices in digital product development, on one hand they still use traditional models without too many changes, and on the other hand the most advanced versions still do not adapt to the needs of a knowledge based digital product like a course design or online learning program.

Let’s review in the following the most used models and the issues they have from an e-learning perspective:

ADDIE

This is one of the most traditional and widely used models for instructional design, however, it was created in 1975, on a time before the rise of the internet, and technology for education. It is a model based on instruction and a cascading process, therefore not suitable for the needs of agile adaptation in the light of the rapidly changing technology environment. From a component perspective, it is not enough with Analize as its first process step, because the real needs of users (students), characteristics, learning gaps and context needs to be understood in more detail. It also seems insufficient to Evaluate as the final step of the process: actionable data collection and analysis is required to apply in maintenance and continuing improvement of the e-learning strategy, by means of short and agile cycles that reduce time and cost.

*ADDIE Model

DICK & CAREY

This is another traditional model that defines a structure from the instructional perspective without further consideration of the student itself. However, one of its stages considers in an adequate way the needs and behavior of the students to establish performance objectives. While it can be considered in a certain way as a cyclic model, it doesn’t take ICT into account, and its structure is too complex and robust to be adopted in non-academic contexts, as startups, SMEs and HR departments that wish to incorporate e-learning as part of their growth strategy.

*Dick & Carey Model

ASSURE

This is a more updated model because it includes in all its process steps the technology, however, in the same way as ADDIE, the ASSURE model is a linear process that doesn’t take into account continuing improvement and adaptation to changes inherent to technology and the internet. Its stages outline an interaction with the users too late in the process, instead of “requiring user feedback” all the way from the start to end. Evaluate and Review, as the last stage is sometimes not enough, in a continuing improvement of a digital environment.

*ASSURE Model 

SAM

This is a recent model that is inspired by the agile development concept used in software development, which considers cyclic processes and continuing improvement through product versions (Alpha, Beta, Gold). Even though this is the model that adapts in the best way to the needs of online learning, it lacks a specific consideration for technology selection along with pedagogical strategy, that require enough care and attention from a techno-pedagogical designer.

*SAM Model

Emerging Models

Agile, Lean, Design Thinking and even UX, appear as methodologies for design and development of digital products. Although e-learning must be considered as a digital product with all its components, at the design and creation stages it is necessary to consider inside the framework a technology and pedagogy dimension, in order to create a great learning experience, and also achieve learning outcomes.

*Agile Model

*Design Thinking

EXD Model: A model for designing e-learning experiences.

What is the EXD Model?

It is a novel model for the design of online learning experiences (E-learning eXperience Design or EXD), that combines the best of instructional design methods and modern methodologies for the design and development of digital products, like Design Thinking, Agile, Lean and UX, but considers the particular needs implied on the design of a course or online program, specially in sectors that require an agile approach for the cost and time reduction.

The EXD Model is an agile and iterative process with 6 phases: Empathize, Define, Select, Create, Deliver, Measure.

How does the EXD Model work?

1. Empathize

Understand and know your users: who they are, what do they need, what is their context, what is the root of their problem and the learning gap. In this starting phase of the model, the following actions need to be done:

• Conduct interviews and observe target users
• Create a Learner Persona document
• Draft a clear a problem statement
• Identify the learning gap

2. Define

Conceptualize and define the online course content, centered around the user needs that were detected in the previous phase Empathize. In order to do that, the Learner Persona, problem statement and learning gap documents will be key. In this phase, the activities to do are:

• Benchmark of courses and similar topics
• Topic ideations and definition
• Learning objectives ideation and definition
• Course Duration and Outline ideation and definition

3. Select

Select the ideal technology to undertake the teaching-learning process. All information captured in the past phases, including learning goals, duration, and course content outline. This phase considers the technology selection that will support pedagogy, technical and administrative support, to provide a holistic approach to learning.

• Select the resource mix
• Select technology underlying technologies
• Select pedagogy underlying technologies
• Select administrative underlying technologies

4. Create 

Produce each of the digital resources with the technology stack selected in the previous phase (resource mix), following the definitions of the course contents and duration previously defined. This phase comprises activities like the following: 

• Conduct a research of the topic to develop
• Original content creation
• Content curation
• UX and visual design of resources
• Development of digital content (programming, video-recording, edition, etc.)
• Prototyping and user test

5. Launch

Implement digital resources on an e-learning platform, and course launch with the selected target audience. Among other activities in this stage, consider the following:

• Digital resource implementation on the e-learning platform
• Support channel opening (pedagogy, technical, administrative)
• Opening the online course platform
• Communication and promotion strategy
• Registration and enrolment of users

6. Measure

Monitor and measure the outcomes of the online learning experience. With the data collected, all actions towards continuous improvement will be done in the next iteration cycle. In order to collect the information needed, the following activities will be done.

• Follow up, monitoring and performance analytics of the users (students and teachers)
• Monitoring, maintenance and analysis of the systems and resources performance
• Quantitative and qualitative polls for users
• General evaluation of the e-learning strategy
• KPIs and outcome metric analysis
• Key actions definition for continuing improvement (Nth interaction)

How does the iteration work in the EXD Model?

The iterative process in the EXD Model differs from other cyclic processes in that it doesn’t have to return to the initial phase (in our case Empathize), instead the next iteration starts on any phase as needed, depending on the analysis of outcomes in the Measure phase. For instance, the next improvement cycle could start from the Selection phase, to improve a very specific element of the format that is currently affecting the user experience, without necessarily going through Definition.

In this way, the iterative process is much more efficient. On one hand, it allows a time and cost reduction related to a next version of a course; and on the other hand,  keeps the motivation in the team of the company or organization, as it generates a sense of progress in the design and development for the subsequent iterations (instead of a process that doesn’t end its iteration cycle) providing more space and time to obtain relevant information, and therefore, evidences that can endorse continuous improvement actions.

About EXD Model Licensing

Sharing is probably the most basic feature of education: education is to share knowledge, ideas and information with others, upon which new knowledge, skills, ideas and understanding can be built.   

–Open Education Consortium

The EXD Model is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International, therefore you can Share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format as well as 

Adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the material, for non-commercial applications, giving appropriate credit to the author (Adriana Caballero Galván with the support of Yeira E-learning) and you must use the same type of Creative Commons License as the original.