Leaving ADDIE for SAM MegaWorkshop

Hi there! Today I am taking a break from discussing the CSUF MSIDT program to talk a bit about a great seminar I attended in Chicago on September 28 and 29.

The seminar was title Leaving ADDIE for SAM, and it was presented by Richard Sites from Allen Interactions for ATD. Allen Interactions was founded by Michael Allen, who is considered to be the father of SAM, or the Successive Approximation Model.

An important thing to note right up front is that Richard Sites emphasized right up front that ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) is really the gold standard of development processes. But, it is slow, particularly when the Analysis stage extends on, and on, and on (analysis paralysis).

SAM uses an iterative process to arrive at a solution that arrives at the performance that is desired. Instead of using lengthy linear steps, it uses much smaller iterative steps. This helps avoid time sucking traps (dealing with SMEs, running out of budget, and quality issues). While doing all of this, the process focuses on preparing genuine performance learning.

One major divergence from ADDIE is that SAM starts with the preparation phase where research and background information is created. This phase is supposed to be much quicker than the Analysis stage of ADDIE.

From there, SAM moves into the Savvy Start, which is a collaborative brainstorming session that should include the major stakeholders. This meeting focuses on learner performance and serves as the project kickoff meeting and will be the first opportunity for all team members to collaborate. This is also an iterative process, and it is recommended that three rotations of this design, prototype, and review process take place.

After this the model moves into the iterative design phase which goes through development, implementation, and evaluation. Sites pointed out that most users of ADDIE never actually go through the evaluation phase. The design should go through three iterations, which they coined Alpha, Beat, and Gold. During this the product is being constantly analyzed and evaluated, so that changes can occur very quickly. One hint that Sites provided was to present the material to the stakeholder with the request that they evaluate if the product does what it is supposed to do, not if they want to add anything to it. If changes are requested it is best to simply ask if the changes met the stakeholder’s request. Going beyond this will lengthen the process and make the final product more bulky.

This workshop proved the worth of the SAM process to me, and I am motivated to implement it on the next new project that I start. The facilitator suggested that it would not be wise to change methodologies midstream on a project, which makes sense.

The conference itself was set up to be a collaborative learning environment for the attendees. There were many group projects over the two days, and the concepts of SAM were practiced a number of times as parts of the Savvy Start were modeled. There were about 30 attendees (at $1500 each!), and they represented an interesting cross-section of different institutional types, including education, non-profits, government, freelance workers, and private industry. Interacting and networking with these individuals was very valuable, as there were a lot of unique viewpoints on the subject of adult learning.

ATD did a good job of setting up this “MegaWorkshop.” Conference Chicago at University Center is a very nice facility, and getting to be downtown was a nice change from the usual airport hotel banquet rooms where things like this usually take place.