Analysis

The first phase of ADDIE is analysis. 

The analysis phase is crucial when planning simulation education events because the rest of the process is created around information determined in this phase.

It is important to determine your target audience and training needs prior to developing any content.

When identifying a target audience, consider

• The learners’ level of experience and knowledge — is it narrow or broad?
• Are you delivering for a single discipline or do you need to apply a multi-disciplinary approach?
• Where are the learner’s work environments?  Is your training directed for people working in cities, or in remote or rural areas? And
• Will you be training people in their usual work teams with their peers, or combining people from a variety of areas into teams?

The challenge is to design a simulation program that can adapt to varying levels of competency, facilitate multi-disciplinary learning and practice, and highlight the importance of teamwork and behavioural components of healthcare.

To assist you to determine any performance gaps among groups or individuals, a training needs analysis can highlight the disparity between an actual performance standard and the desired performance standard.

After you have identified who your audience is and what you think they need to know, now consider what the learning objectives and outcomes will be.

Learning objectives should clearly state the purpose and inform the development of the educational event. 

Learning outcomes highlight improvements or changes in knowledge, skills, and behaviours that can be observed or measured.

Learning outcomes should

• Identify what the learner will be able to do as a result of the training, and
• Focus on the learner and their actual performance and how it aligns to the competencies identified in the training needs analysis.

If you need some inspiration writing your objectives and outcomes, Bloom’s Taxonomy is one model that describes the levels of learning and how to measure outcomes that will assist you in developing and writing learning outcomes. 

Now, on to the next phase – Design.