Gagne’s nine Events of Instruction

Robert Gagne’s nine events of Instruction provide a guideline for developing instructional content.

Gain Attention
Do something to gain the learner’s attention. It is somewhat similar to a TV program where a teaser is shown to gain our attention and we definitely end up watching the complete program. You can gain attention of a learner by various means. You can tell them an interesting story, show a demo, or even ask them to solve a problem.

Inform learner of Objective
Inform the learner about what they are going to learn so that they will prepare for what is coming up next. In other words, tell them what you are going to tell them.

Stimulate recall of prior Knowledge
It is always easy to build on what you know. If the learner has a prior knowledge about the subject you can stimulate it by asking questions and help them build on their skills.

Present the Material
Here you go! Provide them the training material. You can chunk your content into various levels of difficulty in order to maximize learning.

Provide Guidance for Learning
You must help the learners to maximize their learning by providing them learning instructions. You can use a different medium or channel to achieve this.

Elicit Performance
In e-learning terms this can be called as a practice session. You ask the learners to do something with their newly acquired knowledge.

Provide Feedback
You need to provide feedback to the learner and tell them the correctness of their learning. Tell them why they have done a good job or not a good job. Always provide specific feedback.

Access Performance
Analyze whether the learning has taken place. Give information about general progress.

Enhance Retention and Transfer
Put the learner in a similar problem situation or provide additional practice in order to enhance retention. The learner must be able to transfer the learning to their future assignments.