Nine events of instruction

The nine events of instruction were created by an educational psychologist, Robert Gagne, to help trainers, educators, and instructional designers build training sessions for students that would yield better results. This model is a systematic process to help them develop new strategies and help them create more engaging activities for their instructional classes. These nine events help provide a framework to allow for a positive and efficient learning process. Each of these steps provides a vital form of communication that supports this learning process. As each step is completed, the learners are more likely to be engaged and to retain this information or the skills they are being taught. Designers/educators are given an outline or a prototype by which they can implement prior to teaching their training activity.

**Nine Events of Instruction**

1. Gain attention
	1. In order for any learning to take place, you must first capture the attention of the student. A multimedia program that begins with an animated title screen sequence accompanied by sound effects or music startles the senses with auditory or visual stimuli. An even better way to capture students' attention is to start each lesson with a thought-provoking question or interesting fact. Curiosity motivates students to learn.[1]
2. Inform learners of objectives
	1. Early in each lesson students should encounter a list of learning objectives. This initiates the internal process of expectancy and helps motivate the learner to complete the lesson. These objectives should form the basis for assessment and possible certification as well. Typically, learning objectives are presented in the form of "Upon completing this lesson you will be able to. . . ." The phrasing of the objectives themselves will be covered under Robert Mager's contributions later in this chapter.[1]
3. Stimulate recall of prior learning
	1. Associating new information with prior knowledge can facilitate the learning process. It is easier for learners to encode and store information in long-term memory when there are links to personal experience and knowledge. A simple way to stimulate recall is to ask questions about previous experiences, an understanding of previous concepts, or a body of content.[1]
4. Present the content
	1. This event of instruction is where the new content is actually presented to the learner. Content should be chunked and organized meaningfully, and typically is explained and then demonstrated. To appeal to different learning modalities, a variety of media should be used if possible, including text, graphics, audio narration, and video.[1]
5. Provide "learning guidance"
	1. To help learners encode information for long-term storage, additional guidance should be provided along with the presentation of new content. Guidance strategies include the use of examples, non-examples, case studies, graphical representations, mnemonics, and analogies
6. Elicit performance (practice)
	1. In this event of instruction, the learner is required to practice the new skill or behavior. Eliciting performance provides an opportunity for learners to confirm their correct understanding, and the repetition further increases the likelihood of retention.[1]
7. Provide feedback
	1. As learners practice new behavior it is important to provide specific and immediate feedback of their performance. Unlike questions in a post-test, exercises within tutorials should be used for comprehension and encoding purposes, not for formal scoring. Additional guidance and answers provided at this stage are called formative feedback.[1]
8. Assess performance
	1. Upon completing instructional modules, students should be given the opportunity to take (or be required to take) a post-test or final assessment. This assessment should be completed without the ability to receive additional coaching, feedback, or hints. Mastery of material, or certification, is typically granted after achieving a certain score or percent correct. A commonly accepted level of mastery is 80% to 90% correct.[1]
9. Enhance retention and transfer to the job
	1. While the STAR system is relatively easy to use, additional steps are taken to ensure successful implementation and widespread use among the sales force. These features include online help and "wizards", which are step-by-step instructions on completing complex tasks. Additionally, the training program is equipped with a content map, an index of topics, and a search function. These enable students to use the training as a just-in-time support tool in the future. Finally, a one-page, laminated quick reference card is packaged with the training CD-ROM for further reinforcement of the learning session.[1]

References:

1. Kruse, K. (2010). Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction: An Introduction.