Edodo
All books/Gagné's Nine Events of Instruction in Action
Chapter 214 min read

Design Challenge

A realistic instructional design challenge to apply Gagné's Nine Events—complete this before reading the expert response.

By Vivek M Agarwal•About the Author

Theory Becomes Practice

You've learned the nine events. Now it's time to apply them.

This chapter presents a realistic instructional design challenge. Your task: design a complete learning experience using Gagné's Nine Events.

Work through this challenge before reading the expert response in the next chapter. The act of applying what you've learned—struggling with decisions, making trade-offs, generating solutions—will consolidate your understanding far more effectively than simply reading another example.

The Challenge Scenario

Company: RetailCorp, a large retail chain with 500+ stores

Problem: Customer satisfaction scores related to product returns have dropped significantly. Customer feedback indicates:

  • Employees are inconsistent in applying return policy
  • Staff seem unsure about procedures, especially for non-standard situations
  • Employees don't feel empowered to resolve issues
  • Long wait times frustrate customers
  • The experience often ends poorly, damaging customer loyalty

Business Goal: Increase the "Customer Satisfaction" score for returns by 15% within six months.

Your Task: Design a 20-minute, self-paced eLearning module for all customer service employees (new and existing).

Required Content:

  1. The three main steps of the return policy
  2. How to handle two "difficult" scenarios:
    • A return without a receipt
    • A return of a damaged item
  3. The importance of maintaining a positive attitude throughout the interaction

Constraints:

  • Module must be self-paced (no live facilitator)
  • Must work on store computers (no mobile delivery)
  • Employees will complete during shifts (attention may be divided)
  • Mix of experienced and new employees will take the same module
  • Must include a scored assessment (80% required for completion)

Your Design Task

For each of the nine events below, design a specific element of this eLearning module. Be concrete—describe what learners would see, hear, and do.

Event 1: Gain Attention

How will the first screen of this module capture employee attention and establish immediate relevance?

Design your attention-grabber here:

Event 2: Inform Learners of the Objective

What specific, performance-based learning objectives will you present? How will you frame them to create motivation?

Write your objectives here:

Event 3: Stimulate Recall of Prior Learning

What activity or question will help employees connect to their existing knowledge about customer service or returns?

Design your recall activation here:

Event 4: Present the Content

Beyond text and bullet points, how will you present the three-step policy and the difficult scenarios in an engaging way? How will you chunk the content?

Describe your content presentation approach here:

Event 5: Provide Learning Guidance

What scaffolds, aids, or support will you embed to help employees understand and remember the procedures?

Design your learning guidance elements here:

Event 6: Elicit Performance

How will employees actively practice handling returns within the safe environment of the eLearning module?

Design your practice activities here:

Event 7: Provide Feedback

When employees practice (Event 6), what kind of immediate, specific feedback will they receive for both correct and incorrect actions?

Design your feedback approach here:

Event 8: Assess Performance

What scored assessment will verify employees have mastered the objectives? How will it require demonstration of capability, not just recognition?

Design your assessment here:

Event 9: Enhance Retention and Transfer

What will you provide at module end to help employees remember and apply this training on the sales floor?

Design your transfer support here:

Reflection Questions

After completing your design, consider:

  1. Alignment: Do your practice activities (Event 6) and assessment (Event 8) directly match your stated objectives (Event 2)?

  2. Engagement: Will employees find this module relevant and worth their attention, or will it feel like a compliance checkbox?

  3. Application: Is there a realistic path from completing this module to actually improving customer interactions?

  4. Constraints: Have you designed within the 20-minute limit? Will this work on store computers without a facilitator?

  5. Measurement: How would you know if this training contributed to the 15% satisfaction improvement?

Before Moving On

Complete your design before reading the next chapter.

The value of this exercise comes from generating your own solutions. Even imperfect attempts create learning—your brain is actively processing the framework, making decisions, identifying gaps.

When you've finished your design, turn to the next chapter for an expert response to compare against your approach.