SAM Model

The SAM model, short for Successive Approximation Model, is an instructional design model developed by the American training designer Michael Allen and presented in his 2012 book Leaving ADDIE for SAM, proposed as a more agile alternative to the older, linear ADDIE process of analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. Rather than moving once through a fixed sequence of phases, SAM organizes design work into short, repeated cycles of design, develop and evaluate, so that a rough prototype of the instructional product is built and tested with real users very early, and then refined through several successive rounds of feedback and revision before a final version is produced. Allen describes two versions of the model: SAM1, a simpler iterative loop suited to smaller projects, and SAM2, an expanded version that adds an initial preparation phase and multiple design-and-development loops for larger or more complex projects. The model's central claim is that early, frequent prototyping surfaces problems with an instructional design far sooner than a lengthy up-front analysis and design phase can, reducing the risk of investing heavily in a finished product before learners or stakeholders have had a chance to react to it.