Robert Gagné's Nine Events of Instruction describe the conditions that help people learn, in roughly the order a lesson should provide them. They're one of the most practical tools an instructional designer has, because you can hold any module up against them and see what's missing. This guide walks through each event with an e-learning example, then gives you a template to copy.
The running example is a short module on reporting a suspicious email.
The nine events, with examples
| # | Event | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gain attention | Gives learners a reason to care, right now. | "Think of the last email that felt off. What made you suspicious?" |
| 2 | Inform learners of the objective | Tells them what they'll be able to do by the end. | "In ten minutes you'll be able to spot three warning signs and report a phishing email correctly." |
| 3 | Stimulate recall of prior learning | Connects the new material to what they already know. | "You already check a caller's number before you trust it. Email works the same way." |
| 4 | Present the content | Delivers the new material, chunked and organized. | The three warning signs, each shown on a real-looking email. |
| 5 | Provide learning guidance | Shows how to apply it: examples, worked demonstrations, tips. | A narrated walkthrough of checking a sender address, step by step. |
| 6 | Elicit performance | Learners practice the skill themselves. | "Here are five emails. Flag the ones that look like phishing." |
| 7 | Provide feedback | Tells them what they got right and why the rest was wrong. | "This one was legitimate: the link goes to the real domain. Here's how to check." |
| 8 | Assess performance | Checks whether they can now do what the objective promised. | A new set of emails, no hints, scored. |
| 9 | Enhance retention and transfer | Helps them use it on the job, not just pass the quiz. | A one-page reference card and a reminder to use the Report button next time. |
The events that usually go missing
- Event 3, recall of prior learning. Courses jump straight into new content without connecting it to anything learners already know. One sentence can fix it.
- Events 6 and 7, practice with feedback. Many courses explain, then test. The middle, where learners try it and find out what they got wrong while it's safe to be wrong, is where most of the learning happens.
- Event 9, transfer. The course ends at the quiz. Nothing helps learners carry the skill back to their real work.
It's a checklist, not a script
The nine events aren't a rigid sequence every module has to march through in order. A two-minute microlearning piece might combine several events in one screen. A scenario-based course might open with the performance (event 6) and deliver the content as feedback. The useful question isn't "did I do all nine in order?" It's "does the learner get each of these conditions somewhere, and does the order make sense for this content?"
The events also pair naturally with alignment: event 2 states the objective, event 6 practices it, and event 8 assesses it. If those three don't line up, see how to align learning objectives and assessments.
Copy the template
Paste this into your storyboard or design doc and fill in one line per event. Blank lines are your gaps.
Checking a whole course
Holding a long course against the nine events takes time, especially when the events are spread across dozens of screens. Pedagrade reviews the whole course against Gagné's events, along with the rest of the learning science and accessibility, and tells you which events are missing and what to add.
See what it finds in your course.
Paste a course or upload the file. In about a minute you get a scored report with every finding cited and the fix written for you. Your first audit is free.
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