abstract
this paper contributes to the evolving identification of good practice in instructional design for online learning environments, through the discussion of the role of the instructional designer, and of instructional design challenges that were met during the development of online courseware for vocational education and training (vet) by the open training and education network – distance education (oten-de).
the processes and tasks involved in instructional design are outlined in the context of oten-de’s internet delivered courseware projects, and the impact of the choice of cms system on the work of the instructional designer is explored. the role of the instructional designer is seen in the context of a central resource developer, the resource being one that must be ready to use in a number of possible delivery scenarios, from entirely online delivery with minimal teacher-student interaction, to delivery in a mixed mode setting, to use as a classroom resource.
the question of what constitutes an effective online learning environment is explored and the impact of the course management system (cms) of the final online ‘product’ is discussed. the process used by oten-de for selecting an off-the-shelf cms system is described and principal advantages of two such systems are discussed.
keywords
online instructional design, interactivity, course management system, cms, vocational educational and training, vet
1. introduction
much discussion in the field of online teaching and learning is concerned with teachers making the transition from the classroom to the online environment, with the accompanying focus on teachers effectively supporting their students online. but what about the step before this? what do the teachers have to work with, apart from putting their own teaching notes online? a field which receives less attention is that of the instructional design of online teaching and learning resources: how do we design resources that can be used by different teachers in a variety of delivery scenarios? open training and education network – distance education (oten-de) specialises in the development and delivery of distance education in the vocational education and training (vet) sector in australia, and has a team of instructional designers developing resources in a variety of media including print, cd-rom, video, dvd and online. this paper discusses the experience of instructional designers at oten-de who are developing online teaching and learning resources.
at the time of writing oten-de is developing online versions of the following courses:
· accounting certificate 2 (http://blackboard.oten.edu.au)
· accounting certificate 4 (in production)
· assessment and workplace training certificate 4 (http://toolbox.oten.edu.au)
· vet initial teaching and learning (vitalonline) ()
· information technology certificate 2 (in production)
· diploma in information technology (in production)
these projects are at various stages of completion and most are part of a wider initiative in the vet sector in new south wales called learningware projects.
oten-de’s ‘interactive multimedia development and production guidelines’ were applied to these projects and each project was assigned a core team consisting of at least a project manager, instructional designer, creative director, subject matter experts and programmer. in addition, to ensure the resource would meet the needs of other educational institutions, each team included subject matter experts from outside of oten-de.
2. the role of the instructional designer
first it must be said that the instructional designer does not work in isolation. the ‘lone ranger’ approach (bates, 1999) of one teacher working independently to deliver their own content online is not the model we work with. the instructional designer is a member of a project team with clearly defined project goals, and an approved budget and timeline. our approach to these projects is that they are essentially resource development projects requiring the input of a diverse professional team.
the key responsibility of the instructional designer is to ensure the instructional quality of the final product so that it is something that may be used by different teachers, with differing skill levels in online teaching, in different educational contexts. the products need to allow flexibility in delivery modes and flexibility in teaching styles. for example, the resource in one institution might be delivered with minimal teacher-student contact, so it must be a resource that can ‘stand alone’ and guide the student through almost the entire course. at the same time, in another institution there may be a high amount of teacher-student contact and/or some degree of customisation of the resource for the audience, so there must be mechanisms for the teacher to add content or instructions, and to communicate with students. so the role of the instructional designer is to ensure the quality of a central resource that may be interpreted and implemented by more than just one teacher, with varying degrees of teacher intervention.
instructional design tasks
the role of the instructional designer is varied in these projects and may be understood by listing (in no particular order) typical tasks performed by instructional designers in the oten-de online projects:
· interpret curriculum documents
· design the instructional approach for a course or module
· design the information structures for the online product
· develop an instructional plan for a course or module
· select appropriate media/delivery modes for various parts of course
· check that course assessment is reliable, valid, flexible and fair
· in conjunction with subject matter experts, design learning activities
· research and evaluate existing resources
· structurally edit content submitted by writers
· produce a flow chart to represent the structure of the online learning resource
· contribute (significantly) to decisions about navigation and layout conventions on website
however none of these tasks are performed in isolation and are done in consultation with the project manager (where decisions have time or cost implications), subject matter experts (where curriculum is interpreted in any way), the graphic designer (where decisions were being made about how the project would work visually) and the programmer (where decisions were being made that would require some solution offered by the technology). in short, in the oten-de online projects the instructional designer forms part of a dynamic team, and the particular tasks performed in that role vary according to the skills of individual team members and the needs of the project.
3. instructional design challenges
instructional designers in all these projects found they faced common challenges:
we had been using the systems approach to instructional design in print projects, should we apply it to online projects?
the answer was – yes and no. the problems associated with the systems approach to instructional design (analyse, design, develop, implement, evaluate) are discussed by gordon and zemke (2000). those of us who had already worked on multimedia projects knew of its pitfalls: the systems approach could delay the production process, stifle creativity and prevent revisiting the product to make rapid changes based on new knowledge gained about the environment or the learners. at the same time we knew of its value: its methodology helped ensure quality, and it did result in a learning product that conformed to set curricula.
our solution was to apply oten-de’s multimedia project development model (oten-de 2000). this model identifies five main phases that do not preclude the systems approach to instructional design, but which do make it more workable. because most of our multimedia project work is based on rapid prototyping models these five phases are not exclusive or linear but rather interdependent and mutually influential. this production process is depicted below.
