Online learning is expanding rapidly today in many Canadian universities. Fuelled by Canada's unprecedented broadband access, online teaching is creating new challenges for faculty and new responsibilities for educational developers. Although there is adequate literature with regard to faculty thinking about course planning in general, there are…

The study investigated the preferences of instructors and students for design and pedagogy features of online instruction at the post-secondary level. Features were identified through a comprehensive literature review combined with focus groups. Each feature was subjected to review by subject matter experts to validate the differentiation between…

Societal changes demand educators to apply new pedagogical approaches. Many educational stakeholders feel that serious games could play a key role in fulfilling this demand, and they lick their chops when looking at the booming industry of leisure games. However, current toolkits for developing leisure games show severe shortcomings when applied…

Purpose: Today's technology supports the design of more and more sophisticated interactive learning environments. This paper aims to argue that such design should develop from first principles. Design/methodology/approach: In the paper by first principles is meant: learning theory and principles of course design. These principles are briefly…

Instructional design (ID) in its short life has been dominated by behaviourist approaches despite critique focusing on issues of practice as well as theory. Nonetheless, little research has addressed two fundamental questions: "What constitutes good instructional design?" and "How do instructional designers create good design?"…

This article describes the premises, principles, and processes for integrating TECH into instruction. TECH is an acronym designed for educators to more smoothly integrate technology into instructional activities. It includes four steps: (1) Target the students' needs and the learning outcome; (2) Examine the technology choices, then decide what to…

The ease and glamour of multimedia seem to be shifting the emphasis of such products from content to style. This paper considers the need for multimedia designers, whether professionals or students, to take seriously their intellectual responsibility. The interactive and non-linear nature of multimedia makes it a powerful tool. Rather than using…

States that document designers presenting procedural instructions can choose several formats: prose, table, logical tree, or flow chart. Suggests that instructions should allow users to reach the outcome without losing time. Discusses two formal methods that help determine which order is most efficient--that based on the selection principle, or…

This paper address three questions: (1) What is the nature of design? (2) How do skilled designers function? and (3) Can a theory of design be constructed which will allow novice and expert instructional designers to perform their tasks more efficiently and effectively? It begins by presenting two general theories of design: Simon's conception of…

Describes features that can increase quality of student interaction in computer based materials, with emphasis on interactive videodisc projects. The features discussed include nonlinear format, user-control options, feedback that ensures remediation, modular content organization, program flexibility to accommodate individual user needs, and…

Discusses how design projects can best be encountered through a designer approach that is inclusive of theoretical and practical knowledge as well as the capacity for pragmatic action. Highlights include design cultures and cultures of design; foundations of design; fundamental activities supported upon the foundations of design; and design…

This proposed study is to investigate the design and development process of electronic performance support systems (EPSSs). The primary purpose of this study is to help the EPSS designers by proposing a more effective and productive EPSS design and developmental model. By analyzing EPSS products and observing EPSS design projects, the research…

Design methodology (DM) is defined by the procedural path, expressed in design models, and techniques or methods used to untangle the various activities within a design model. Design education in universities is mainly based on descriptive design models. Much knowledge and organization have been built into DM to facilitate design teaching.…

Research was conducted upon relationships between students' conceptual level (CL) and form of course organization (high/low structure) as it affects student attainment of course objectives. In addition, feelings toward the training organization were observed. Synectics training was conducted in which thirty-six undergraduate teacher trainees were…

Discusses how operant conditioning has not brought instructional designers any closer to using feedback effectively in computer assisted instruction they design, defines and describes types of feedback, presents guidelines for effective feedback use, and suggests use of templates to bring instructional design to a sophisticated level of…