Course developers have varying backgrounds, training, financial resources and administrative resources; therefore, many different methods are used to design distance education courses and programs.
In the text, the authors describe the Instructional Systems Design (ISD) process as a standard for distance education course design.
Instructional Systems Design utilizes a planned cyclical approach to developing a distance education course or program. There are five stages that the design team will follow. These stages are:
The stages tend to cycle so that continuous improvement can take place (Moore, 1996).
The systems approach as described by Moore and Kearsley is effective for an institution that has a team of experts as well as financial resources, but for many instructors, those resources are not available. Quite often the design of a distance education course is accomplished using the Author-Editor Model in which a two-person team develops the course. Following are resources that are available on-line to assist the instructor/course designer. These sites can be used by either model, but have been compiled specifically with the Author-Editor Team in mind.
http://www.gwu.edu/~etl/bou.html
The British Open University
This page contains an article by Beatriz Sandia. Ms. Sandia discusses
the processes that make the design of distance education programs at the
British Open University effective.
http://www.to.utwente.nl/ism/online95/campus/library/online94/chap10/chap10.htm
This page is a chapter of a book by Tim Remmers and Erwin Veugelers.
The chapter is titled "Organizational Aspects of Delivering an On-Line
Course, From the Institute's Point of View." The chapter discusses adaptation
of existing traditional courses to a distance education format.
http://www.geology.iupui.edu/labs/teachinglab/course.htm
This site contains a paper written by Pascal de Caprariis of the Department
of Geology at Indiana University-Purdue University. The paper is titled
"A Beginner's Guide to Course Design" and highlights points made at a workshop
on Distance Education in June, 1996 at the Center for Excellence in Teaching
at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
http://www.geology.iupui.edu/labs/teachinglab/medium.htm
This site contains a paper written by Pascal de Caprariis of the Department
of Geology at Indiana University-Purdue University. The paper is called
"The Medium is not the Message. The Method is the Message." He emphasizes
methods of teaching for distance and traditional education, while making
the point that "to a great extent the particular setting is not as important
as what you actually do in the class."
http://www.umuc.edu/iuc/cmc96/papers/downes/intro1.html
This site was part of the International University ConsortiumComputer-based
Conference held in the Fall of 1996. A paper presented at the conference
was titled, "Effective Interaction and Communication with Web Courses"
by Stephen Downes of Assiniboine Community College. In this paper he discusses
the subject of the "presentation/lecture" versus more student interaction
and active learning and its effect on distance learning.
http://www.pit.ktu.lt/HP/coper/kiev.new/cit/ap_ch2/ch2.htm
This site contains an Applied module for teachers. Chapter 2. Distance
course planning, as developed by Communication and Information Technologies.
The site is part of a course on distance education development.
http://www.itc.iastate.edu/instruct/homepage.html
This site contains the instructional technology center of Iowa State
University. The site contains useful information for distance education
designers including workshop information and assistance with course design,
development and troubleshooting.
http://vaughan.fac.unbc.ca/ctl/tow/design/
This site contains an on-line course titled "Teaching on the Web: Intro
to Web Course Design" as developed by Peter Thompson of the University
of North British Columbia. The site also has links to valuable resource
pages.
http://vaughan.fac.unbc.ca/ctl/tow/structure/heather.html
This site by Heather Zand, Nursing Program, of the University of North
British Columbia contains a paper titled, "Course Delivery on the Web."
The paper discusses "the basis of the approach taken in designing a course
for the Web and to assistance to those who wish guidance in designing their
own courses for the Web (Zand, 1998.)"
Moore, M. G. and Kearsley, G (1996). Distance Education: A Systems View. Chapters 7 and 8. California: Wadsworth.