Instructional Design: A Critical Ingredient in the Distance Education Soup

Instructional design is a critical factor in a successful distance education environment. An efficient design analyzes audience and needs, creates learning goals/objectives, develops materials, methods and media for content delivery, and plans for evaluation and feedback. Design implementation requires certain instructional criteria: (1) competent, skilled faculty; (2) meaningful interaction among instructors, staff, and students; (3) well-organized and accessible support materials; (4) effective collaboration among instructors, program planners, and instructional designers; (5) multimedia integration with lessons; and (6) instructor responsiveness to student needs. Through question/answer strategies, group work, familiarity with the technological environment, and portfolio assessment, a design can combine content, interaction, and student evaluation, effectively achieving the educational goals of distance learning. (Contains 24 references.) (YKH)