Online Instructional Design

 

A Model for Effective Online Instructional Design

 

From the past decades, online learning has been increasing its popularity globally due to its convenient and cheapest way of learning.  There is a strong need for a pedagogically effective instructional design model for online education to ensure that it helps learners to achieve specific objectives and outcomes. Online instructional design process allows to identify knowledge gaps which should be presented to the learners in more effective, relevant  and appealing ways. Instructional systematic models provide guidance for the structure and organization of a course design which will be beneficial for both learners and designers. Based on the analysis and background, instructional designers select the most relevant tools and strategies that suit the learners' needs in order to create more interactive learning experiences.

  There are some principles in the online instructional design model for designing and developing effective online courses.  Identify, Choose, Create, Engage and Evaluate (ICCEE) are major steps of effective model for online instructional design. These steps are followed in a sequential order or in circular order to meet the efficiency of designing in an online course.

Step 1: Identify

It is the initial process to design an online course which helps to identify the course format for online instructors to adopt for instruction. After a course first is set, an instructor moves to identify the instructional objectives and learners' needs. Then, there will be identification of the delivery system which medium or technology can be suitable for learners. After appropriate technologies have been identified, the instructor moves to identify the appropriate pedagogical strategies to make it student centered learning.

 Step 2: Choose

After identification of appropriate formats and elements for online instruction, instructors will choose a linear or nonlinear content to influence students' first impression on online classes and to access and navigate the course content.

Step 3: Create

In this step, an online instructor creates an intuitive course path to create instructional methods and materials for content presentation, assignment and assessment to create interactive and student supportive materials.

 Step 4: Engage

 To engage learners academically in an online class, online instructors should provide prompt feedback for students in their assignments and project performance and allow them to track their progress and keep on task.

Step 5: Evaluate

Final step evaluation should be done to evaluate students' performance periodically. It is also important to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional methods and materials by checking with the online students.