Massive open online courses provide virtually unlimited numbers of learners with access to instructors and course materials from high-status institutions. These courses are technologically intensive in ways that traditional online courses are not, which invites an examination of how the work to create these new forms may or may not work within…

This study investigated outsourcing of the development of visual, animated and interactive learning objects for mathematics education by a Norwegian university to software vendors in China. It sought to understand the challenges in this outsourcing engagement and competences needed to meet the challenges. The authors tested outsourcing strategies…

At Aalborg University (AAU) we are known to work with problem-based learning (PBL) in a particular way designated "The Aalborg PBL model." In PBL the focus is on participant control, knowledge sharing, collaboration among participants, which makes it interesting to consider the integration of social media in the learning that takes…

The integration of concepts and contributions from learning theorists, media specialists, and teaching practitioners, optimized within a framework of selected system strategies derived from military management programs, can help resolve concerns for educational improvement and accountability and influence the utilization of technology enabling…

Discusses a need to develop and adopt a system of documentation that is an integral part of the instructional development process. (Author)

A look at the essential steps important for an instructional system to operate effectively. (HB)

A look at the U. S. Navy's development of a cost effective computer based instructional system. (Author/HB)

This digest reviews what instructional designers do, describes knowledge management, and indicates how knowledge management is influencing instructional design. The first section defines instructional design (ID) and briefly describes the ID process. The second section covers knowledge management (KM), including definitions of KM and systems,…

Author looks at programed learning and analyzes why he believes it has not been as sucessful an educational tool as many educators predicted. (HB)

Examines the methodological common denominator among several models for courseware development and discusses in detail both the design and the validation phases. Emphasizes the need for a systematic approach in which multiple authors' skills are exploited and the cost-benefit ratio is kept at an acceptable level. (AEF)

This paper is intended to provide the instructional technologist already possessing some understanding of expert systems with some insight into two of the many steps involved in the design and production of such systems: knowledge acquisition and knowledge structuring or representation. It is also intended to help technologists to see how they…

An overview and philosophical discussion of the current use of instructional technology in naval training. This essay focuses on the process of instructional development and establishes a parallel between the concepts of instructional systems development and general management theory. (VT)

In the context that a general systems approach to the development and maintenance of optimal learning conditions is a point of view rather than a doctrine, two empirical examples are given. To illustrate the desirability of the systems-like approach in studying the nature of learning, the organisms chosen were representative of two widely separate…