How to use this Guide
The Guide can be used in a number of ways:
- As a planning tool or iterative process guide to assist educators/designers to design a course or develop materials. At the end of each section there is a set of design review questions to help in this regard.
- As a collection of learning resources related to various aspects of course design and materials development.
- As a just-in-time learning design resource relating to a specific section or particular concepts.
Before you look at the Course Design and Materials Development sections of the Guide (sections 2 and 3 respectively), you may wish to consider how Open Learning, Open Educational Resources (OER) and the Use of Technology to Support Teaching and Learning apply to both course and materials design and development. Additionally, we have grouped a selection of Essential Resources contained in this Guide that may be useful.
Design Review Questions
You might want to think about these questions as a form of reflection:
- How open is your course and what determines the openness?
- How can you make your course more open?
- Have you chosen an appropriate mode for the delivery of your course? Think about educator and learner profiles, institutional context, available resources and technology, and costs.
- How viable is it for you to incorporate OER into your course?
- What educator values or skills are the same irrespective of the mode of delivery?
- Are the characteristics of technology-supported teaching and learning different from the characteristics of print-based environments?