Also, as new tools come on the market, be they social networking, productivity or utility tools, these can be accommodated in the existing design with minimal disruption.
In addition, as class sizes grow, students are increasingly expected to be participants in conducting courses in ways that cannot be anticipated during the “development” phase as articulated by traditional models. Class participants can nominate digital tools that they prefer when working with their peers, for reporting and discussing topics and issues. (6) The digital nature of the tools, while not necessarily integrated directly into the course platform, can work in parallel. This model of course development allows for high levels of participant connectivity because it embraces a digital platform for course coordination, but also because it allows for frequent reflection and readjustment based on user feedback and developer evaluation.
The Development ModelThe model below contains phases of analysis, development, deployment and evaluation, as all instructional designers would encourage, but the phases do not necessarily follow the sequence previously suggested, while they also often overlap. These processes are mediated through a series of specific activities, a consequence of the new development tools at our disposal.
The steps described below outline the activities within a typical development cycle (see Figure 1) and also the pacing of subsequent development phases (see Figure 2):
- Having multiple channels of communication within a course has become a feature of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and encourages course designers to embrace a decentralised model of class coordination. Read more at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course
