The design and development of a graduate course for offering via distance education: a descriptive case study

The offering of a course by distance education, whether new or existing, requires considerable course development activity, since the course should be in keeping with the particular advantages and limitations of the various distance education technologies. Hence, even in the case of the existing courses, major adaptations are frequently required. -- This case study describes the development of a graduate distance education course - L6521 Instructional Development. The course has been offered on campus as a required graduate course on three programs leading to the Master of Education degree. Because of increasing demands by students residing outside of St. John's, the decision was made to offer the course via distance education. -- In developing the course for distance technology, the core content remained essentially the same, with only minor changes made through the introduction of a new text and a revised student evaluation plan. Major changes were made in the instructional methodologies employed in the course. -- Based on research in the areas of instructional development and distance education, the course developers selected the audio-tutorial system of education developed by S.N. Postlethwait as the most appropriate instructional method for this course. The audio-tutorial system can incorporate a variety of media systems, including audiotape, print, and videotape, making it a very flexible system. -- This descriptive study focuses on the implementation of the course development process and presents, in brief descriptive terms, the materials developed by the course development team