IDEAS: Instructional Design for Elearning ApproacheS

The educational blog site for instructional designers provides links and posting to a number of website, articles and insights on elearning strategies and instructional technology as designed by Ferdinand Krauss. This site examines research publication and trends in instructional design, as found in selected professional journals. Critical analysis was used to investigate documents , books and articles relating to key words such as, online learning, online teaching and instructional design, The site also talks of ‘teaching and learning’ in the following categories:

Categories
• Educational Technology
• Elearning Delivery Strategies
• Faculty Development
• Instructional Design
• Instructional Technology
• Learning Objects
• Teaching Online

From a review of instructional design theories, research, and practice, the author has created this blog. The site discusses instructional design tools and provides assessments on design, production, implementation, and evaluation. The site also identifies and catalogues existing documentation that can be used to facilitate students such as myself, in Instructional Design. The author was able create for me, a snapshot of the books that form the theoretical and practical foundation of the field of instructional design and elearning, through the references his cited.


The author offers reviews of articles, books and related subject matter in the categories identified above. He also provides additional references and sources where more information can be gathers. The reviews given are very insightful and thought provoking. Sources are appropriately cited to provide grounding for his comments which are freely given. As well, each writing gives a brief introduction which provides a summary of the article or book being discussed and his thought on the subject matter. The writings then goes on to develop those ideas and offers the reader further guidance. By the end of each blog section, I will have an idea of how to select the best information, which will help me focus on the most essential elements of a problem I am trying to solve.

The blogs being discussed teaches us how to grow and engage ourselves as teachers and learners existing in an online community. This site was an excellent introduction to me as a first time blog user in terms of providing the background, thought processes and ideas for just about every type of related to Instructional Design element you can imagine. When I apply this knowledge to my eLearning courses I am sure that I would be able to provide richer experiences to share.
I found that in reading the reviewed studies of instructional design theory, I was able to explore major trends in the fields as well as reflect on the suggested future directions posted by the author.

I read a number of the articles posted and found that the author was able to answer a number of questions I had regarding elearning. These questions included: (1) How do students learn in an online environment?; (2) What learning theories should I be guided by for online learning and teaching?; (3) What do my students need to learn and how do I present this information online?; (4) How do I plan their instruction?; (5) How do I deliver this instruction?; (6) How do I assess their learning?; and (7) How do I evaluate their learning process?


However, the site offers me the option of commenting but I wish that I could have also added postings so that I could have had more interaction with the author and the readers in a visible setting (not having to click on ‘comments’). The author does not seem to engage its readers as a community. Along with offering an improvement to current practices in Instructional Design and Elearning approaches, the goal of the author should also be to stimulate discussion among readers about the nature of the process of instructional design and elearning. As well, I believe that he could have shared more of his personal teaching and learning experiences in classroom practice with us. Finally, I felt that the authors' could have done more to stir discussion, controversy, and reflection among readers like myself, with him.