A COMPARISON: The comprehensive instructional design & development services offered through our unit of the Institute for Teaching and Learning is probably best understood through a comparison. Often, instructional design offered through other institutions consists of a module design for a part or parts of a course or simply technology consulting. What is referred to as I.D. (Instructional Design) is frequently in reality I.T. (Instructional Technology). In this I.T. model, the process pursued is one where a faculty request is handed off to an I.T. person who in turn creates a module which is then delivered to the faculty who made the request.

THE PROCESS: Our comprehensive instructional design & development service is considerably different. Comparatively, we engage the faculty in course redesign using a student-centered learning approach as a vehicle for them to learn about instructional design. While the redesigned course is often the goal of the faculty, our goal is the process. Faculty who have undergone this process, in addition to having a redesigned course that addresses evolving pedagogical issues (e.g. student-centered learning, multiple learning styles, information literacy and responsible inclusion of technology), possess those instructional design skills necessary to maintain any shifts in their courses, defend their courses in terms of those evolving pedagogical issues, as well as transfer those skills to other courses for which they are responsible.

Because our motto is "I.D. before I.T.," we do not design for a specific mode of delivery. Rather, the courses we redesign can be delivered, with minor adjustment, at any point of the face-to-face to pure distance continuum.