DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION FACULTY
Abstract
This paper reports the current findings in literature on the impact of instructional technologies on teaching and learning environments pertaining higher education institutions. This study investigates the instructional design strategies in terms of (1) the scope of change in design strategies as a result of current school reform in the United States (2) impact of instructional technologies on teaching and learning, (3) evolving roles of teachers and learners within these new environments, (4) new networked technologies available for teaching, and (5) implications for changes in instructional strategies. The paper also brings two models of instructional technology integration (Harris’ genres of telecollaborative activity structures and Tomei’s Taxonomy of Instructional Technologies) for higher education faculty who are interested in applying learner-centered design principles. As this paper is an interactive document taking advantage of the full range of hyperlinks, it is recommended to be viewed to online.
Higher education institutions are undergoing substantial changes as a result of education reform that is taking place at schools. Universities are making the shift from face-to-face print only delivery to digital delivery in both traditional face-to-face and online courses. Coupled with socio-economic and pedagogical changes over the last decade, higher education faculty has become increasingly responsive to creating flexible technology-supported teaching and learning environments. In this growing demand, higher education faculty has begun to integrate instructional technologies into their existing course design. The paper investigates the instructional design strategies in terms of (1) the scope of change in design strategies as a result of school reform (2) impact of instructional technologies on teaching and learning, (3) evolving roles of teachers and learners within these new environments, (4) new networked technologies available for teaching, and (5) implications for changes in instructional strategies used by faculty in higher education.