Instructional Design to Develop & Maintain Interactive Online Courses

The confluence of technology use for distance education and demand for relevant Web-based learning has challenged higher education institutions to quickly efficiently and effectively develop and maintain online courses. The Three-Phase Design Model (3PD) has been suggested as pertinent; however no research was available that investigates the use of the 3PD Model in higher education. A quantitative descriptive research was designed to determine the extent to which the components of the 3PD Model align with current instructional design practices in developing and maintaining interactive Web-based learning in higher education. Results for the Model''s components--interaction characteristics and procedures and practices--were overall favorable with frequent alignment. Data revealed the three most frequent roles were instructional designer faculty and online developer. This study detailed activities performed by the roles five instructional design model characteristics and 10 instructional design practices and procedures. The results could support an argument for a particular instructional design model with components of the 3PD Model.