Curriculum, instructional design and the technologies: Planning for educational delivery

Abstract

There has been a tendency in the past for people to see curriculum development, instructional design and the technologies used for educational delivery as three different, but complete, approaches to the output of learning materials. At times there has been inadequate communication and even antagonism between the practitioners of the different fields. Each field views its own expertise as all encompassing and able to perform all that is required in the production of educational programs and materials. This paper examines these three areas of expertise, describing their backgrounds, analysing the different types of responsibilities and looking for definable interfaces between them. It presents a layered model, wherein each layer has an interrelating place as part of a holistic approach to the production of good educational materials. Examples are given to illustrate the requirements, limitations and opportunities offered by each layer of the model to those above and below it.