Designing Instruction

Distance education made its beginnings with struggle, with negativities, with doubts. Distance educators were seen engaged in a battle on all fronts: lack of recognition, lack of facilities, lack of infrastructure and tools. Time flies. Media and the Internet have changed the face of information dissemination. Distance is now measured in bytes rather than in metres and feet. In the words of Friedman, the world has become ¿flat¿. There will be more changes and transformations. Information will flow in ways that we have never imagined. Our learners will get greater opportunities of cognition and understanding as their personal worlds interact with the explosion of knowledge and information. Contrary to popular beliefs, the role of educators will become much more crucial than ever. The new information will have to be shaped to suit the new knowledge gateways. There is no more opportune time than the present to rethink the designing of instruction, to sharpen the design tools, and to redefine the age-old concepts of systems approach. In this book we undertake a modest journey in this direction of redefining, transforming, and rethinking.