Section 7: New Directions for Instructional Design and Technology

Five examples of distributed learning are:

The Kelley School of Business at Indiana University offers a MS in Finance, Global Supply Chain Management and Strategic Management; as well as, an MBA degree online. Kelley has also partnered with organizations such as General Motors, Ingersoll Rand, John Deere and LOGTECH to create custom MBA programs.

eLearners.com offers 4,201 online college degrees and degree programs in areas such as arts and religion, business and MBA, computers and I.T., education and teaching, health and medicine, science and engineering, social sciences, and trades and careers through more than 240 schools and universities.

ed2go.com offers online courses and career training programs through more than 2,000 colleges, universities, community based organizations, and other training markets. ed2go has over 100 online education programs in fields  such as Allied Health, Computer-Internet, Business, Technical and Construction.

Online learning is available at Nova Southeastern University where students can access classes online via WebCT. Online courses are available in the human services and education programs, school of business and entrepreneurship, and the graduate school of computer information sciences.

Collin College in Collin County Texas offers students the opportunity to earn a degree and take courses via distance learning in hybrid, blended or web formatted classes.

My college courses were taken so long ago that I am sure they all have been redesigned several times. I would, instead, like to take this opportunity to “redesign” a course I use to teach. The Gregg Reference Manual is a well-recognized manual for business writing, but has in the past only been available in printed form. For many, myself included, to stop the composing/editing process of a document to look up proper formatting or other information is annoying; therefore, I was excited to see that the eleventh edition of the Gregg Reference Manual will be available in an ebook format. If given the opportunity to teach this course again, I would definitely use the online version in my classroom. As far as teaching the course itself, the content of the course would remain the same, I would just incorporate the use of the online GRM blended in with the use of the printed manual to enhance the students’ understanding of how to use the Gregg Reference Manual. In the future, I would really like to see the online version of the Gregg Reference Manual become a part of word processing software packages; whereas, when one purchases a word processing package, the GRM subscription is included.

This video was created to walk students/trainees through the steps of setting up the address on a business envelope

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While this is not something that I do on a daily basis, I think the use of nanotechnology to create a hand-held/portable x-ray machine would be of great benefit to EMT/first responders in helping individuals who are severely injured. To be able to “view” internal injuries would help these first responders to be able to assess the severity of injury and provide the proper needed care sooner. Such a device could also be of benefit to veterinarians who work with large animals. When injured, large animals can almost be impossible to transport and the veterinarian must go to the animal. Such a device would help them to assess the animal’s condition as well.

I agree with the author that the broad and inclusive road is the best practice for instructional technology. While always keeping the goals of what is being taught at the forefront, to be able to think outside the box lends itself to creative thought which in turn can lead to new ideas that will support and/or improve instruction. Afterall, who would have thought 20 years ago that a cell phone would be capable of not only making a telephone call, but also be able to remind us of appointments, provide us with directions to our destination, and numberous other things had it not been for someone thinking broad and inclusively. Such thought took a small handy device and turned it into a tool that makes running a business from your hand a possibility, what could such thinking do in the world of instruction design.