Hybrid/Blended/Online CourseDesign

Do the selected theories and models have fundamental underlying principles in common? According to this paper, a principle is a relationship that is always true under appropriate conditions regardless of practice (a specific instructional activity) or program (an approach consisting of a set of prescribed practices).

Five first principles emerged from Merrill’s research (2002). He constructed these into phases of effective instruction (see Figure 1).

The use of the first principles is meant to be prescriptive and applicable to any learning practice or program. For your eLearning design and development, ask yourself the associated design questions and include these phases of effective instruction. Being problem or task focused is the central principle and should be the starting point for all design efforts.