Abstract

Teachers who develop Web-based courses must learn to act like designers; however, the type of design practice one undertakes has more than pedagogical implications. It can have political and ethical implications as well. In this article, I compare two models for design—systems and user-centered—each of which embodies different values. I argue that models of technology design can be applied to the development of Web-based courses and that various forms of user-centered design embody the values most compatible with writing instruction. While acknowledging the difficulties of enacting such models when developing Web-based courses, I present strategies for adopting a user-centered design paradigm in distance learning.

Citation

Blythe, S. (2001). Designing online courses: user-centered practices. Computers and Composition, 18(4), 329-346. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved June 8, 2023 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/92697/.

Keywords

• Course Content
• course design
• curriculum design
• distance education
• distance learning
• Educational Strategies
• higher education
• internet
• participation
• student participation
• User Friendly Interface
• user-centered design
• World Wide Web
• Writing Instruction