Using an Eclectic Approach to Design Curriculum Instruction in an Online Environment

Background

Pribadi and Chung (2022) explicated the use of online instructional learning has become extremely important for many institutions in higher education. It is also noted that educators must adopt new ways of teaching which can help their students to learn. Learning through technology makes the schools to become interactive and changing the traditional nature of learning. Designing online instructions means that educators have the potential to deliver lessons in a multimedia format. The explosion in the use of technology means that the instructional design must be responsive to the needs of the students.

Existing literature on instructional design highlights the pre-eminence of learning objectives as a starting point (Konstantinidou & Nisiforou, 2022; Richardson et al., 2015; McGahan, 2018). Mohdavinasab and Sadipour (2019) explicated that instructional design is very important and it has to be done in line with instructional objectives. The same authors adds that instructional design refers to “ thinking, or setting of mental theory, drawing,designing a draft of a map,preparing a work plan for obtaining what has been arranged” (Mohdavinasab & Sadipour, 2019, p. 11). The comment shows that instructional design using objectives model is seen providing a model for planning instruction that is fixed.

The use of instructional objectives has a long history that can be traced to the 1918 in the work of Bobbit. Ornstein and Hunkins (2018) averred that Franklin Bobbitt (1876-1956) influenced by concepts of efficients in industry introduced the learning objectives for the purpose of improving efficiency in learning. Bobbit compiled a book that was titled the Curriculum as a Science which was followed by another book titled Curriculum Construction which had a wide range of objectives covering numerous spheres of life. This evolving area of curriculum was also associated with behavioral sciences and curriculum design as a technical and neutral process (Posner, 2004).

Ralph Tyler (1902) developed ideas on curriculum building on the concepts of objectives and he wrote a book in 1949 titled Basic Principles of Curriculum Instruction. In his approach to curriculum instruction Tyler posed a number of questions such as:

• 1 What educational goals should the school seek to realise?

  • 2.

    What educational experiences do we structure to realise those goals?

  • 3.

    How can the learning experiences be efficaciously organised?

  • 4.

    How can we tell if the learning goals of the schools are being realised? (Ornstein & Hunkins, 2018, p. 101).