Instructional Design in Indian Higher Education: Status, Review, Challenges and Recommendations

General Overview

With the changing paradigms in teaching learning, we have witnessed a change in the role of teachers and learners depending upon formal education systems and open and flexible education systems. With Internet at the helm of affairs in the twenty-first century educational systems a learner is the pivot of the learning process. With education gearing up to meet the expectations of fourth industrial age revolution, a learner has a much more dynamic role in not only the learning, but in the assessment of learning too. Making provisions for reflective exercises, collaborative projects, semantic mapping, or portfolio development can easily be promoted through online technology in creating collaborative and socially inclusive instructional interventions. Not diminishing their values, however, a shift from previously dominant philosophies of behaviourism and cognitivism can be observed towards a more encompassing collaborativist and constructivist ideology.

Problem Statement

In the wake of digital initiatives of Govt of India, where UGC has allowed launching of online courses and Govt of India promoting creating courses on MOOC platform SWAYAM, it is pertinent to examine the instructional design approaches adopted by Indian Higher Education Institutions.

The study would contribute to examine the participation of learners of these digital media and address the causes of drop-outs from courses if that is due to instructional design issues. This study would further bring out recommendations on best practices on instructional design strategies.

Research Objectives

	To examine the status of LMS used by faculty and students in Indian Higher Education Institutions.
	To identify the models of instructional design being used by higher education institutions.
	To investigate the reasons for offering or not offering MOOCs on SWAYAM
	To examine the processes for course planning, designing, production, delivery, assessment, support and credentials or accreditation.
	To identify the means and mechanisms of assessment and feedback to learners.
	To identify kinds of media adopted by faculty for course design and delivery.
	To create demographic profile of instructional designers in Indian Higher Education Institutions.
	To record the experiences of instructional designers for effective instructional design of courses

Current Status