Appropriate use of instructional design to maximize learning

Web based learning has been hailed as the delivery system of the new millennium. This chapter shares the experience of developing contents for the Web based Multimedia Learning System project at the Multimedia University, Malaysia. One of the important issues in integrating Web technology into classroom teaching is that the content needs to be created based upon some pedagogical principles. Instructional design principles need to be utilized in the development of Web sites for teaching and learning (Ritchie and Hoffman, 1996). The chapter describes the process of developing an instructional design guideline for use by lecturers to develop quality content to maximize online learning. It is hoped that with the guideline the process of developing courses online for the Multimedia University will be easier and more systematic. With the use of appropriate instructional design the online learning materials will be able to maximize student learning.