The provision of online learning is increasing almost exponentially, with both established and emerging educational institutions creating new and revised courses to meet the needs of students demanding flexible access and delivery. However, the staff recruited to support this development often does not have the design skills or experience to generate courses that bear the hallmarks of effective online learning experiences. While the principles associated with the practice of instructional design provided pedagogical guidance for these design efforts, it remains commonplace for courses to present as little more than information delivery with no clear strategies for student engagement and interaction. The purpose of this book is to expand on the design concepts documented by the lead author and to present both a design framework and design strategies that will allow organisations to provide courses that embed the affordances of the online, social environment and maximize opportunities for engagement and learning in formal learning contexts. The authors contend that to truly achieve the potential of learning in an online environment, designers need to be alchemists - ensuring the current face-to-face classroom "gold" is not turned to lead and to transform those "leaden" online courses that do not engage or provide interaction into motivating and engaging "golden" learning experiences.
