Curriculum and Instructional Resources
Designing Learning Activities
This page includes resources on designing learning activities, focusing especially on the types of activities that work well in Web-based and Web-enhanced courses.
First Principles of Instruction
Created by David Merrill of Utah State University and Brigham-Young University, the first principles of instruction are based on a review of the common elements from multiple problem-focused and inquiry-oriented instructional strategies.
- Original article on First Principles of Instruction
- Presentation on using the first principles to evaluate your own instruction: Does Your Instruction Rate Five Stars?
WebQuests
The WebQuest is a problem-focused instructional strategy first developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University. WebQuest.org describes WebQuests as "an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the Web." The strategy is used with a variety of students, including adult and university students.
The WebQuests.org site includes a variety of resources:
- Creating WebQuests covers the elements of a WebQuest as well as tools for helping you write WebQuests.
- Useful Resources includes links to articles and sites that further explore WebQuests and a page of research resources.
Journals