Developed as one of the resources within the context of the OECD /Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI)ERI project entitled "Fostering and assessing students' creative and critical thinking skills in higher education", this paper focuses on ways in which students' creativity and critical thinking can be fostered in higher…

The role of educational developers has transitioned from the periphery to the centre of the higher education landscape as these practitioners are working to build capacity in teaching and learning. Yet, little is understood about educational developers themselves, and in particular, how learning theories inform their practice. In a qualitative…

This paper offers an emerging interpretive framework for understanding the active role instructional designers play in the transformation of learning systems in higher education. A 3-year study of instructional designers in Canadian universities revealed how, through reflexive critical practice, designers are active, moral, political, and…

The focus of this paper is the curriculum development process that led to the intentional integration of knowledge, skills, and values in every course at a newly created institution, the University of Guelph-Humber (G-H). Among the many unique features of G-H, the integration of theory and practice in each course is one of the most important. The…

Instructional development, a systematic way of applying standards of critical thought to the design of instructional materials and programs, is advocated for its potential contribution to consistency of instructional purposes and actions, adaptability, and internal accountability. Steps in the systematic method, the evaluation problem, and choice…

This proceedings provides the texts of opening remarks, the official welcome, and 37 papers presented at an international symposium on the theme, "Computer Conferencing: Allied Technologies and New Applications." The papers are divided into seven categories: (1) Distance and Adult Education; (2) Socio-Psychological Issues; (3) Computer…

Students taking university-level courses through distance education have special needs, primarily because of their isolation from immediate contacts with instructors and special facilities. Developing instructional methods to meet these needs is important if the quality of distance education is to be high. Schools established solely to provide…

This document presents the first phase of a province-wide study which explored the knowledge and use of instructional development on the part of teacher-librarians in the formal school system. The instrument was a written questionnaire with three sections. Seventeen specific instructional development tasks and/or competency areas were derived from…

The Workshop on Instructional Development was one of a number of workshops organized on various issues concerning teaching and learning in the Ontario universities. It was held in an attempt to provide some exchange of information among the Ontario universities on the organized activities initiated on their campuses concerned with improving…

Focusing on the role of the educational developer, the 19 essays in this collection provide a forum for educational developer practitioners: (1) to share their practices and insights; (2) to explore what it means to be an educational developer and instructional designer, and to give some philosophical reflection of the role; and (3) to clarify the…

The 35 papers included in these proceedings report on innovative approaches to teaching used by faculty members at Ontario's technical colleges and universities. Included in this collection are papers on optimum instructional methods using microcomputers, teaching French conversational classes through drama, competencies for the educational…

Discussion of the growth of telecommunications initiatives in high school instruction in Canada focuses on the Distance Learning in Small Schools pilot project in Alberta. Topics addressed include delivery systems models, teacher response, staffing, concerns about loss of interaction and feedback, design of distance education materials, approaches…

A 17-week professional experience program was undertaken to enable a college professor to: (1) attend and present a paper at the 14th World Conference of the International Council for Distance Education (ICDE) in Oslo, Norway, in December 1988; (2) gain first hand information about innovations in the use of telecommunications in the delivery of…

The purpose of this article is to provide a critical review of the motivating factors, processes and outcomes pertaining to learning-centred curriculum reform in higher education. A case study example is provided from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia. Although academic units on university campuses tend…

Discusses use of computer graphics to enhance instruction presented via audio-teleconferencing in University of Calgary distance education courses. System design is reviewed; instructional roles of the graphics utilized are discussed; and development of two inservice teacher education courses used to assess the system's effectiveness is described.…