Webinar on "Instructional Design for Online Courses"

Guided by CEMCA’s Strategic Plan with its focus on Learning for Sustainable Development and the emerging opportunities and challenges in online learning as emphasised by Governments across Commonwealth Asia, CEMCA organised a webinar on “Instructional Design for Online Courses” on 28 January 2022. Instructional design for online courses plays a vital role in online course development. The webinar on this topic was significant in this regard.

The webinar commenced with an introduction and background by Dr. Shiffon Chatterjee, Senior Programme Officer, CEMCA. Professor Madhu Parhar, Director CEMCA, was then invited for the Welcome Address and release of the CEMCA “Handbook on Online Education in Commonwealth Asia” edited by Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, Senior Programme Officer, CEMCA and Dr. Phalachandra Bhandigadi, who has served as Professor of Education at Wawasan Open University Penang, Malaysia, and NCERT, India.

The webinar was chaired by Professor Nageshwar Rao, Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. Professor Rao, in his opening remarks, appreciated the Handbook and discussed online education practices in India.

Professor Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General, Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi, India took the audience through the journey of SWAYAM - the online learning platform initiated by the Govt. of India to promote access, equity, and quality of education. She highlighted the need to improve completion rates in MOOCs and emphasised the role of creating engaging content and adhering to instructional design best practices in this regard.

Prof. Devendra Kodwani, Professor of Financial Management and Corporate Governance, Executive Dean Faculty of Business and Law at The Open University UK learning, spoke of online courses and the future of higher education, particularly how online course delivery would be influenced by choices of the online course provider and the learner. He discussed learning outcomes, activities, and assessment within the framework for Instructional Design and emphasised upon the need to include higher-order outcomes for greater engagement in learning. An interesting Q&A session was held, followed by the closing remarks by the Chair.

More than 100 participants from Commonwealth Asia attended the webinar for knowledge sharing in online course development and instructional design.