Abstract
M.Ed. (Media Studies)
Man's need for information is continually increasing and this need, in turn, presupposes continuing education and training (Freysen 1985:1). Further study, however, demands a high degree of motivation and self-discipline, and for that reason it is generally adults that register for such study, to update or broaden their knowledge.
Since most students are employed and cannot be traditional students at a residential university, they turn to distance education as a result of the possibilities it offers. As a result of the separation between the student and the lecturer particular use is made of the printed word, as well as broadcasting and telecommunication media. Traditional dialogue takes place in the form of correspondence through the post, and it is also dependent on the above communication media.
Among the problems that have been identified is the fact that most study packages have not been designed and compiled with the media in mind, and if various media are selected, this is done in a haphazard way. This study attempts to propose a procedure by which the lecturer can approach the design of multimedia study packages for distance education.
For the lecturer, as well as the student, audiovisual media offer better control over learning, and greater interaction with the learning content.
The student can revise, study and integrate the learning content at his leisure. In practice this means that audiovisual media should be more effectively used when planning instruction and learning (Bates, 1984:6).
The distance education situation is approached as a didactic situation and the mportance of various components of the study package as an instructional is shown. The importance of media selection in the compilation of the study package is indicated, and certain aspects of instructional design are discussed.
In this study an attempt has been made to show that instructional design is on the one hand a definite need, but on the other a definite possibility in distance education. Instructional design takes place in a systematic way by means of different procedures. During the design process a multimedia approach is followed in order to put together a multimedia study package which will put the student in a better position to learn.