What is VID?

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The Virtual Instructional Designer (VID) is a Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnership (LAAP) grant-funded project to create a Web-based performance tool for post-secondary faculty designing Web-based distance courses. The three-year grant began in August 1999.

The purpose of the VID is to provide 24/7 desktop access for faculty to instructional design assistance on the process of developing online instruction or courses.

It will do this with:

• Up-to-date content based on the experiences of online instructors and students, as well as faculty development staff.
• Current research on best practices for online teaching and learning.
• Tutorials offering skills instruction for different levels of expertise.
• Quality guidelines for Internet courses, online instruction, and Web page design.

• A Faculty Needs and Skills Survey that generates a customized learning plan called the VID Plan. The VID Plan is a Web page of links to specific areas of interest for the instructor's course design.
• The Notes feature allows instructors to keep track of ideas, questions, and concerns they might have about online instruction while using the VID.
• The pop-up Glossary window helps faculty find the meaning of terms in VID content without leaving the page.

Traditionally, when an instructor sets out to design Web-based instruction, s/he consults with faculty development staff on issues concerning online pedagogy, instructional design, media and technology choices, and course development and delivery assistance.

However, as the need for Internet distance learning grows, the time of instructional support staff has become increasingly strained as they attempt to provide faculty individual assistance.

The VID attempts to ease this strain by offering the expertise of instructional designers in a low-cost, readily accessible, just-in-time solution.