The innovative applications that are blossoming in the fertile field of the World-Wide Web are poised to transform teaching and learning. This transformation will deeply impact pedagogy and scholarship. Instructional design is how pedagogy moves from theory to practice; it is a component of the Office of Information Technology's (OIT) support and promotion of this educational transformation.

OIT offers instructional design services, and has hired Instructional Designers to begin working with faculty to transfer their classes onto Web based platforms.

We have several levels of instructional design support:

• Staff support is available to help instructors with the mechanics of preparing IT-based materials.
• Special training sessions will be available for teaching assistants.
• Classes in the Institute for Instructional Technology can present some concepts and examples of successful course or module design, use of classroom facilities, and use of technology. An associated workshop can help faculty develop modules with guidance from designers and experienced faculty.
• One-on-one consulting sessions will be arranged between an instructor and an instructional designer to address specific goals. These sessions could involve review of a class Web or WebCT site and/or videotaped class sessions.
• Special projects where teams are formed — a faculty member, an instructional designer, and a student employee — to analyze a problem or need, develop an approach to address it, and create a result.

  The instructional landscape at the university has changed dramatically over the last decade. Emphasis has been placed on improving instruction, and at the same time, a variety of new resouces, such as the World-Wide Web and high-tech classrooms, have emerged, giving faculty and students access to a broader range of teaching and learning strategies.

  As more and more faculty engage in instructional improvement activities, they find that they must rethink every aspect of how they organize their courses, from the scope and sequence of the content to the types of learning activities and delivery systems. This is often a daunting task since most faculty have little training in designing and developing instruction or in using technology. Providing instructional developers to facilitate this process can have a major impact on the quality of instruction at the University of Maryland.

• Institute for Instructional Technology - A program which offers faculty training to help them transfer classes to the Web. This program also addresses pedagogical issues.