Similarly, we cannot design a course without taking into account the computer knowledge, skills, and abilities of the faculty member with whom the course is being developed, and who is ultimately going to teach it and maintain it. As faculty members gain facility with particular technologies, their increased expertise informs the developing course, and as the course is developed, its form can challenge faculty to rethink issues of pedagogy and delivery in response to the asynchronous medium. Often, because of the press to produce courses, development gets shortchanged. This is a bad bargain because careful attention to development can shorten the course production process in the long run. We expect that people's knowledge, skills, and abilities will develop in fits and starts, that one size does not fit all.
People come to the process with varying degrees of knowledge, skills, and abilities.
It is the task of the instructional developers to help faculty develop a course which is a comfortable fit between their needs and interests, their pedagogical goals, available course-creation tools, and their skills and abilities. Development is a social process . I like to think of the Zone of Proximal Development as describing the difference between what I can do by myself and what I can do with a little help from my friends. The goal of this work is to develop a community of technology users and learners, and to create a climate where it is easy to work with technology because ideas abound. Development is a constructive process .