Since then the course has been offered four times to over 120 graduate students, some as far away as the Northwest Territories. Instructional Development has been offered by the School of Graduate Studies at Memorial University through the Faculty of Education for approximately 20 years. It is a required course in three programs leading to a Master of Education degree and one prog ram leading to a Master of Nursing degree. It is also an approved elective in a number of other M. Ed. There has been a significant increase in graduate student enrolment in the Faculty of Education over the past decade.
Many graduate students complete their degree programs on a part-time basis.
The increase in the number of part-time students has led to a growing demand for evening and summer sections of the course. These factors, coupled with the need to provide courses to those graduate students residing beyond driving range of the University and a more liberal attitude towards distance education by the University's School of Graduate Studies, prompted the faculty to offer the course via distance technology. To design the course for presentation via distance methods, an instructional development team was formed. The instructional development team selected the audio-tutorial system of instruction developed by Postlethwait in the early 1960s.