Transforming higher education : reconceptualising the instructional design model for the knowledge society

Higher education in the new millennium faces several major challenges. Along with an increased demand for a tertiary educated workforce, both the state and the student are demanding that the cost of this education be minimised. We are also faced with a demand for flexible learning from an increasingly mature age, part-time and off-campus student population. Elsewhere (Somasundaram, Bowser & Danaher, 2006), the authors have proposed three concepts as pivotal to achieving a society of lifelong learners: learning relationships; systematic learning; and learning resources and tools. Here we elaborate our conceptualisation and possible applications of systematic learning in promoting the concerns and interests of the contemporary knowledge society. Applying the principles of systems thinking (Gharajedaghi, 1999; Senge, 1990), the authors synthesise a process model of systematic learning taken from instructional design (e.g., Dick, Carey & Carey, 2005; Shambaugh & Magliaro, 2006). The synthesis adds two important elements not included in most theoretical instructional design models: accreditation and maintenance. An economic analysis of the synthesised model illuminates the constraints on transforming our higher education system caused by the scarcity of particular resources. A comparative case study of two methods of learning and achieving accreditation in accountancy simultaneously tests and illustrates the model. The authors contend that these resources need not be scarce and suggest how these bottlenecks can be disbanded. The paper elaborates on the solutions proposed by this analysis, which suggests answers to some of the challenges facing the transformation of higher education and the global knowledge society in the 21st century.