Design methods for ICT-supported courses: A literature review

In engineering education research, many methods have been presented to support curriculum design. Courses, however, need to be designed as well. While designing a course, attention must be paid to the subject matter, pedagogical aspects and technological factors, for example. New teaching technologies further widen the potential solution space. This results in a complex design challenge for the teacher. The teacher's ability to design the courses has a direct impact on how successful learning will be. The purpose of this literature review is to clarify what methods currently exist for the systematic design of courses in engineering education. We focus on the following research questions: 1) What methods, tools and processes currently exist to support the design of courses? 2) What are the key concepts, models or theories they are based on? 3) What is the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in these methods? The literature review shows general instructions, with central affecting factors, are available. Current approaches present some aspects-for example, student motivational factors or the role of teacher instructional skills. However, the systematic or more holistic method, which supports a study module design including ICT aspects, is not currently available. This study's results contribute to an educational design research project that is aimed at developing a systematic design method for ICT-supported courses within the engineering education context.