The Design, Development, and Deployment of an Online, Portable, Blended Course for the Energy Industry Using Open-source Tools: Technological, Logistic, and Instructional Design Issues

More and more often we learn of new courses or entire academic programs being brought online. While technologies have advanced in recent years, the question of how to blend computer technology with sound instructional design practices is very much alive and may be even more important when targeting content portability. This paper explores the challenges faced when using open-source applications to design, develop, and deploy the online component of an introductory course for the energy industry when the primary objectives are outreach, access, portability of content, and ease of future updates.