Many institutions producing distance education courses employ teaching-learning specialists, who are most commonly known as instructional designers. The suitability of instructional design as a framework for educational development is questioned, since it is a prescriptive science and course design is an ill-defined problem. The designer-client relationship also implies a deficit assumption about academic staff. Action research is advanced as an alternative approach to educational development. It is argued that an important feature of course teams has been the critical discourse which is an integral part of action research. The Action Learning Project is used as an example of how the action research framework can be put into practice. The multi-faceted role of the 'critical friend' in supporting projects is described.
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