Michigan Virtual University has developed a set of standards for designing and developing online courses. They have made the standards 'open source' including a downloaded Course Evaluator.

Their philosophy of design, as stated on their web site is:

Instruction is as much science as it is art. As such, we believe that rigor can be applied to the ID process to produce consistently effective materials (Merrill, Drake, Lacy and Pratt, 1997).

The application of ID, referred to as Instructional Technology, is rigorous and takes time to complete. This requires more planning, preparation and effort for designers. However, when applied, produce more efficient, effective and appealing instruction for the learner.

All of our standards are based on ID principles and not specific practices. Principles such as active engagement of the learner, appropriate practice and feedback, evaluation, establishment of goals and objectives, and mapping to real world performance are all vital to our process (Yelon and Berge, 1988; Yelon, 1996).

We also believe that the technological learning environment should be as 'transparent' as possible. In other words, navigation, layout, access and speed should be designed in such a way that the learner can concentrate on the material instead of worrying about the delivery vehicle, thus reducing anxiety and increasing learning.

Real learning is measurable and must be measured. All online instruction activities should be tested to find out if they are effective. Though helpful, we believe that evaluations should go beyond "did you like the course?" to "what did you score on the evaluation that determines whether you learned something?"

The OID standards themselves are divided into Technology, Usability, and Instructional Design categories.