In this website we present the book The art and craft of course design written by Tony Earl. `We` are some of the students who learned from him how to design a course in higher education.

Tony Earl has written his book 27 years ago. Why do we think it is meaningful to publish his book on Internet?
One of the reviewers of Tony’s book at  the time of publishing, gave this clear remark:

• On course development  a  lot has already been  written. For example Reigeluth and other instructional experts have published some excellent and very useful books about Instructional Theory (1, 2). They describe in detail the principles you have to take into account if you want to use an educational method or to achieve certain types of learning objectives.
• The principles are based on the available results of research, but these experts state explicitly that these principles are situation related. The application of a principle depends on the context. Following a principle is no guarantee for success. But how do you apply these principles in your situation? This is the area of instructional design theory. The main lines are described very well by Reigeluth and his colleagues but the details you need as an educational design practitioner are not available.
• Tony Earl has developed and described his approach of educational design. Designing is described as a process of art and craftsmanship
• Today, the need for effective, efficient, valued and well liked courses in higher education is growing. More students have to follow higher education in a shorter period and the use of ICT in education asks for well-designed courses. As far as we know another book on instructional design like the book of Tony Earl has  not been  published. We think that the design ideas of Tony Earl will help to realize courses of higher quality.  Therefore we like to publish The art and craft of course design again, but now on internet.

The book reflects what Tony Earl was able to do. So in the website you can read his story. You have to consider that he was a typical Englishman. With a lot of English humour. He is using this in his design approach. He forces you to think out of the box with the help of some crazy ideas like the think tank and the melody of a course. In his workshop and in his projects he succeeded in convincing 75% of the teachers of his ideas. We learned from him how to design a course in higher education but, honestly, to be able do what Tony himself did is for most people impossible. We cannot copy him, but he offers us some excellent ideas.