Abstract:

The University of the South Pacific (USP) is owned by 12 member countries in the Oceania region which serves more than 20,000 students. Like many other higher education institutions, USP has Instructional Designers (IDs) who are housed at the Centre for Flexible Learning (CFL) to design and develop flexible learning (FL) courses. Due to the growing demand of meeting the quality standards for FL materials and growing competition from other universities, the Instructional Designers at CFL collectively planned and submitted its training materials to the International Board of Standard for Training, Performance and Instruction (IBSTPI) for recognition.

Having standards is vital. The world of educational technology is moving towards standards which points to the need for implementing standards in the work that we do for our clients as instructional designers. This paper tries to address the following questions:
• What were the processes involved?
• What was the outcome?
• What are the benefits of acquiring quality standards?

This paper will discuss the methods employed to plan and prepare the submission to attain IBSTPI recognition. It will also discuss the challenges and benefits of going through the rigorous process. It will conclude with a focus on future plans following the attainment of the IBSTPI recognition.