 Chapter VI Using Design Patterns to Support E-Learning Design Sherri S. Frizell Prairie View A&M University, USA Roland Hübscher Bentley College, USA Copyright © 2009, IGI Global, distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. AbstrAct Design patterns have received considerable attention for their potential as a means of capturing and sharing design knowledge. This chapter provides a review of design pattern research and usage within education and other disciplines, summarizes the reported benefts of the approach, and examines design patterns in relation to other approaches to supporting design. Building upon this work, it argues that design patterns can capture learning design knowledge from theories and best practices to support novices in effective e-learning design. This chapter describes the authors’ work on the development of designs patterns for e-learning. It concludes with a discussion of future research for educational uses of design patterns. IntroductIon The instructional design of e-learning course materials directly affects student learning out- comes, but research suggests that many of the instructors developing online courses have not received training in interaction or instructional design (Braxton, 2000; Clark, 1994; Tennyson & Elmore, 1995). Hirumi (2002) found that novice course designers fnd it diffcult to incorporate the types of meaningful interactions needed in online courses. Also, inexperienced educators can have diffculties in the application of learning theories to course design. According to Wilson (1997), theories are written as hard science, and novices require a different type of representa-