Running wholly online programmes has its own challenges for learners and teachers. Online learning offers flexibility in when to engage with it, and attendance in a timetabled class is not a requirement for successful completion. But for some this can be a challenging because it asks learners to...

Digital note-taking tools exist to cover all of the situations when what you need is a platform for informal rough working: planning, preparing and structuring a task; making sketches and diagrams. They are the digital equivalents of the back of an envelope or a blank sheet of paper, but they...

Hashtags have become one of the most useful ways of finding and contributing to communities of practice. This module looks at what they are, how to use them and some sector groups clustered around particular hashtags.

Adopting digital technologies to collaborate and share practice beyond your own institution will enable you to: - find out what colleagues in other organisation's in the sector are doing in their teaching. - share, adapt and adopt good practice and learning objects and resources more...

The goal and measure of successful innovation must always be that each individual teacher can work with their learners in new ways to achieve better outcomes. This module looks at the part to be played by teachers in implementing such innovation and innovative practice.

This module looks at ways to deal with technical problems that emerge while teaching. Technical problems can happen at awkward moments in a session. There are some quick and simple ways to try to resolve them, but if these don’t work then teachers can turn the situation into pedagogical...

This module looks at adapting and editing existing learning materials, your own or resources you found online, for a different learning purpose. Creating new resources from old can extend the life of learning materials and is a time-efficient approach to meeting the needs of different learners.

Knowing how to choose the right tool or app for a task is a key skill for life and work. It requires more than understanding the broad purpose and technical capabilities of tools and packages. It calls on a learner’s ability to analyse a problem, plan an activity, monitor progress and...

Confidence in your digital practice comes from success: success in improving your teaching and learning rather than being good with gadgets. This requires the capacity for personal critical reflection and a means to share what you did with colleagues, at your workplace and in wider...

Homework traditionally follows classwork: a teacher introduces the subject matter then homework reinforces the learning. Now that facts and information are just a quick search away, learners need to know more than ever how to evaluate, understand and apply information. Flipped learning...

Our online identities are the keys that unlock personal, social and commercial accounts and transactions. They create portraits of ourselves that others can access and by which they will judge us - as friends, colleagues, and potential employees. We explored the importance of a digital...

Each time we contribute to the web, in public spaces and in private spaces we share, we leave a trail for others to find. The modules Digital well-being for all (Part 1) and Digital well-being for all (Part 2) explored how this is done and how we might manage it for the best outcomes. In...

When we go online we build up, piece by piece, online identities that can have positive and negative outcomes for our well-being, our sense of self-worth and for our future prospects, all based on how others react and respond to our activity. Each time we contribute to the web, we add to an...

The best basis for improving practice is evidence from research. This often just confirms our own experience. This module looks at metacognitive strategies and considers how technology might support their introduction into learning.

We all have a preferred set of tools, apps and software that we use for teaching and learning. Making sure you know how to use this to the best of its ability is the first step to effective teaching and learning with technology. Then, it’s time to extend your range. There are countless...

Producing effective online learning activities takes time, effort and creativity. This module looks at the process of creating learning resources with the intention that they are shareable resources; making them available to others, driving the concept of collaborative creation in your own...

Rather than faithfully represent an online version of a standard course, Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) enable you to add extra features and offer learners: - flexibility in engaging with learning material, - an opportunity to repeat a learning activity for reinforcement, and - a...

The diversity of learners extends to differences in their levels of digital skills, experience and confidence. This module looks at ways to ensure that our teaching does not disadvantage those with existing low levels of digital skills.

Digital technologies have a particular value in their ability to be shared over distance and then viewed and worked on at different times. This allows content and resources to be adapted, improved, questioned, have examples added, have gaps and other incompletions filled, and so on, completed...

This module follows business tutor Alicja and her colleagues as they apply the innovation matrix and the SAMR model to find innovative ways to deal with the problems that emerged in the module Innovation and the need for change. It looks at the goals and issues that were identified when they...

Intermittent and disrupted attendance of learners is an early warning sign of potential drop out or underachievement. This module looks at the ways technology can help us to intervene early with effective solutions.

A Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) attempts to replicate in an online space everything learners might want to do and what a tutor might want to share as part of a programme of study. Learners are 'enrolled' to the course area. It contains a library, assignment and announcements areas....

This module looks at the practical issues of how to build synchronous online learning into a balanced programme of online and face-to-face learning. It examines the challenges of real-time online activity (technical, social and personal) and things you can do to ensure that learner experience...

Synchronised working uses technology to deliver learning normally done in a classroom or workshop, without having to be physically present in the room. Learners can observe and take notes, but also engage with the teacher and fellow students. All the benefits of working together,...

A recorded teaching session can provide real opportunities for improving your teaching practice, especially if you share it with colleagues in a quality circle or improvement group where you all watch each other's recordings to review and reflect upon them. This module looks at some of...

The pace of technological change means we have to look for emerging ways to improve even when everything is going well. This module looks at how the cycle works in education, where changes in curriculum and better understanding of effective teaching and learning are powerful drivers of...

This module follows on from the module Creating inclusive content: Principles. It shows how the principles from Creating inclusive content: Principles can be applied to create resources that are good for all users.

This module shows some principles of good practice for creating content that meets the needs of learners with a disability or learning disadvantage.

This module looks at how to improve the elements of an organisation's digital technology strategy that relate to accessibility and its significance for bringing about change in teaching and learning practice.

Legislation for accessibility changed in a very positive way with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations (2018). This module looks at how to stay on the right side of these regulations.

An increasingly important definition views learning as a change in long-term memory. Theories of effective teaching and learning focus on enabling the progressive acquisition of knowledge by learners. This module looks at Barak Rosenshine’s widely used Principles of Instruction. They...

A useful definition of Blended Learning is the “combination of face-to-face learning and dynamic digital activities and content that facilitate anytime/anyplace learning.” (Jisc, 2017). This module follows on from the New forms and formats for face-to-face learning module and looks...

This module is the first of a pair, with the New forms and formats for Blended Learning module following on. This module looks at how changes in pedagogical thinking and our understanding of learning give the opportunity to renew the way we use technology in face-to-face learning.

This module looks at improving learner engagement by rethinking the use of technologies within the classroom. It examines the possibilities for involving learners actively in sessions, embedded in a carefully structured approach to teaching face-to-face through technology.

This module explores the notion of face-to-face learning in a physical space such as a classroom and the place of technology in emerging pedagogy. It describes a framework for considering the activities and intended outcomes of face-to-face interaction.

This module looks at the range of innovation from individuals to whole organisations. It also looks at how to recognise the signs that it is time to change. This module is part of a linked group with Innovation: 'Review process and practice' and 'Identifying and assessing...

Many problems can be examined and innovative solutions implemented by the creativity of individual teachers and teaching groups. This module follows on from and extends the example and analysis introduced in Identifying the Need for Change and leads into Identifying and Assessing...

The decision to dedicate scarce time and resources changing digital technology and practice has to be rewarded by the greatest possible impact on teaching, learning outcomes and experience. This module looks at the example of a single teacher and a subject team determining their innovation plan.