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....

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...

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.

Developing independence in solving practical problems is an important life skill and essential for employment. This module looks at how we can go beyond reliance on chance and build some of these events into the assignments, tasks and experiences we create, making a controlled space for...

The module Developing digital problem-solving skills looked at the way one teacher develops each learner’s independent problem-solving skills through a simulation of practical difficulties arising with the digital technologies they are using. This module extends that exercise to...

Digital technologies don't always work as they should - one of the few areas in the controlled environment of education institutions where something failing to do what you expect can be quite normal. Learners need to move from relying on teachers and technical support staff for solutions...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

There are a number of widely available tools to create Augmented Reality learning objects. These enable you to put together creative and pedagogically effective learning resources that fully exploit the graphical capabilities of digital technology.

Augmented Reality (AR) superimposes either graphics, visual presentations or text as an overlay on a given view, looked at through a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet. Location is important for AR and where the device being used and what it is pointing at because AR is rooted in the...

Virtual Reality (VR) is a wholly manufactured experience. Learners can use mobile devices, often worn (so as to respond to head movements), to see and interact with a visual depiction of a place, person or object. The location of the learner is not material to the experience because it is...

Well-designed mobile learning activities can deliver a range of benefits to learners. This module will look at two scenarios that describe the advantage of good design and the issues that can constrain it.

This module will look at what is meant by mobile learning. It will illustrate some of the teaching and learning opportunities that mobile phones, tablets, and small laptops can bring. Ownership of smart devices amongst the under-50s in the UK is nearing 100%, with increasing use for a widening...