Stretching the efforts and reach made by learners is how teachers can express their desire for high expectations of learners and to make the most of their time in learning. Digital learning provides a platform, format or place to support these challenges. It offers new ways of providing a step up...

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....

Reflecting on, then acting to improve professional effectiveness is part of every teacher’s practice. Technology provides a means to support the management of every aspect of the Professional & Learning Development (CPD) cycle and, in the process, improve the management and...

Pace refers to the rate at which a learner proceeds through a learning event, whether it be synchronous learning in a classroom or online, or making their own way through an asynchronous learning event. Pace is fundamental to progress and performance, but there is no single pace that suits all...

Making the most of new forms and formats of technology happens when teachers and learners let curiosity lead them in experimenting to find better depth, reach, efficiency and fun in learning.

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...

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.

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...

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.

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 non-profit Creative Commons (CC) organisation was set up to make it easy to share and use creative content online. Licensing is simple and free on the organisation’s website. This module looks at Creative Commons as a method of copyrighting work and the advantages for users and authors...

The internet is full of information and it’s not all accurate. This module looks at the different types of error to be found, from unintended to deliberately misleading and how to prepare learners to recognise and deal with them.

The government formally recognised digital skills as the third essential skill, together with English and Maths. This module looks at the framework and standards and considers how they might affect both ICT and other teaching staff.

Netiquette is short for internet etiquette. A code of behaviour for communications on the web. It arose in the early years of the internet to address the difficulties fast emerging in online communications, from frustration and misunderstanding at one end of the spectrum, to unpleasantness and...

Plagiarism is wholly unacceptable in an educational context. When carried out with the intention to pass the work of others off as your own it is fraudulent; when done without that intent it is lazy or negligent. This module looks at how to ensure that learners understand the boundary between...

Formative assessment is a core part of instruction. It delivers challenge, embeds knowledge and enables learners to measure their own progress and needs; it is a natural candidate for delivery through technology.

This module examines how we currently use the data available to us, how we might find ways to develop it further to improve teaching and learning and what the emerging field of learning analytics might contribute.

The embedding of digital technology across all forms of subject-assessment creates opportunities for developing learners’ transferable skills over and above vocational expertise that is at the core of their learning programmes. This module looks at how you can make transferable skills...

Tailoring content and delivery to meet an individual learner's needs rather than taking everyone through the same programme at the same pace is an accepted goal of education, promoted by government policy and examined at inspection. Technology has allowed education to push back the...

The module looks at the use of technology to tailor content to meet the needs of a range of sensory, linguistic and cultural barriers. This can lead to better learner retention and outcomes and greatly improved learner engagement and experience.

This module shows you how to design learning resources from the outset to enable quick, easy and effective updating when the future brings significant change. It follows on from the paired module Future Proofing content - what does it mean.

Teaching and learning quality policies often refer to the importance of high-quality resources and content. But what does that mean and who should judge it? This module looks at the issues involved in making these decisions.

This module looks at how you can lead the collaborative creation of complex content covering a number of subject areas and involving several colleagues. It follows on from two preceding modules: - Creating content: adapting and editing. - Creating content: combining and mixing.

This module looks at how to deliver the best outcomes from systematic and professional searches for suitable resources. This will include balancing the challenges of credibility, reliability, usability and suitability when assessing the worth of found resources and taking into account what...

Immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) make a distinctive contribution to learning and to individual learners that cannot be replicated by any other media currently available to educators. What makes it special for educational content creators is its ability to fully immerse the user...

Remote working from home takes place beyond the reach of the reassuring formal structures and patterns of teaching and learning and the professional and social interaction with colleagues and learners that goes with it.

Wellbeing refers to our sense of self and our ability to live our lives as closely as possible to the way we want to. Digital wellbeing describes the contribution of technology to wellbeing and includes home working and remote learning, but there are potential risks to wellbeing in using technology.

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...

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...

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...

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.

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 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.

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...

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...

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.

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...

Active learning can make a measurable improvement to learning outcomes. It’s been shown to be more effective for all learners including SEND learners. This module looks at the elements of successful active learning and the role that digital technology can play.

Playful learning refers to the use of games, toys and other elements of play to support learning. It can be found in all sectors of education and has been with us ever since we moved away from Victorian methods of keeping quiet and copying from the chalkboard. This module looks at ways we...

Partnerships that bring teachers and learners together to develop digital skills can deliver real benefits to both groups. This module looks at the practicalities of developing and sustaining such partnership. It pairs with and follows on from the module, Learner-led activity.

Active learning can deliver significant benefits in terms of improved learning outcomes and learner experience. This module looks at the coordination of skills, resources, planning and organisation that is required to design successful active learning and empower teachers to deliver it.

Using technology to enable and support learner-led activity is a good way to develop these skills in an engaging way. Allowing learners to direct some of their own learning can drive significant improvement in outcomes and engagement. This module pairs with and precedes the module Staff and...

This module looks the characteristics of traditional and active learning spaces, both as concepts and as practical pedagogy. It looks at ways to deliver active learning within more restricted and lesser resourced contexts. The module pairs with the Active learning: experience and outcomes...

Digital technology and games has created the world’s largest leisure industry. This module explores how they apply to the delivery of learning activities. We look at their use to motivate and engage learners and identify areas where they might be particularly useful. This pairs with the...

Technology improves productivity through working with others, by accessing and engaging with ideas and in improving the administration of life activities. As a consequence, when done well, it provides more time to pursue higher, perhaps more pleasurable things in life and improved general wellbeing.

Using technology has taken teachers ability to interact with one another onto a global platform. The challenge is matching up the right audience with the content shared. It follows that extra care is needed when posting to a site where the audience isn't known.

In a world of competing voices, reputations for one's ideas are hard won and easily damaged and are only as good as the last contribution to a body of work. Consequently, professional standing as a teacher is important and can be managed through maintaining the quality of contributions to...

Using technology, like any other human activity, has an impact on the wider environment. Consumption and pollution from how our devices are made, used, and disposed of, is offset by the changes in environmental costs of behaviour changes that come from where and how those devices are used.

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...

The main cause of heightened health risks associated with using technology come from making compromises in the physical arrangements made in accessing devices. They are exacerbated by prolonged periods of concentration that suppresses awareness of time spent in poor posture and without breaks.

A digital identity is a chosen and created state by which a user presents themselves to the web and all it has to offer. It is defined in the accounts held, the actions, interactions and transactions carried out.

Communicating well is a skill in every aspect of life. Learners particularly need to learn how to collaborate and present their learning and accomplishments. Technology can help with making it easier to communicate in terms of its reach and immediacy but can also be a means to misreading what...

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...

Cyberbullying is generally understood as bullying that takes place over digital devices and uses the web to make the connections. The physical separation makes it easier for actions to be conceived as bullying even when it is unintentional as well as actions that are designed to cause hurt and...

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...

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.

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 considers how issues of equitable access to digital technologies can have an impact on the quality of learning and how this may be redressed.

This module looks at an individual's digital context based on personal access to the appropriate technology, their awareness of it, and the digital skills to make use of them.

This module looks at using technology to support the learning activities of SLDD learners who are working towards living independently.

This module looks at a broad classification of learning disabilities and the forms of technology that are best suited to overcome the associated challenges to learning.

This module looks at the impact on teaching strategy of learners who bring their own devices. This has implications for users of assistive technology and for those learners who prefer to work on their own devices.

This module explores the use of spoken text through devices such as e-readers and eBooks to overcome barriers to learning for a range of learners, not only those with a sight impairment.

This module explores the range of accessibility assistance, from common mainstream software, apps and tools, through to the specialist or bespoke technology for complex individual needs, and its implications for teaching and learning practice.

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 takes a broader look at the issues and strategies that teachers need to use in designing teaching. This is in the light of emerging capabilities of technology and the ability to teach and learn through them. It is based in the first two groups of standards that looks at devices in...

This module takes an overview of the content, issues and strategies that teachers need to understand, adopt and develop when teaching those skills areas in the National Standards for Essential Digital Skills (2019) that relate to working online. Namely: - Communicating - Transacting - Being...

This module looks at the knowledge and skills you need in order to teach Working with digital media at Level 1.

This module looks at the knowledge and skills you need in order to teach Processing numerical data at Level 1.

This module looks at the knowledge and skills you need in order to teach Creating and editing documents at Entry Level and Level 1.

This module looks at the knowledge and skills you need in order to teach Creating and editing digital media at Entry Level.

To develop your understanding, skills and confidence to teach competencies in Dealing with technical problems from the Using devices and handling information skills area of the National Standards for Essential Digital Skills (2019).

This module looks at the means of managing content that has been created and collected by users. It is important to keep content in secure storage and to be able to retrieve it easily by searching.

This module looks at navigating online content to search for and find useful content. It looks at using searches, hyperlinks, menus and other navigation elements to locate required information. This will include how to retain and save useful links to content for future use or for reference. Users...

This module is progression from Communicating and sharing 2 that focuses on Entry Level issues in relation to setting up accounts, sharing, and collaboration.

This module looks at the types of digital activities that leave a 'digital footprint' and understand the personal implications for the user in having those footprints. It includes considering how to make the most of leaving information in web sites that help form relationships and speed...

This module looks at how learners can create, edit and access contacts in preparation for sending and receiving online communications using four different methods. It also explores communicating text and including other digital content to individual and multiple recipients, and how to initiate...

This module looks at the known risks of prolonged physical inactivity in using technology and the possible psychological risks that can also occur in some forms of interaction. It also looks at how these can be mitigated or removed.

This module looks at the knowledge and skills you need in order to teach Protecting devices and data at Level 1.

This module looks at how identify situations where personal information may be stored securely on personal devices as well as online. It includes how to manage the movement of persona data in a secure way and the use of simple methods to protect personal information and privacy.

This module looks at the knowledge and skills you need in order to teach Being responsible online. The first chapter deals with behaviour that is socially inappropriate and how to protect yourself from it. The second chapter focuses on behaviours that are illegal and how to stay within the law.

This module looks at the knowledge and skills you need in order to teach Buying online at Level 1.

This module looks at the knowledge and skills you need in order to teach Buying online at Entry level.

This module looks at the knowledge and skills you need in order to teach Using online services data at Entry level and Level 1.

This module looks at the basic components of personal computing through the use of the various devices, the systems that run on them, setting them up as preferred and keeping them in good order.