Group Admins
Description
This is a work in progress presentation of a new induction course developed to support students on online distance learning (ODL) Masters degree programmes at the University of Leeds. The presentation will be led by Dr Megan Kime, Head of ODL Student Education, and Chris Thompson, Course Design Manager.
The aim of this session is to open up discussion on the processes and challenges of re-use in digital learning, as the project moves on its next phase.
Pathways to Success is a cross-service collaborative project developed in partnership with the University of Leeds Digital Education Service (DES), Library, International Student Office and Leeds University Union. As well as resulting in a self-contained induction programme aimed at online learners, content from the course offers value to faculties and services in both on-campus and online learning. Re-use is one of the project’s key principles, and opportunities for use by other student cohorts are currently being explored.
This presentation will cover design decisions around the potential for re-use. We will discuss how different technologies were selected to balance the needs of navigation and user experience, re-usability of content, and flexibility for repurposing or editing content.
The course is delivered using the University’s VLE ‘Minerva’ (Blackboard Learn), and content has been developed using a combination of Blackboard and Evolve, an HTML5 eLearning authoring tool that uses the Adapt developer framework. Video, animation and graphical content also feature heavily in the course, and offer additional opportunities for re-use.
Discussion points will include:
- approaches to communications and raising awareness, as well as sharing good practice in design and development;
- design challenges, both technical and content-related, to enable re-use in future contexts, potentially including a reappraisal of ‘reusable learning objects’;
- evaluation of technologies to afford transferable learning materials that are appropriate for a wide range of applications.
