It’s almost time for the clocks to go back in preparation for what has been forecast to be a very cold winter, so it must also be time for the October edition of the eLearning Digest.  Other recent editions are listed here. This digest contains: UK conferences & workshops Online learning and adult education MOOCs … [Read more…]

Podcast: An audio file made available for automatic download via web syndication. Typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically. During the years following the coining of the term in 2004, the world started exploring the potential of podcasts. YouTube was an independent curiosity, MySpace was the social media … [Read more…]

Over the last year I’ve been reflecting on how much the success of our work depends on effective partnerships with a range of people – within and external to the Open University. As Learning Designers, it’s inherent in our role that we work collaboratively with curriculum teams to elicit and capture ideas for module creation. … [Read more…]

The summer’s over, it’s back to school and conkers are falling from the trees outside my office window, so it must be time for the September edition of the eLearning Digest. Other recent editions are listed here. This digest contains: UK conferences & workshops Online learning and adult education MOOCs UK HE news MOOC news Commercial news … [Read more…]

With summer finally here, yes it’s pouring down outside, it’s time for the August edition of the eLearning Digest.  Recent editions are listed here, and an archive of editions up to June 2018 can be found on Cloudworks. This digest contains: UK conferences & workshops Online learning and adult education MOOCs UK HE news MOOC news Commercial news … [Read more…]

In the Open University, we have developed a suite of LA (Learning Analytics) visualisations called ‘Action for Analytics’ (A4A: slides from a presentation giving more detail) designed to help those responsible for producing modules to see the effects of their designs.  For example, it’s possible to track just how much use videos we produce for … [Read more…]

This is the first eLearning Digest to feature on the OU Learning Design blog but it has a long history.  First started by Jim Ellis in 2004, it’s been running for 166 months. Previous editions can be found on Cloudworks. Since Jim’s retirement in July 2018, future editions will be posted here and listed on a dedicated … [Read more…]

It is no secret that we live in a world driven by data. The insight gained from analytics underpins success in almost every industry, from strategic consumer research in commercial sales to the in-play behavioural patterns of leading men and women in sports; a great deal of importance is afforded to the reporting of “The … [Read more…]

In 2005, HEFCE funded 74 Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs). In 2010, the funding ceased and most of those CETLs went off the boil. SOLSTICE was originally founded as a CETL at Edge Hill University (based in Ormskirk in Lancashire) but was kept running from central funding. The centre supports learning and … [Read more…]

Always keen to get on with the job at hand, I’ve never really thought about impact as a ‘thing’.  Yet if I stop and think about it, everything I do impacts someone or something.  As a Learning Designer working on Social Science modules, I attended the Making a Difference: Impact in the Social Sciences conference … [Read more…]