The introduction of digital communities of practice has maintained the dynamic of teachers working together and supporting each other but has added to and revolutionised the ability of teachers to continue to support and influence each other not restricted by time or distance, nor the format and...

A teacher's digital skillset must develop continually as digital pedagogy evolves in line with technical developments and emerging opportunities for new ways to improve teaching, learning and assessment. The DTPF offers an ideal framework around how to structure the ongoing development of...

A teacher's professional digital skillset consists of two components; technical and vocational knowledge. This requires teachers to develop sound digital pedagogy – applying technologies to best effect in teaching and learning – and to keep up-to-date in the changing role, impact...

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...

An online repository is a collection of content, resources and links to useful directories and content. By pooling and sharing, those with access can reduce the time spent in searching for peer reviewed content elsewhere for lesson generation. They promote a more collegiate approach to teaching...

Using links and attachments is a means of connecting two separate parts to a communication. The first part is the primary narrative. It is an explanation, introduction or scenario setting narrative in a text, message, mail or web-page. The second part is further content that provides evidence, by...

Part of the professional role of teachers is to engage and support the development and CPD of other teachers. Benefits from supporting others flow in both directions, and the acts of supporting others provides insights and development for all involved.

CPD is a requirement of every profession for keeping up to date in all aspects of practice. What is required to deliver great teaching changes constantly, reflecting broader developments in the world of learning and technology that generate new ideas and possibilities. Failure to keep current...

The support and expertise of other teachers has always been a central feature of CPD activity. It requires teachers to accept that whatever they do in their own practice, they should be sensitive to how it may help others through improving or avoiding practice, and sharing information with others...

As with all other aspects of teaching, changing subject and industry practices and requirements emerge as ideas, fashion and skills develop. A lot of changes occur by or through technology and it is an essential mechanism for its dissemination and adoption.

Replacing paper-based approaches to completing a learning plan (ILP) with technology has markedly improved its capacity to accommodate more voices and the immediacy or currency of its construction.

Teachers help ensure that personal data is stored securely and used only for the correct purpose. Nothing is held beyond need or relevance, and that it is accurate, up to date and undertaken with the consent of learners concerned. The practical issues in protecting learners' personal data...

A benefit of using technology in content production is that it creates records of use (footsteps). These processes and products are referred to as data and data has value. This can often be exploited for commercial gain or to coerce or influence situations where there is no consent.

Technology facilitates the creation, collection, recording and publishing of learner's work. It demonstrates a learner's skills and supports course certification. Teachers may be involved in asserting its authenticity and accuracy and can help each learner manage how and where...

Educational technology is a pedagogical tool like any other. It should not be used for the sake of it, but rather because it has greater impact on learning outcomes or other desirable education goals than alternatives.

Effective blended learning calls for all aspects of the design to be seen as parts of an integrated whole, all equally important in ensuring the best possible learner outcomes. Learning activities and experience, resources, online content, support, guidance and teacher oversight, assessment and...

The continuing growth of blended and online learning has shifted an ever-increasing proportion of learning activity offsite, away from reassuring presence of teachers and support staff. The guidance and support that teachers have always provided for learners in the classroom remains essential if...

Learning analytics evaluates data available on learner activity and performance, together with administrative data such as system logins and entry/exit swipe in records to guide individual feedback and targeted interventions.

The gig economy in Britain provides work for nearly 5 million people at the last count. It’s a growth sector in an increasingly complex and varied employment market facing learners. Without digital technology platforms, this form of work would not be possible. This module looks at the...

Changes in work opportunities and the jobs market have seen increasing numbers of learners becoming self-employed, freelancing or working for a number of employers on temporary contracts, rather than finding long-term permanent employment. Getting a job is no longer a one-off exercise.

Technology has brought dramatic changes in the way we live. It is not possible to second guess the nature or rate of change in any particular aspect of life with any accuracy, but it is possible for learners to develop the skills, knowledge and understanding that will help them to adjust and thrive.

Much of the process of networking and engagement with employers is the remit of senior managers. Individual teachers can have a big impact on teaching, learning and assessment in their own vocational area by building collaborative networks of employers in Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs)...

Self-employment is the norm in many industries, from bricklaying to music to childminding to professional consulting, and growing in importance. The self-employed often love their work, but few are keen on the essential business, finance and admin that is taken care of behind the scenes in...

Getting employers involved in the planning and delivery of particular elements of courses is mandatory across a range of vocational areas and widely welcomed by educators and employers alike.

The main channels for jobs, whether full time, contract, intern or apprenticeship, are online. It is essential that learners can both find appropriate opportunities and be found by recruiters, who are looking for good potential employees, just as keenly as learners are looking for good jobs.

Employers looking for staff and individuals seeking contractors for a range of services regularly search the web for recommendations, reviews and personal information about candidates.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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...

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.

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...

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.

Peer assessment happens when learners find inspiration and insight in the ideas, suggestions, criticisms, contributions and thoughts of other learners, relative to their own contributions. As a result, learners can refine actions, comments and contributions to make their own learning and work...

An e-portfolio is an online repository, belonging to and managed by the owner. It's a personal technology rather than shared, like a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It contains artefacts added by the owner that are curated, arranged and presented, either in their own right or as...

Polling tools have stretched far beyond their original function of carrying out surveys and reporting results. Anyone who bought goods or services online will have encountered them; they underpin user satisfaction reporting across the board in the burgeoning online retail market, from...

Using videos, structured sets of annotated still images and sound recordings can be a great way to provide feedback. This is particularly true when the work you are assessing is an event or performance of a task: when you want to know how well an apprentice changed a washer, not how well they...

Quizzes have long been recognised as a useful method to test learners' knowledge and check their understanding, but they offer more than that. Their effectiveness lies in their ability to be accessed when learners want to check learning and can be repeated as often as leaners want,...

Computer-based tests and digital media are widely used in formative assessment. This module looks at their use for enhancing low stakes summative assessment activities, where the goal is to test and confirm that a learner has completed a block of work, and for programmes such as NVQ, where...

Feedback response times are a critical lever for improving learner engagement and success. This module looks at how technology can support improved assessment and feedback methodologies and interventions, to lower turnaround time.

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.

Managing and organising personal and curriculum team workload is an essential task for teachers in an increasingly complex work environment. A growing emphasis on team working, with many colleagues on sessional contracts across a number of institutions can make it difficult and time-consuming to...

A quality learning experience can be found in learners recognising learning that exceeds their expectations in terms of how they worked and what they learned. It leads to a desire to repeat or learn more. Digital technology used well contributes to this in both the administration and enterprise...

Technology can help find learning advantage through group working. Groups are formed around identifiable common goals or interests, in the belief that working together is more productive or satisfying than working alone and simulates real working environments.

A strength of learning in a classroom has been the immediacy of interaction between learners and teacher. Teachers are looking for a balance between having a culture of collective and common effort and personalised methods of achieving it. How might teachers guide, and interact with learners in...

This module looks at how learners can be encouraged and supported to take greater responsibility for management of their own learning. This is by using widely available technology to build the self-reliance and resilience needed to succeed in employment or higher education.

Digitising content has kept the language of files and folders associated with paper storage, but replaced its office-based storage into condensed, highly portable, indexed stores, that can be carried in the pocket or accessed from an online store.

How communities of learning can be formed and become effective through technology. Successful groups are characterised as being able to have a greater output than the sum of its parts. This principle applies to learning, which is why group learning is so common.

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.

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...

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.

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...

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.

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 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.

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...

Search engines will present you with online content for just about any subject, much of it free to use; presentations, videos, images, quizzes and more. But often there is so much to choose from - where do you start? This module looks at how you can make your searches for subject-specific...

This module looks at how to combine and mix existing resources to create more relevent content for learning. It examines how this can be used to enhance the development of your pedagogical practice with EdTech. It follows on from the module Creating content: adapting and editing.

Many public and private sector organisations' websites contain dedicated educational content around their particular area of interest, industry or product range. This module looks at the opportunities and benefits of using them in learning.

This module looks at how to overcome or find ways around some of the technical compatibility issues you can encounter when searching for resources on the web to use with learners.

This module looks at what is meant by future-proofing content, why it is necessary and why it is increasingly important. The principles and practice of future-proofing content together with some simple techniques are examined in the paired module Principles and practice of future proofing...

The web is awash with sources of information and resources to support teaching and learning. This module looks at ways to organise your search practice.

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.

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...

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...

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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...

The module explores the practical underpinnings of good attribution and referencing. It looks at how to develop and reinforce the judgement learners need in order to avoid plagiarism. This module pairs with Dealing with plagiarism.

This module looks at a systematic approach to assessing the reliability and validity of information that is likely to end up embedded in learning resources and teaching practice.

Many learners come into education with confidence in front of a computer that disguises a patchy skills profile that does not add up to digital literacy.This module looks at the difference between being tech-savvy and digitally literate and its implications for teaching and learning.

This module looks at the importance of respecting the intellectual property rights of others by role modelling behaviour and rethinking the way we approach teaching and assessment activities.

Copyright and other intellectual property rights set up legal restrictions on the conditions of use of publications, images, designs and any other works created by an identifiable author. This module looks at the implications of copyright for teaching and learning. It forms a pair with the module...

Taking photos, making videos and creating sound recordings is easy work for anyone with access to a smartphone or tablet. Once captured, image, video and audio files can be easily uploaded and stored online, edited, mixed with other evidence, shared for assessment and annotated for feedback....

Written text remains the most common way of providing feedback to learners on their outcomes and performance in assessment. Many digital tools are now available for creating and delivering written feedback in different formats and media, annotating, overwriting, converting speech to text,...

Technology-based assessment has become increasingly sophisticated in the design of tests. This is through automating the collection, and the immediacy of the presentation, of the results.

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...

Peer learning is learning with and from each other. Its meaning is more tightly defined as it being mutual learning between classmates of equal knowledge.

Organising learning consists of two distinct stages: deciding what you want learners to do, then managing the subsequent learning workflow from the start of each topic to its completion across an entire course or programme.

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.

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...

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...

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.

EdTech enables us to deliver scenarios online and bring them to life through the application of technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) role playing and games formats. This module looks at how to create authentic scenarios and apply them to effective learning.

Simulation refers to creating a model of an activity, environment or situation which reproduces the characteristics of real-life events and delivers authentic responses to the learner’s choices and actions. The consequences of error in decision-making, judgment, manual or cognitive skills...

Teachers can achieve better outcomes by imaginative re-use, recycling and repurposing of existing content – whether it be their own, their colleagues', or resources and materials found on the internet. It also looks at the role and importance of organisations in creating and promoting...

Surveys show that over half of the people on the planet use social media platforms. Social media are embedded into work and daily life so being able to use them is an essential vocational and life skill.

Productivity software (office business applications) such as word processing, presentation software and spreadsheets are amongst the most common applications most of us encounter and use on a daily basis. Continual development of functionality has taken them beyond flat text production, number...

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...

This module is related to the Effective teaching and learning online module because supporting learning is a feature of effective TLA. With online learning, similar to learners in traditional content, support is needed to ensure learners can be successful.

It is difficult for teachers to maintain effective oversight of learning activity during remote online working. Records of learner logins can’t show if a learner was engaged in learning and making progress, or even physically present at a device.

Synchronous learning occurs when the teacher and learners are present in real time. Meeting face-to-face remains central to most statutory and higher education. Asynchronous learning allows learners to choose the time and place at which they learn. It depends on access to resources rather to a...

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.

Technology makes meaningful personalisation a practical reality. Assistive technology, with materials and resources designed for accessibility and inclusion provides the essential foundations to support learners with a disability or learning disadvantage. This module looks at the ways in...

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.

This module looks at why it's worth creating and delivering personalised learning pathways and how to make them work in practice. It follows on from the Personalised learning pathways module.

A fundamental requirement for effective learning is to understand and be understood. Inadequate language skills are a barrier at each stage of the learning journey. This module looks at the ways technology can transform the learning experience and outcomes for ESOL learners and those who...

The culture that we grow up and live in can influence the way we prefer to communicate. This module looks at how we can draw on this rich diversity to improve the learning experience for all.

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 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 the issue of reflecting and representing diversity through the lens of the Equality Act 2010's nine protected characteristics.

Digital technology enables us to create personalised pathways that provide a unique route to learning for all learners, particularly individuals who are less likely to benefit from mainstream options. This module looks at the characteristics and features of personalised learning and the...

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.

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...

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.

This module expands on the guidance given in Recording teaching sessions and Digital tools for personal learning. It looks at three forms of video and video streaming where the combination of presentation, discussion and viewing open up opportunities for personal CPD and in supporting the CPD of...

An e-portfolio allows you to gather together in one place a record of your PLD and evidence of achievement. It can host different forms of evidence such as sound and video files, as well as whole presentations, URL links and other resources. You can see and hear as well as read about what...

Whenever people with a common interest have an identified online place, forum or method to connect with peers and discuss issues of common interest, we can say that a community of practice exists. This module explores where communities for supporting online practice might be found and how you...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

A portfolio is the best method for storing and organising anything and everything needed to demonstrate and narrate a tutor's Professional Learning and Development (PLD). The personal nature of an e-portfolio ensures privacy and brings with it the benefit of it being online and shareable...

Most professionals now use online media to find training resources to resolve Personal Learning and Development (PLD) needs. This could be keeping up to date with the latest development in your subject, or to further your teaching skills development. Professional and social media can be...

The scale of smartphone ownership coupled with the transformative nature of smartphone technology and the apps and tools that it supports give it great potential as a learning technology and platform. This module explores some of the opportunities and possibilities for adopting smartphones into...

This module looks at the potential and role of mobile technology for learning, how best to make use of the affordances of mobile devices and how to ensure that appropriate support and guidance is in place for learners to succeed. It pairs with the module Using smartphones for learning.

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...

Learner created content is a foundation stone of the shift from dependence to independence and on further to the collaborative interdependence that characterises modern employment. This module looks at ways that teachers can support development of the necessary skills, behaviours and attitudes to...

Recall doesn't just demonstrate evidence of learning; it is an integral part of the learning process. This module identifies the core elements of recall and revision and looks at the role that technology can play in directing them to improve learning outcomes.

Planning and developing a sequence of understandable instructions or ordered steps to solve a given problem or perform a specific task is a core skill for education and employment. This module looks at how teachers can support and develop this across a range of subject areas using different...

This module looks at what we mean by content and how teachers can help learners to develop an understanding of the tools and skills they can apply to creating it. It is paired with and followed by the module Independent learners: developing skills for content creation.

The way students learn and the skills they need to progress are the same used in class, but they offer new challenges to get the best from the options they present. How learners meet those challenges at the start of a programme and what help is provided for improvement requires thought in initial...

This module looks at the digital components of personal learning environments, the contribution that they make to learning and at ways in which teachers can direct the full span of digital possibility to successful outcomes.

Research shows that reflection and review of learning and the processes by which it is carried out are powerful methods for improving knowledge retention, learner experience and outcomes. This module explores the role of both tools in promoting reflective learning and contributing to improved...

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...

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...