After a couple of false starts, and a few interruptions, I am now at the point of applying for CMALT (Certified Membership of the Association for Learning Technology). For those who don’t know this is a professional accreditation route for those working with learning technology, achieved through evidencing a history of engagement across a […]

Yes, another wooden boat blog post, I’m turning into that boat person. So, I’m coming onto the closing stages of my yearlong boat building experience. And as with everything I do and probably many others here, it’s viewed through the lens of learning, digital, pedagogy, experience. It is hard not to relate to these things […]

Learn provides lots of ways for users to take charge of what messages and notifications they receive and how they would like them delivered. One of the insights I gained through interviewing students and staff as part of the Learn Foundations Project programme of user experience research was how students feel about all those notifications, […]

Last month saw the first Digital Skills Festival, organised by the Digital Skills and Training team, of which we hope there will be many more. Together, we facilitated four sessionson different topics across the area of learning design.   The first session, ‘How to… design a course online using ABC’, sparked a lot of discussion around how the pandemic has changed the way we teach. Participants were really engaged with how ABC can help them in course […]

A couple of months ago, a project landed on my desk (virtually, in my sitting room, where I’ve been for 15 months) involving an investigation of current hybrid teaching and learning practice. The task was straightforward enough: find out what kind of hybrid synchronous systems are in place in other institutions worldwide. So, I spent […]

We are looking forward to presenting four interactive sessions at next week’s Digital Skills Festival. Each session is based on our experiences, particularly over the past year, when we moved our support for learning design online.  All of these sessions are open for booking by Edinburgh staff and students.  We look forward to seeing you there!    […]

Online Course Production and Educational Design and Engagement are hosting three events as part of the University’s first Digital Skills Festival. Digital Skills and Training are hosting a programme of online digital skills events. These are free to attend for all University staff and students. The festival takes place during the week of Monday 24 […]

The written word is a powerful communication tool. For short online courses, it is how we share learning materials, build community, and create instructor presence. Online courses use a mixture of reading and listening coupled with more interactive learning like discussion forums, multiple choice quizzes, and reflective exercises. This means the learner’s overall experience is […]

Of all the things we do, learning design workshops were probably the last things we wanted to consider moving online; if it had been thought to be the better option, we probably would have already made that change long before lockdown. But when it was clear that we weren’t going to be able to hold […]

As part of Learn Foundations’ latest round of user experience research, I have been interviewing students and staff about their use of real-time virtual and hybrid classrooms. This post looks at the multitude of ways students access their virtual teaching spaces and how we can make them easier to find.   As we have moved […]