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Why is there such interest now in using learning technologies? Well, this course will explain that, whatever your role in vocational education and training. The course is about blended learning, which means using the most appropriate learning technologies alongside our usual teaching methods. We'll be giving you practical support and advice on making the best use of technology for your learners. To help you answer questions such as, which technology should I use in my context, and does learning technology really help to improve learners' success? I believe it gives teachers the tools that they need to develop their digital technological skills. It gives them the opportunity to be ahead of their learners and engage them more in their lessons.

In this digital age, it's very important that we've got the ability to facilitate and deliver a message across a variety of media. And by doing this course, this will help us achieve that end. The course runs online. And it's free and open to anyone. So it's very easy to access at any time. It's been designed especially for professionals in the vocational education and training sector. So it covers a wide range of educational settings, and all kinds of learners with a variety of expectations and needs. The whole point of using digital technology is to improve your learners' success. It can be motivating, so it keeps them focused. It can support their independent learning when the teacher or trainer isn't there.

And being online, it's very flexible. So whether you're a complete beginner, occasional dabbler, or expert user of learning technologies, this course has something to offer you. You'll gain knowledge and skills through videos of good practise, guided practical activities, discussion with other participants, and through trying out how it works in your own learning context. Digital technologies are improving teaching and learning for students by expanding the classroom, so that students can learn whenever, wherever they want to, basically 24/7. We've brought together some of the leading academics and practitioners in the vocational education and training sector. So we make sure it's based on the real experience of making technology work.

And we've built this innovative course around the key challenges currently facing teachers, tutors, and trainers in the sector. Studying the course is easy. You can do it in around three hours a week using your computer or mobile device. And what's more, once you sign up for the course, you'll have permanent access to the resources and activities. And then you can use them in your own local professional development, as well as for supporting your learners. Please join us and discover the essentials of what it takes to make the best use of blended learning.

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Blended Learning Essentials - New Approaches for Your Learners - FutureLearn

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Why is there such interest now in using learning technologies? Well, this course will explain that, whatever your role in vocational education and training. The course is about blended learning, which means using the most appropriate learning technologies alongside our usual teaching methods.

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'Badges' have long been used as a motivation and reward tool in many different disciplines.

Remember achieving that 50m swimming badge before sprinting home to ask your mum to sew it on your soaking trunks? Or, gaining that 'First Aid' badge at Girl Guides and feeling a sense of immense pride.

In more recent times, maybe you unlocked an achievement on a popular game or gained a badge for winning 10 online games of pool in a row. The idea and principles of 'motivation through reward' have remained consistent throughout the years, but how can we use them to encourage digital learners?

A digital, standards-based, open accreditation framework called Open Badges might help.

So what is an Open Badge?

Well, in its most basic form, an Open Badge is a digital reward which can be stored inside a student's 'digital backpack'. The badges can be achieved by completing tasks and goals set by an issuer, such as a learning provider (awarding badges for achieving soft skills) or a website (for completing an online task), basically anyone who wants to keep a user motivated and interested. The issuer creates the criteria needed for the user to achieve the badge. This is embedded inside the badge in the form of metadata, along with who issued the badge, when it was issued and an expiry date if relevant.

The Open Badges Infrastructure (OBI) - which is being developed by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation and shaped by an international community of developers - can be used to issue, display and earn the digital awards. If you want to look at some examples of badges in action a number of organisations, educational providers and communities such as NASA, the Clinton Global Initiative, De Paul University, DigitalMe and the City of Chicago are actually already using Open Badges to reward and recognise a variety of skills and achievements.

How are people using them?

Scotland's interest in Open Badges has been growing - the opportunities offered to improve traditional accreditation routes are an appealing thought.

Borders College in Scotland has been piloting the use of badges using Moodle. They have developed three badge levels (Bronze, Silver and Gold) allowing students to be awarded their first badges for best practice in Moodle use. There is also a higher level badge (Platinum) which is available to both staff and students who are considered to show outstanding contributions to the use of technology in the classroom.

One potentially more radical element of the pilot is that students have also been given the opportunity to vote for the lecturer they believe displays the best use of Moodle across their course. The intended outcome of this aspect of the project is that lecturing staff will also receive recognition for the time and effort they invest in using Moodle, which will hopefully encourage an increased use of innovative techniques.

The College will be gauging the impact of the pilot over the coming year but have let us know that so far students are enjoying the opportunity to gain recognition for aspects of their learning that would not traditionally have been rewarded or recognised in a formalised way.

How can you start using Open Badges?

We have a wealth of information, resources and case studies on Open Badges which may help you:

Mozilla's Open Badges site - where you can find out how to use the Open Badge Infrastructure to earn, issue and display Open Badges

Badge the UK - Official site for the Badge the UK project

Open Badges case studies

Jisc RSC Scotland Open Badges - information on the Jisc Scotland's Open Badges series, how we support Open Badges developments in Scotland and instructions on how to accept one of our badges.

You can always contact your local Jisc RSC for further information.

What do we think will happen in the future?

We recently held a Jisc Scotland event where college staff worked with Mozilla Badges and DigitalMe (winners of the DML Competition 'Badges for Lifelong Learning' and one of the leads on the Badge the UK project). We noticed a consensus that it would be useful to bring together interested parties to identify areas where Open Badges could add value to education in Scotland and to co-develop such badges.

This has since resulted in the formation of the Open Badges in Scottish Education Group (OBSEG), which will perform an overview and mapping function of Open Badges developments in Scotland.

The OBSEG hopes that through the input of representatives from a variety of educational institutions and agencies in Scotland, it will be able to consider synergies between different stages on a learner's formal and informal learning journey and contribute to the development of a badge eco-system within Scotland.

Our hope for the future is that Open Badges become embedded within learning and this national approach is used as an example that can be put in place worldwide!
Post authored by Grainne Hamilton, e-assessment adviser at Jisc Scotland and Ben Henderson, e-learning adviser at Jisc Northern. Our network of 12 Regional Support Centres offer advice and guidance around technology to over 2,000 UK learning providers.

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'Badges' have long been used as a motivation and reward tool in many different disciplines. Remember achieving that 50m swimming badge before sprinting home to ask your mum to sew it on your soaking trunks? Or, gaining that 'First Aid' badge at Girl Guides and feeling a sense of immense pride.

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Try looping on a PowerPoint presentation, learners will eventually read it subliminary

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A blog about the interactive learning resources for skills 

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A blog about the interactive learning resources for skills 

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Welcome to the project site for Jisc's Interactive Learning Resources for Skills project. This R&D project was based in Jisc Collections and it ran from Spring 2014 to Summer 2015. It had two aims: a) to create interactive content for Apprentices and b) to learn.

THE CONTENT
At the end of 2014 we commissioned 22 projects to create open educational resources for a range of vocational areas. The commissioned organisations were on the Skills Funding Agency list of providers of vocational training for Apprentices in England. They are listed, with a brief description of their projects, and direct links to the content and to the relevant search-results page of Jorum (the national repository for OERs), on the right-hand side of every page of this site. All of the content we commissioned was completed in Spring 2015.

THE LEARNING
Each commissioned organisation had a mentor from the JIsc project team. Mentors looked after five to seven organisations, facilitating networking and learning on all sides. We also drew on the expertise of Jisc's subject specialists in areas related to content-creation. Some organisations have written blogs describing their own learning journeys over the course of the project. These can be found on their project page (right).

THIS SITE
This site was originally created to facilitate sharing of information between Jisc, the mentors and advisors and the commissioned organisations. It contains a wealth of resources generated during the content-creation phase of the project: as well as the links to the content itself, there are the checklists and templates created by and for the project team, and we will be creating a rich record of the insights gained by all involved in this exciting project.

We set up a Jiscmail mailing list, ILRforSkills, for those directly involved in the project. If you'd like to join in the discussions around the project and the learning content we produced, get in touch via the form below.

The map shows where the commissioned organisations are located (click on the image to go to the live version).

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Interactive learning resources for skills

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Welcome to the project site for Jisc's Interactive Learning Resources for Skills project. This R&D project was based in Jisc Collections and it ran from Spring 2014 to Summer 2015. It had two aims: a) to create interactive content for Apprentices and b) to learn.

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sets out an ambitious agenda for improving the use of digital technology in the and skills sectors. To realise this agenda sector bodies need to work together to enable providers to use innovative new technology to improve the learner experience.

Why we are working in this area

The UK government wants to see greater uptake of technology in the and skills sectors - key to the agenda. What's more learners need digital skills because employers are demanding them. Institutions are also facing a changing learning landscape and need greater resilience.

Find out more about the history of FELTAG.

There are a number of people who will benefit from this work. These include:

Learners - who will benefit from technology that supports their needs

Employers - who will get candidates with better digital skills

Teachers - who will get opportunities to improve their digital skills

Institutional leaders - who can decide which technologies to invest in

Project aims

Through the co-design challenge, we want this group of sector bodies to be able to combine their efforts effectively and for the UK government to buy in to the direction taken by this group.

Also key to this work is that institutions feel they are able to respond effectively to the agenda. We also want to see a measured increase in the update of online delivery and the use of digital technology.

What we're doing

Project outputs

Many colleges and providers have embraced the agenda and worked towards making its recommendations a reality. We have produced a guide, The evolution of FELTAG, which showcases some of the initiatives inspired by and provides practical examples of effective technology-enhanced practice from across further education and skills.

Enhancing assessment and feedback with technology: a guide for FE and skills, shows how technology can add value to assessment and feedback processes in the and skills sector and provides practical advice and guidance including a number of effective practice examples.

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FELTAG sets out an ambitious agenda for improving the use of digital technology in the FE and skills sectors. To realise this agenda sector bodies need to work together to enable providers to use innovative new technology to improve the learner experience.

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FREE Interactive Learning Resources for Skills from Jisc currently available on www.jorum.ac.uk find them by using the search term 'Ilrforskills' these will be moved to the new the Jisc App platform in September

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FREE Interactive Learning Resources for Skills from Jisc currently available on www.jorum.ac.uk find them by using the search term 'Ilrforskills' these will be moved to the new the Jisc App platform in September

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Catherine Bone, Jisc

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I have just started to use Onenote Class Notebook to support blended learning outside the class with our apprentices.

Mike Worth

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Let the debate begin. Which is better? Evernote or OneNote? Quick Navigation Links: 4:40 Research and Retention 11:25 Composition and Editing 16:55 Mobility 24:30 Organization 27:00 Recall We take a candid look at the two apps in order to determine once and for all the difference between Evernote and Onenote.

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Bob Harrison
http://www.setuk.co.uk

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How do you evidence that blended learning outside the classroom has taken place?

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We provide secure, cost-effective access to the UK‘s richest collection of digital content: giving you access to the latest data and content from leading international publishers and providers.

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I've been teaching on our L3 Award Teacher Training course using & modelling Blended Learning & coaching lecturers as they embed blended learning in their courses . From this I've identified common needs and developed a Sharepoint site with screencasts & pdf Guides.

Keen to learn more about how Patricia @ Lewisham's systematic project has developed...

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Blending In | Motivating, Monitoring And Tracking Students Working Online

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Lewisham Southwark College has developed these resources as part of the Learning Futures Programme, commissioned and funded by the Education and Training Foundation. We have created a variety of staff training resources to help staff monitor, motivate and track students working online. All of the resources are downloadable and free to adapt/use within your own organisation.

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Has anyone else put a strategy in place for embedding Digital Skills for their staff?
Maria (ACL Essex)

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Which other colleges have an eLearning team of 1?

I have completed a 2015-16 FE College Blended Learning Project, am planning 2016-17 and would be interested talking to (an)others with a similar College/eLearning team ratio

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Just double Click/tap anywhere on the screen to open a text box. you can add audio, video, weblink, photos or attach a document

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Thanks for all the posts! keep then coming :) 

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Thanks for all the posts! keep then coming :) 