All assignments must be submitted and an overall pass gained.

10% Assessed discussion continuum exercise (LO1 & 2)
15% Group work - 5 minute online presentation (LO2)
25% A 500 word personal reflection based on your learning and teaching and a constructivist or cognitive apprenticeship approach (LO3)
50% Final assignment - 1000 word approach to course design (LO1, 2 & 4)

The aim of this module is to enable participants to gain a practical and theoretical understanding of central themes in the field of technology supported learning which are of both long term importance and contemporary significance. The module will encourage participants to develop and broaden their own practice through experience as an online learner, reflection and constructive, critical debate. It aims to help develop confidence and competence in the effective design and delivery of technology supported learning in addition to encouraging participant?s development as reflective practitioners contributing effectively to their community of practice. Participants will be encouraged to critically examine the differences, real and perceived, between traditional modes of learning and learning supported by technology.

The module introduces technology supported learning and explores the increasingly diverse ways in which technology is used to support and enhance learning and explores associated terminology. Building upon this foundation, the module will encourage participants to gain first hand experience of learning online using online discussion and will further encourage participants to reflect on their experience in order, with reference to relevant theory, to understand the challenges and opportunities of the online environment and so design effective strategies for online tutoring.

The module will also focus on course design for embedding learning technology. Participants will be encouraged to engage with theoretical models, reflect upon their own practical experience gained from participating in an online environment and with each other in order to develop a pragmatic yet theoretically underpinned approach to course design and Principles of eLearning.

The following key topics will be covered:
- Ways in which technology may be used to enhance learning and associated terminology
- Effective online communication and establishing an online identity
- Building an online community and teaching or facilitating online
- A critical examination of the differences between technology supported learning and traditional modes of learning and teaching
- eLearning theories
- Course design and Principles of eLearning
- Implications for change in the roles of learners and teachers

This module will be delivered predominantly online in order to give participants first hand experience of learning online. There will also be 2 face-to-face workshops during the module.

The rationale for the learning and teaching strategies employed during this module is to encourage participants to explore learning and teaching strategies and techniques facilitated or required by the online environment in order to be able to critically compare these with traditional approaches to learning and teaching. The predominant learning and teaching strategy used for the online delivery is based upon a model of collaborative professional enquiry. Whilst there is argument over whether exclusively online pedagogies exist, there is some consensus for the view that the online environment does facilitate certain approaches. One of the most significant of these approaches is collaborative enquiry. Thus, the module will enable participants to gain experience of this important learning and teaching strategy and prompt their critical reflection upon it. Participants will be expected to explore the online environment, find and share appropriate resources and use the online environment to contribute critically towards building each others? knowledge and practice as online learners, teachers or facilitators: thus contributing to the development of their community of practice.

Electronic Resources: To access some of the e-journals and bibliographic databases you will need an ATHENS account to request one go to: libraryhelpdesk@staffs.ac.uk

Full text:

- Educause: a practitioner's journal for college and university managers and users of information resources?information, technology, and services
- Emerald: Full text business related articles: Athens account required
- Infotrac Computer Database: gives full text articles on computing and I.T related issues: Athens account required
? Lexis Nexis: Contains the full text of all major UK newspapers: Athens account required
? Swetswise: This database allows you to search across the full text of many of the e-journals that the Library subscribes to. A very useful resource available from your desktop. Athens account required.
? Taylor and Francis: Articles on a variety of subject areas. Athens account required.

Bibliographic and Citation Databases:

? British Education Index: BEI contains subject descriptions of, and bibliographic references to, significant journal literature relating to education and training. Athens account required
? ERIC: Educational Resources Information Centre, U.S database. Athens account required
? Web of Knowledge: Provides references to articles from a variety of subject areas. Athens account required.
? ZETOC: a database containing all the journals that the British Library holds. While you can only access the contents page it is still a useful tool and offers an alerting service to keep you abreast of new material in your area. Athens account required.

Web Sites and Subject Gateways


? BECTA : British Education Communications and Technology Agency http://www.becta.org.uk/
? CETIS: Centre for Education Technology Interoperability Standards http://www.cetis.ac.uk/
? Deliberations: A gateway to sites covering educational related material, organizations and resources http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/deliberations/
? HEFCE: Higher Education Funding Council for England http://www.hefce.ac.uk/
? Higher Education Academy: Previously the ILT (Institute for Learning and Teaching) http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/
? Infomine: scholarly internet resource collections http://infomine.ucr.edu/
? Joint Information Systems Committee: JISC supports further and higher education by providing strategic guidance and advice and opportunities to use ICT to support teaching, learning, research and administration http://www.jisc.ac.uk/
? Resource Discovery Network: Quality internet resources for further and higher education http://www.rdn.ac.uk/
? SEDA: Staff education and development association http://www.seda.ac.uk/
? Techlearn: Technologies Centre funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is a useful starting point for the use of ICT in teaching. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/techlearn_home.html
? QAA: Quality Assurance Agency http://www.qaa.ac.uk/


Mail Lists

? Jiscmail: Jiscmail lists academic discussion lists by subject http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/
? Cetis: Cetis SIGs (Special Interest Groups) http://www.cetis.ac.uk

Printed Journals available in the University Library
- Active learning in higher education
- Assessment and evaluation in higher education
- Computer education
- Computers and education
- The Curriculum journal
- Education journal
- Educational management administration & leadership
- Higher quality : the bulletin of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education
- Innovations in education and teaching international
- Journal of marketing for higher education
- Journal of vocational education and training
- Research in education : An interdisciplinary, international research journal
- Studies in higher education
- Technology pedagogy and education
- Widening participation and lifelong learning

The approach the module will use with respect to texts and resources is as follows
- We will indicate available and relevant resources which participants could use to prompt their enquiry, and where possible, we will make these available online via links from the online learning environment. This will include openly accessible documents on the web; journal articles (online and paper-based) available to University staff and students; and books (held by the University Library).
- Any books indicated will be treated as indicative, but not essential, study.
- We expect participants to proactively find other appropriate articles and papers on the web and in journals accessible to them; to critically evaluate them and to (critically) share these with their peers.
- We will encourage and facilitate participants? exploration of appropriate journals held by the University and the evaluative comparison of these with openly available web-based resources.

Indicative texts (held by the University Library) include

- Garrison, D. R. (2004) E-Learning in the 21st century : A framework for research and practice. London : RoutledgeFalmer.

- Laurillard, Diana. (1999) Rethinking university teaching : A framework for the effective use of educational technology. London : Routledge.

- Salmon, G (2003) E-moderating: The key to teaching and learning online , 2nd edn., London: Taylor and Francis

- Salmon, G (2003) E-tivities: The key to active learning online; London: Kogan Page

- Stephenson John., (2001) ed. Teaching & learning online: Pedagogies for new technologies. London : Kogan Page