FutureLearn

The Online Educator: People and Pedagogy (FutureLearn)

Offered by The Open University,

Design engaging courses, make your teaching more inclusive, navigate online research ethics and shape your digital identity. Enhance your online teaching with strategies from educational technology experts. As e-learning becomes ever-more widespread, online educators are being required to design learning experiences that engage and meet the needs of very diverse learners.

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This course, developed by The Open University’s Institute of Educational Technology, explores four myths: that learning design is about technology and content; that innovation and accessibility are incompatible; that researching online learning is an ethics-free zone, and that educators’ online identities are irrelevant.
Studying the course will help you enhance your practice through videos, quizzes and discussion with peers.

What topics will you cover?

Week 1 - Disruption and design

Current developments in online teaching
Navigating the hype about disruptive innovation
The relationship between content, technology, people and pedagogy in learning design
The challenges of meeting diverse students’ needs
The use of personas in creating relevant online courses

Week 2 - Innovation and accessibility

Myths about accessibility and digital innovation
Types of digital exclusion
Finding and evaluating accessibility guidelines
Applying accessibility guidelines to your teaching

Week 3 - Ethical evaluation of online teaching

Myths about researching and evaluating online teaching
Evidence and ethics
Navigating the hype around educational technology innovation
Evaluating research reports
Evaluating your own teaching innovations
Ethical considerations when researching online teaching

Week 4 - Who am I online?

Myths about online identity
The value to educators of a carefully constructed online identity
Evaluating your own online identity
Using Twitter to build an identity online

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

Develop personas to inform the online learning design process
Identify the ethics considerations involved in researching online teaching
Apply accessibility guidelines to online teaching contexts
Identify key accessibility issues related to online learning
Reflect on your exisiting digital identity and plan for its future development
Explore ways of shaping a digital identity as an online educator
Discuss the relationship between technology, content, people and pedagogy in online courses.

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