This module is designed for current or future professionals in digital or technology-enhanced learning. It provides you with hands-on experience of a range of learning technologies, and enables you to understand the processes of designing, implementing and critiquing elearning and the ideas that underpin these processes.
You’ll be able to explore and use a range of social media, to learn collaboratively in groups, and to undertake individual study on topics relevant to you. You’ll explore case studies and reports from various countries and contexts, and will develop your skills in using evidence to recommend specific technologies.
By the end of your studies, you’ll have developed your ability to act as a creative and effective professional within digital learning, teaching and training.
What you will study
The materials for this module have been created by a team of leading-edge researchers and teachers in the OU’s Institute of Educational Technology. All of these materials are online, and you will explore them in small online groups in text-based discussion forums and live voice sessions (using the 'OU Live' environment), guided and supported by your tutor. You are also welcome to lead your own voice-based sessions, to use blogs and wikis including the OU’s own tools if you wish, and to use other tools of your own choice. You will also be supported in individual study and in seeking out new networks and sources of information on the internet – from ejournals to ecommunities, from social bookmarking to open educational resources.
One purpose of the module is to give you direct experience of current and innovative learning technologies. But whether you are blogging or writing a wiki, talking online with your tutor and fellow students or trying out a new tool you have just found, we shall be asking you to keep in mind fundamental questions about the nature of learning and learning design. The study materials and your tutor will support you as you read papers from some of the leading thinkers in the field, and will enable you to sift evidence from researchers and practitioners around the world.
By the end of the 32 weeks, you should find that you have new skills to apply in your own context, and a deeper understanding of the forces and debates shaping the world of technology-enhanced learning.
Vocational relevance
The module is highly relevant if you work in - or wish to move into - elearning within university or college education, training in business and other contexts such as heritage and health, and a wide range of other areas where elearning plays an important role.
The module is a core component of our MA in Online and Distance Education (F10), which you can study as separate modules and in any order - though we recommend you first read our Pathways guidance to see which might be the best route through this qualification for you.
During your study, you will experience a range of learning technologies, and will explore the processes of designing, implementing and critiquing technology-enhanced or digital learning. When you have successfully completed the module, you will have developed your ability to act as a creative and effective professional within the broad field of technology-enhanced teaching and training.
Some of our masters students are sponsored by their employers, and we expect this to be the case on this module. Employers have demonstrated that they value the vocational relevance of the programme and the professional benefits that it brings to their staff.
Entry
To take this module you need to be ready for study at postgraduate level, usually demonstrated by having a bachelors degree or equivalent qualification. You need easy access to the Web, but you don’t need to be experienced in blogging or in online discussion forums. Nor do you need to be working in technology-enhanced learning, but you should be interested in developing some expertise in this area.
However, if you have successfully completed two-thirds of a bachelor’s degree (an HND in the UK, for example) and have professional experience in technology-enabled learning, you may still be eligible for the programme. You will be asked to provide further information and evidence of your eligibility as part of the registration process for the programme.
All teaching is in English, and your proficiency in the language needs to be adequate for postgraduate study and for contributing to online discussions by text and voice. If English is not your first language, we strongly recommend that you make sure you can achieve a score of at least seven in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). To assess your English Language skills in relation to your proposed studies, you can visit the IELTS website.
If you have any doubt about whether the module is suitable for you, please speak to an adviser.
Outside the UK
This module is available throughout the world.
Qualifications
H800 is a compulsory module in our:
H800 is an optional module in our:
This module can also count towards F01, which is no longer available to new students.
Some postgraduate qualifications allow study to be chosen from other subject areas. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification descriptions for information on the circumstances in which this module can count towards these qualifications because from time to time the structure and requirements may change.
If you have a disability
In this module you are expected to use a wide range of resources, and to study emerging online technologies. Many of the materials will be delivered as web pages, pdf files and web-based tools. Tutorial and student-led discussions and activities will be carried out in text-based discussion forums online. In addition, some discussions and collaborative activities will take place as live voice-based events in our audioconferencing (audiographics) environment, which combines voice, text and images.
We have tried to avoid using inaccessible resources, but some material which is core for the module may not be easily accessible if you use assistive technology. Some students may also find the amount of reading from technically different sources challenging. In many cases there will be sufficient alternative activities and material to enable you to complete assignments successfully. Where this is not the case, you will be given individual support by your tutor in collaboration with other OU staff. Support for access to Library resources is available from the Library Helpdesk.
Since you will be asked to study the use of emerging online tools, and to participate in live online discussions in an audioconferencing (audiographics) environment, you may find it beneficial to have someone assisting you. Advice on this is available from an adviser.
Written transcripts of any audio components and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) versions of printed material are available. Some Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader. Alternative formats of the study materials may be available in the future.
Study materials
What's included
H800 provides you with specially written web-based teaching material, learning activities for small groups of fellow students and for you to undertake individually, support from your tutor, live discussion online and message-based forums, a dedicated website and other internet resources.
As an OU student, you can use The Open University Library website. This provides access via the internet to a wide range of online resources such as databases, full-text ejournals, reference sources, ebooks, newspapers, images and more to support your studies. You can use these to do a literature search, keep up to date with your subject, or read around a topic. Support for developing and improving your information searching skills is available on the Library website, and the Library Helpdesk is there seven days a week to provide help and advice on finding and using information.
Contact us if you would like to know more about study with The Open University before you register.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
Your tutor will guide you on many aspects of this module, and will grade and comment on your written work; you may also ask your tutor for advice and guidance. You will be taught and assessed through a combination of media, including the internet, live discussion online and contributions to message-based forums, email and written assignments. Your tutor will provide four tutorials in the ‘OU Live’ environment, where students interact with their tutor and each other using voice, visuals and text-chat.
If you have impaired vision or are D/deaf or hard of hearing, or if you have another disability that may affect the way you use a computer or your ability to communicate, you might find using OU Live difficult without specialist support. Please contact us in good time before the module starts, to discuss this.
Assessment
The assessment details can be found in the facts box above.
You will be expected to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) online through the eTMA system..
Future availability
The details given here are for the module that starts in February 2018 when it is expected to be available for the final time. A replacement module, Technology-enhanced learning: foundations and futures (H880), is planned for February 2019.
Regulations
As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations which are available on our
Student Policies and Regulations website.