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Supporting success through assessment
Research in assessment practice points to an emphasis on summative assessment to test learner knowledge. However, this assessment strategy does not necessarily develop knowledge and skills. In fact, a strategic approach by learners to only engage with knowledge that will specifically apply to summative tasks creates a shallow approach to learning. It is a strategy…
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Where is podcasting in higher education?
Podcast: An audio file made available for automatic download via web syndication. Typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically. During the years following the coining of the term in 2004, the world started exploring the potential of podcasts. YouTube was an independent curiosity, MySpace was the social media…
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Perfect partners: how we work with others to support learning design
Over the last year I’ve been reflecting on how much the success of our work depends on effective partnerships with a range of people – within and external to the Open University. As Learning Designers, it’s inherent in our role that we work collaboratively with curriculum teams to elicit and capture ideas for module creation.…
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Learning analytics: the patchwork quilt visualisation
In the Open University, we have developed a suite of LA (Learning Analytics) visualisations called ‘Action for Analytics’ (A4A: slides from a presentation giving more detail) designed to help those responsible for producing modules to see the effects of their designs. For example, it’s possible to track just how much use videos we produce for…