Learning essential skills outside the classroom

Author: Caroline Carlin

The vast range of digital media and digital media creation tools offer opportunities to explore the relatively new flipped classroom and blended learning pedagogic models.  Both approaches can potentially free up class time for discussion and active learning rather than passive listening, whilst also helping to prepare students for the digital workplace.  They can also help encourage students to be self-motivated learners, having the opportunity to learn at their own pace and revisit content as and when required.

But with so many tools and technologies out there, how do you choose which one meets your needs and those of your students?  The TELT team always follow a pedagogy first approach – “Technology should never be used for ‘technology sake’. There should always be an underlying pedagogical reason for its use. So in adopting a flipped or blended learning approach it is important to consider whether the task or activity can be delivered successfully in a digital media format.”  JISC, 2015 

Lynda.com is a great tool to explore if you need your students to learn essential skills which they can then apply to their studies.  Maybe they have an assessed presentation to do but aren’t too confident with PowerPoint or you’d like them to work in groups and want them to learn about effective team work and how to work collaboratively on files.  Often students might turn to YouTube to brush up on these skills, but Lynda.com gives the opportunity to share good quality, trusted resources, having over 5000 online courses covering a vast array of topics including software, creative and business skills, all taught by industry experts.  All UCLan staff and students can freely access courses on and off campus as well as through the Lynda.com app (you can also download courses to view offline).

You can share entire courses or individual videos with students, but the real power of Lynda lies in creating your own customised playlists, enabling you to map specific content to your teaching and learning objectives.  Within each playlist you can also add memos to add context or direct students to supplementary resources outside Lynda.  Playlists could also be used to create a digital version of core texts, giving students an alternative resource which could meet their learning style needs.

Take a look at the Teaching with lynda.com course for some inspiration.

If you’d like hep with mapping Lynda content to text books or curriculum, the team at Lynda.com will be able to help.  Send us an email with details and we’ll pass it to our Client Services Manager.