Learning Objects
What is a learning object?
Over the last few years there has been a marked shift in thinking about e-learning materials, away from the development of monolithic online courses that are difficult to reuse and adapt, towards smaller, more flexible chunks of learning material that can be used by educators in a number of different ways. These bite-sized digital learning resources are known as learning objects.
What are the advantages of learning objects?
They may be:
- Easily updated without changing a whole course
- Designed to be used on a range of platforms
- Cost effective and efficient to produce
- Easily adapted to meet the requirements of local curricula
- Easy to blend with other resources, digital or traditional
What sorts of learning objects will be available inside the repository?
The Stòr Cùram repository will include learning resources derived from three main sources:
1. New multi-media learning resources: specially created by the project to meet the needs of learners undertaking the new social work curricula. These new learning resources – created in consultation with the Scottish social work education community - will be of two main kinds:
- conceptual learning objects that explain and illustrate key ideas such as ‘resilience’ in child care, or ‘risk’ in relation to work with offenders;
- case-based learning objects that provide a focus for student learning in relation to real world case situations such as an interagency dilemma, or a family case study.
2. Existing digital learning resources: these will be incorporated ‘as is’, or repurposed to be included in the repository. There is a rich seam of educational material scattered across the World Wide Web, or existing in other formats such as CD-ROM or video, that could be used for social work education. The project will negotiate access to these resources, repurposing them where necessary, and making them available via the repository.
3. Learning resource exchange: the desks, filing cabinets, and hard drives of social work educators are also full of learning resources that could make valuable contributions to a shared collection of materials. The project will encourage and enable social work educators to contribute reusable learning resources to the collection whilst protecting the rights of employing organisations and individual authors.