Get In MOOC: Press Release

Get Interactive with new course about teaching with technology

For immediate release

21^st April 2017

From 1^st May, educators from universities, colleges and schools around the world will have the opportunity to learn how best to incorporate educational technologies into their teaching.

The Bloomsbury Learning Environment (BLE) has co-designed the course Get Interactive: Practical Teaching with Technology, which will be delivered as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) through Coursera. The course is a practical, hands-on introduction to teaching with technology, providing the opportunity to explore a range of tools and technology that support and engage students with dynamic and interactive learning experiences.

This course, which is available to educators worldwide, will help enable teaching professionals to stay up to date with the fast-paced technological world we live in. It is aimed at teachers, lecturers and instructors who have little experience using online tools and technology for teaching purposes but who have basic familiarity with the Internet and online learning environments.

The three week long interactive course consists of a series of video tutorials and activities which participants can work through at their own pace, with opportunities for discussion with their peers throughout.

Each week of the course focuses on a particular topic, and there is a weekly peer-reviewed assessment:

Week 1 – Enriching course content with multimedia:

·         The course will look at a variety of media that can be used to engage and excite students. These include creating images, videos and screencasts, and embedding Twitter feeds.

Week 2 – Student production of content: encouraging students to collaborate:

·         During this week, participants will explore how to encourage students to work together and actively participate in their learning.

Week 3 - Formative assessment and feedback:

·         In the final week of the course, participants will consider their experiences in the course and how they might adapt and develop their own practice.

Sarah Sherman, BLE Service Manager, said: “We are excited to launch our new course to help educators around the world take full advantage of the great technology we have available to us. This is a perfect opportunity to learn good practice and explore how to incorporate innovative methods into teaching, and engage students through technology.”

For more information about the course, visit:  http://ble1.weebly.com/getinmooc.html and to register, visit https://www.coursera.org/learn/getinmooc.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Bloomsbury Learning Environment

·         The Bloomsbury Learning Environment (BLE) is a shared e-learning service for six Higher Education institutions in central London, all of which are members of the University of London. The BLE is committed to innovating learning and teaching by sharing good practice in Technology Enhanced Learning and e-learning. It supports its partners by providing cost efficiencies, which are achieved by negotiating with software suppliers and sharing economies of scale. The BLE aims to work collaboratively, developing new and exciting ways of teaching and learning that would otherwise be difficult for the partners to achieve alone (the whole being greater than the sum of its parts).

·         www.ble.ac.uk