Harnessing the power of digital resources for innovative education
In this module, learners will explore the concept of digital educational resources and their application in creating innovative educational pathways. They will gain an understanding of the definition of digital educational resources as software, information, technical support, and organisational support that facilitate learning activities within a specific subject area. The module will discuss the widespread use of digital educational resources in the post-pandemic world, where remote learning became a necessity. Learners will examine how major institutions and organisations, such as schools and universities, have adopted digital resources to deliver education effectively. It explains that innovation and digitalisation go hand in hand, particularly in an interconnected world facing rapid technological change.
Learners will explore the concept of innovative educational pathways, which aim to prepare students for success in a complex and evolving society. They will understand that digital resources are essential components of innovation in education. Overall, this module aims to provide learners with a foundational understanding of digital educational resources and their role in creating innovative educational pathways. It encourages them to explore and leverage various digital resources to enhance their teaching and learning environments.
What is a digital educational resource?
A digital educational resource is “A set of software, information, technical and organisational support, that reflects a certain subject area and implements the technology for its study by different learning activities” (Noskova et al., 2016). In short, it is an innovative piece of educational material accessed digitally.
Where are digital educational resources currently being applied?
In the post-pandemic world, digital educational resources are being used virtually everywhere. More than likely, you or someone you know either studied or worked remotely due to restrictions and lockdowns in the era of Covid-19. Digital educational resources existed before all this of course, but the last few years have exponentially increased the speed of their uptake by major institutions and organisations, including the likes of schools and universities. Examples include the end-products of EU-funded projects like Jobs4All, many of which are available online as MOOCs, free learning content, etc.
Digital resources as the building blocks of innovative educational pathways.
The terms “digital” and “innovative” are, in many ways, synonymous with one another. As previously detailed, innovative educational pathways are those which “evolve and adapt to achieve their core mission: to educate students to be successful in a complex and interconnected world that faces rapid technological, cultural, economic and demographic change” (European Commission, 2023). The midsection of this statement is key in this context, namely, the description of a modern setting that is “interconnected… and faces rapid technological… change” (European Commission, 2023). In other words, education can no longer truly be considered innovative unless it makes use of digital resources.
What are some digital resources I can leverage to make an educational pathway more innovative?
- Genially is a free-to-use website with a variety of templates you can use to generate more engaging learning content. From something as simple as a quiz to the more advanced digital escape rooms and boardgames, it’s an innovative addition to any educational environment.
- Moodle is a learning management system that facilitates hybrid and remote education.
- Chamilo is a free, open-source content management system and e-learning software that allows individuals to create digital “campuses”.
- LibreOffice is a suite of free, open-source office applications that aims to make quality digital office resources available to all.
The above are just some examples of digital resources – there are many more! However, by isolating this small group, we can identify some important links between digital resources and innovative educational pathways. One, which has been described already, is the necessity of digital resource-use for education to truly be considered innovative in the first place. But just like there is more than one set of digital resources, there are many ways in which educational pathways can be innovative.
Another example of a recent innovation in education is the move toward an inclusive model of teaching. In an age where greater importance is placed on sensitivity around unconscious biases, individual learners’ ability levels, etc., educators are innovating to make their learning spaces more accepting of diversity than those of the past. Digital resources in education can be leveraged, not only in the sense of innovating technologically, but also to assist in this more theoretical, social form of innovation. The most obvious example of this is the connectedness offered by digital resources, with educational materials now deliverable to anyone, at anytime, anywhere in the world. A resource like Genially, for example, could be used to present a bespoke piece of educational content to a specific learner in a way that traditional models of education might struggle to.
In the following video, Geoff Stead discusses education that leverages digital resources:
Digital innovation in education - Learning in a Digital Society
Link to a Cornell University breakdown of Inclusive Teaching Strategies:
Inclusive Teaching Strategies - Cornell University
MOOC: Massive Open Online Courses. Large, freely available, digital databases of information that can be accessed by the public for the purposes of education.
Cornell University (2023) Inclusive Teaching Strategies: Center for Teaching Innovation, Inclusive Teaching Strategies | Center for Teaching Innovation. Available at: https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/assessment-evaluation/inclusion-accessibility-accommodation/building-inclusive-4#:~:text=Inclusive%20teaching%20strategies%20refer%20to,valued%20and%20able%20to%20succeed. (Accessed: 02 May 2023).
European Commission (2023) Innovation in education, European Education Area. European Commission. Available at: https://education.ec.europa.eu/education-levels/higher-education/innovation-in-education (Accessed: April 27, 2023).
Noskova, T. and Yakovleva, O. (2016) “Educational Interactions Quality in E-Learning Environment,” in Handbook of Research on Estimation and Control Techniques in E-Learning Systems. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.