Learning and Teaching Resources
Focus
Establish and implement a shared resource library for digital and non-digital resources.
Explanation
Within the LCO there will be a pool of expertise and resources that, if shared, can enhance the learning for the community members. These have been sourced or the process for their development identified and a coherent policy governs their storage, access, and construction. Within the chosen LMS there is the ability to create meta courses which encourage the co-construction of resources for use in individual courses or programmes of learning. Through this process a diverse range of materials is available to meet different learning styles and teachers will continue to adapt resources and programmes to meet individual needs. They will also be provided with opportunities for sharing these resources across and between community members, and will be supported in their shared development.
Teachers understand policies – school / LCO, for borrowing/ purchasing resources, photocopying, phoning, faxing, etc. Learning providers will have the access rights required to upload resources to virtual environments.
Learners need the opportunity to access a range of online resources, from courses within the LMS and from other online areas within their Personal Learning Environments (PLE). Schools will need to ensure that students have access to computers, and blocking and filtering of internet access is moderated to allow access to a range of resources.
It is important to seek advice about copyright and ownership of learning resources that are created by LCO teachers and the appropriate and fair use of resources created by others which may be found online.
When teachers are creating digital resources they could use Creative Commons licensing to establish copyright for their work. They should be mindful of creating digital resources that can be accessed and repurposed by others, and that where possible they are designed to be SCORM compliant and tagged with appropriate metadata enabling them to be easily found and reused within different online environments.
Action
For the LMSs to become the vehicle for not only storage and access of the shared resources but, the training ground for their shared development;
All providers within the LCO will have the ability to access and contribute to the resource repository in the LMS.
Part of the professional learning of the LCO will incorporate the development across subject area and year levels of communities to share and co-construct digital objects and resources.
Distribution and access to non-digital resources are reflected in a coherent policy that is understood by all LCO members.
