The Online Educator: People and Pedagogy Course - The Open University

Design engaging courses, make your teaching more inclusive, navigate online research ethics and shape your digital identity.

Enhance your online teaching with strategies from educational technology experts

As e-learning becomes ever more widespread, online educators are being required to design learning experiences that engage and meet the needs of very diverse learners.

This course, developed by The Open University’s Institute of Educational Technology, explores four myths: that learning design is about technology and content; that innovation and accessibility are incompatible; that researching online learning is an ethics-free zone, and that educators’ online identities are irrelevant.

Studying the course will help you enhance your practice through videos, quizzes and discussion with peers.

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and learn at your own pace. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

• Available now
• 18 October 2021

What software or tools do you need?

To take part in this course you need an internet connection. No specific software is required.

Who will you learn with?

Who developed the course?

The Open University

The Open University (OU) is the largest academic institution in the UK and a world leader in flexible distance learning, with a mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas.

What topics will you cover?

Week 1 - Disruption and design

• Current developments in online teaching
  
• Navigating the hype about disruptive innovation
  
• The relationship between content, technology, people and pedagogy in learning design
  
• The challenges of meeting diverse students’ needs
  
• The use of personas in creating relevant online courses
  

Week 2 - Innovation and accessibility

• Myths about accessibility and digital innovation
  
• Types of digital exclusion
  
• Finding and evaluating accessibility guidelines
  
• Applying accessibility guidelines to your teaching
  

Week 3 - Ethical evaluation of online teaching

• Myths about researching and evaluating online teaching
  
• Evidence and ethics
  
• Navigating the hype around educational technology innovation
  
• Evaluating research reports
  
• Evaluating your own teaching innovations
  
• Ethical considerations when researching online teaching
  

Week 4 - Who am I online?

• Myths about online identity
  
• The value to educators of a carefully constructed online identity
  
• Evaluating your own online identity
  
• Using Twitter to build an identity online

Who is the course for?

This course is suitable for anyone involved in online education or training, including teachers, trainers, course designers and researchers. While it will help to have a current practice setting to draw on, this is not essential.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to:

• Develop personas to inform the online learning design process.
• Apply accessibility guidelines to online teaching contexts.
• Reflect on your existing digital identity and plan for its future development.
• Discuss the relationship between technology, content, people and pedagogy in online courses.
• Identify the ethical considerations involved in researching online teaching.
• Identify key accessibility issues related to online learning.
• Explore ways of shaping a digital identity as an online educator.