e-Learning Materials for Adult Learners

Four rounds of e-learning materials have been funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to support post-16 learning. The latest, the fourth round, has been developed to be relevant to specific parts of the ACL curriculum.
These round 4 materials recently became available online to tutors and learners in adult education and now can also be downloaded either singly or as collections to CD on request to the NLN coordinator.

The subject areas covered in this latest release are:

• Family Learning
• Modern Foreign Languages
• English for Speakers of Other Language (ESOL)
• Making Learning Work for You

The materials are available as learning objects - short chunks of learning that can be used as part of face to face learning or for learners to access independently. They are highly interactive employing audio, video and animation to provide information, activity and assessments.

The ESOL materials are available for learners at entry level 1 through to level 2.

How Do I Look At The Materials?

The best way to get an idea of what is available is to look at the materials online. A KAES tutor can request a password for themselves and for their learners by leaving a comment here, or by asking through a Google Group.

Once you have an idea of what is available you can create a collection for access by learners online.

If once you have looked at the materials you want a selection downloaded to CDs the ILT Manager will facilitate this.

In due course these materials wil be more generally available on CD and hopefully on a virtual learning environment - MOODLE - currently under development.

More on MOODLE later!!

SO - ask for a password and then go to www.aclearn.net/nln-materials

Too Much Information! - RSS

“What does RSS do?” is a more useful question for most Internet users than what it is!

RSS 2.0 (Really Simple Syndication) is a technology that allows you to subscribe to a web page or blog with an RSS formatted ‘feed’. It is used particularly by news websites, blogs and podcasts but it is potentially a very powerful method of filtering information and getting a personalised view of the Internet.

There are other formats but RSS is the most common. You have probably already spotted the RSS or XML buttons on some web pages e.g. BBC.

Clicking one of these buttons will most likely take you to a page of horrible looking xml code but we only need to copy the address in the address bar to get it to work!


Along with the RSS feed you will need a ‘feed reader’ or ‘aggregator’. As the name suggests an aggregator pulls information together into one place. It will also track subsequent changes to a website or other information source automatically. A web-based feed reader or aggregator such as Bloglines requires no software to be downloaded or installed on the user’s computer and gives access to a personal selection of feeds from the Internet. These feeds can then be read as summaries from within the aggregator or provide links to the full content.

Why not try it out? The attached PDF might help..

Using Bloglines

!!Large file (1.5mb)

Open University's "Making Your Teaching Inclusive"

This is a very good, new site from the Open University.

Clear, informative and practices what it preaches in terms of providing user customisation for the site. (If you don't know what that means click here..)

There are lots of short video clips - in various formats - with learners speaking for themselves.

Yes, it is aimed at HE, but I think you will find useful, practical information and guidance here, whether you are a practitioner or manager in the adult and community sector.

The site divides into four main sections:
Understanding and Awareness
Inclusive Teaching
Identifying a Student's Needs
Legal and Professional Context

with a comprehensive A-Z.