{"id":632,"date":"2025-01-24T11:38:07","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T11:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/?p=632"},"modified":"2025-01-24T11:38:07","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T11:38:07","slug":"what-is-open-learning-and-how-might-i-use-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2025\/01\/24\/what-is-open-learning-and-how-might-i-use-it\/","title":{"rendered":"What is \u2018Open Learning\u2019 and how might I use it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Lancaster University we use Moodle as our learning management system (LMS) or virtual learning environment (VLE). However, what isn\u2019t often known is that we actually have several instances of Moodle used across the University for different institutions or activities such as exams. For example, our partner campus in Weihai, Lancaster University College at Beijing Jiaotong University (LUCBJTU<\/a>), has its own instance of Moodle and so does our partner campus in Ghana, LU Ghana<\/a>. Aside from these, there are three different instances in use at our Bailrigg campus: Lancaster Moodle, Training and Development Moodle, Exams Moodle and we also have Moodle \u2018Open Learning\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

Open Learning has most of the same features as the \u2018Lancaster Moodle\u2019 which we use daily with our students. It is used by staff, including teaching staff and researchers, to host courses to external groups of people. For example, it is used by the Centre for Child & Family Justice Research for the Giving HOPE Project<\/a>. Training is provided through Open Learning to those who take an active role in the project such as those who provide care to mothers and babies. Open Learning is also used by the Library to provide support to school aged learners who are completing an EPQ (Extended Project Qualification). The students use the Open Learning space alongside in-person library sessions to learn more about how to search for relevant literature, how to reference and other key project skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main advantage to Open Learning is that enrolment is not limited to people with a Lancaster University IT account. It can be accessed by anyone depending on what enrolment type the creator of the course chooses. For example, you could choose that users can self-enrol with a key (password) or you could choose that users are automatically enrolled when they click a link to the course.<\/span><\/p>\n

Open Learning has a wealth of activities which can be used with your learners including the ability to embed Xerte<\/a> packages and videos. You can also create quizzes to test the knowledge of your learners and interactive H5P (HTML5 packages) activities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another feature of Open Learning which is popular is the ability to create badges and certificates for those learners who have successfully completed a course. A template for a certificate is provided and you can also import your own badge design so that learners can add the badge to their profiles for example, on LinkedIn.<\/span><\/p>\n

To find out more about Moodle, visit the ASK page<\/a>. To find out more about creating an Open Learning course, get in touch with myself or a member of the central Digital Learning Team via the IT Help Centre.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The
The ‘Home’ page for Open Learning.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Lancaster University we use Moodle as our learning management system (LMS) or virtual learning environment (VLE). However, what isn\u2019t often known is that we actually have several instances of Moodle used across the University for different institutions or activities such as exams. For example, our partner campus in Weihai, Lancaster University College at Beijing … Continue reading What is \u2018Open Learning\u2019 and how might I use it?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[5,47],"class_list":["post-632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moodle","tag-moodle","tag-open-learning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":485,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2024\/01\/10\/digital-training-courses-available\/","url_meta":{"origin":632,"position":0},"title":"Digital Training Courses Available!","author":"Elizabeth Walkden","date":"January 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The Digital Learning Team have a whole host of training courses available this term. These are mainly aimed at academic and professional services staff to help you make the most of our suite of digital learning tools and services.\u00a0 Below you can find the dates and sign up links to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/category\/event\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":521,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2024\/03\/01\/upcoming-training-exams-moodle\/","url_meta":{"origin":632,"position":1},"title":"Upcoming Training: Exams Moodle","author":"Elizabeth Walkden","date":"March 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Here at Lancaster, we use Moodle as our virtual learning environment (VLE) and have several customised instances of Moodle where we can host different types of material. One of those is 'Exams Moodle' and...it does \"exactly what it says on the tin\"... hosts exams. 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Many of you are starting to look at your online teaching and learning provision and especially, your Moodle spaces. The DLT team are hosting a series of training workshops to help Lancaster University\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/category\/event\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":348,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2023\/10\/05\/moodle-users-we-need-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":632,"position":4},"title":"Moodle Users – We Need You!","author":"Elizabeth Walkden","date":"October 5, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"User experience is a bit of a theme in this blog and DLT would like to invite Lancaster University staff who use Moodle to complete a short survey on their experience (link to survey below!). It will not take more than 5-10 minutes of your time. 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