The Online Educator: People and Pedagogy

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.

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.

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

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.

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