Digital content
The Digital Repository of learning materials lies at the heart of the Virtual-Workspace. High quality, interactive, digital learning materials are provided from a number of sources to facilitate and enhance the learning experience of the users of the V-W. Students and teachers can browse or search this collection for materials that support both academic and vocational subjects.
All of the materials are indexed and tagged in accordance with the V-W taxonomy, which is a combination of the Curriculum Online (COL) and National Learning Network (NLN) metatagging frameworks. They have additional tagging to indicate the learning styles for which they are most appropriate and the bandwidths required for delivering suitable access speeds.
Quality control
Content must meet quality thresholds for suitability for the intended audience (including academic and pedagogic level, ease of use, and appropriateness of technology), engagement and conformance with international educational technology standards.
Teacher tools
As well as browsing and searching the V-W Digital Repository for suitable learning materials, teachers can also direct relevant learning materials to their students by saving them in the learning communities, for each of their classes. What's more, teachers can also attach learning materials to assignments and messages they send to their students through the V-W.
Teachers can create their own online learning materials by using the Content Creator tool in the Resources area of the Virtual-Workspace.
Learning styles
Through our ‘Learning Styles Questionnaire’, every student in the V-W is given the opportunity to discover their preferred style of learning (eg visual, aural, reading and writing, or kinaesthetic - or a combination of these). To enhance their learning, each learning item in the Digital Repository has additional tagging to indicate the learning style/s for which it is most appropriate. Visual icons clearly mark each style. This enables students to decide - at a glance, which learning materials are most suited to them when searching the Digital Repository.
Content providers
Below are details of some of the content providers we currently use.
NLN
The national learning network (NLN) is a national partnership programme designed to increase the uptake of Information Learning Technology (ILT) across the learning and skills sector in England. The NLN achieves this in part by the development and provision of interactive, multimedia e-learning resources for teaching and learning. To date, the NLN has created over 800 hours of flexible, interactive learning spread across a range of curriculum areas, which the V-W has successfully integrated into its learning platform. These small bite-sized chunks of learning, which each take about 20-30 minutes to work through, are highly interactive and multimedia based, and stretch across a range of curriculum areas.
Granada
Granada Learning publishes innovative, curriculum-based resources for the UK and abroad. It currently supplies more than 95 per cent of schools in the UK. Letts Educational published its first set of revision guides in 1979 which have remained a popular choice among students and teachers ever since. The V-W has purchased hundreds of Letts online GCSE materials from Granada.
Digitalbrain
Digitalbrain is a leading bespoke content, multimedia and Internet application developer to the UK education market. In conjunction with the NEC Digitalbrain has produced a suite of AS-level subjects which the V-W has acquired.
ECDL
The European Computer Driving Licence® (ECDL) is the internationally recognised qualification which enables people to demonstrate their competence in computer skills. The V-W provides access to the seven modules, which cover the key concepts of computing, its practical applications and its use in the workplace and society. Each of the modules must be passed before an ECDL certificate is awarded.
Spark Learning
Spark Learning develops and publishes engaging interactive products, under the Spark Island brand, designed to motivate students to improve their skills in key subjects. A selection of Spark Island teaching and learning materials for English, maths and science is available for use in the V-W Digital Repository.
Priory Woods
Priory Woods is an all-age community school situated in east Middlesbrough. Priory Woods has created a number of special education needs (SEN) e-learning materials and has given the V-W permission to house all of them in its Digital Repository.
National Archives - Learning Curve
The National Archives of England, Wales and the United Kingdom has one of the largest archival collections in the world, spanning 1000 years of British history, from Domesday Book of 1086 to Government papers recently released to the public.
Learning Curve is a free online teaching and learning resource produced by the National Archives, which follows the History National Curriculum.
The National Archives has generously allowed the V-W to use these Learning Curve resources within its online learning platform.
Black Country Pathfinder 14-19 Networks for Excellence
The Black Country Pathfinder developed partnerships and networks in the sub-region, aimed at widening curriculum choices for 14-19 year old students and opening up individual progression routes that combine relevant academic and vocational language learning. This Pathfinder has set out to put young people at the heart of the learning experience - which places language learning within the context of real life, real work and real experience.
DiDA Delivered
DiDA Delivered is the biggest UK e-learning collaboration ever. With 55 teacher authors and 23 developers producing the content, DiDA Delivered is unrivalled in terms of its quality, diversity and coverage.
The NWLG DiDA project aim was to create an extensive, stimulating and high quality resource to deliver the four units of DiDA to be delivered free of charge to all secondary schools in the UK.
The V-W has published all the NWLG DiDA materials in the V-W resources bank.
