BA Education, Leadership and Culture

In this course unit, students will explore the diverse landscape of digital learning, gaining a comprehensive understanding of various forms and contexts of digital learning, the principles that underpin digital learning cultures, and the technologies that make such cultures possible. The course also aims to equip learners with the necessary knowledge and skills to participate in different digital learning cultures, and critically assess and create digital learning materials for digital learning for different purposes.

The course aims to develop students’ intellectual and practical skills in relation to digital learning culture. By engaging with the course, students will develop a deeper understanding of different facets of digital learning cultures, and how these cultures are developing or changing. They will also develop reflective skills that will enable them to critically evaluate different digital learning challenges and opportunities. Students on the course will develop important practical skills that will enable them to actively participate in their respective digital learning cultures both as informed learners but also as creators of learning content. In addition to this, students will also gain digital badges that enable them to display their skills as they progress on the course. This will enable them accurately to communicate their knowledge and skills to potential employers, hence boosting their chances of employability as not only will they be building a shareable digital portfolio, but the skills also acquired in doing so will be transferable to other knowledge and skills they acquire on the programme and beyond. 

The unit is organised into three parts. Parts I and II aim to enable students’ development of knowledge and understanding of digital learning and digital learning cultures as well as their ability to critically reflect on their own digital learning experiences. Part III is the practical, mostly hands-on component of the Unit. It will be covered through the alternating seminars and tech-tutorials throughout the semester and seeks to enable students to practicing creating and evaluating digital learning based on knowledge, skills and understanding developed in parts II and II of the Unit.

The course will be delivered using a mix of teaching methods to create synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities. These are:

• Lectures (2hrs): These will be weekly, mostly teacher led. They will be mostly synchronous but some of these will be pre-recorded for asynchronous learning in flipped class sessions that will be organised to allow for more learner-centred engagement around the contents of the lecture. It is expected that some of the lectures will be led by guest speakers from UoM and beyond based on expertise in specific areas of digital learning cultures.
• Seminars (1.5 hrs): These will be fortnightly synchronous, learner-centred, and teacher facilitated sessions with a focus on exploring, engaging with and reflecting on different forms of digital learning for students to gain hands-on experience of different forms of learning cultures. They are directly linked to issues explored in weekly lectures.
• Digital Workshops (1.5 hrs): These will be fortnightly hands-on workshops focussing on developing practical skills in using some digital tools that can be used to create digital learning resources; or the use of such tools to create actual digital learning resources. Seminars and Digital Workshops will take place in alternate weeks. 

• Define and describe different forms of digital learning
• Identify contextual, generational and cultural factors that shape formal and informal digital learning cultures
   

• Apply evidence-based criteria/frameworks to evaluate approaches to and practices of digital learning in specific contexts.
• Compare and contrast digital learning cultures using acquired criteria

• Create original digital learning materials in line with a particular digital learning culture and provide a rationale for it.
• Evaluate a digital learning solution or case study and provide evidence-based recommendations and suggestions

• Critically reflect on their digital learning experiences and document such reflections using appropriate tools for digital learning
• Evaluate digital tools used in digital learning cultures based on relevant criteria

40% Weighting
Task: A Critical Evaluation of a Digital Learning Culture in a well-defined context
Length: 1000 words (or an equivalent in other formats e.g., podcast, video essay or voiced-over slides)

60% Weighting
Task: Designing a digital learning material/resource that responds to a digital learning need 
Length: 10 minutes' worth of “learning” With 500 words rationale

Fifteen working days after submission. Feedback will be provided in textual and/ audio format.

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2. Bollmer, G. D. (2018). Theorizing Digital Cultures. Sage. 
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