1.
Opening Educational Practices in Scotland
Getting started with open learning –
a workshop template for use in
workplace and community settings
Cite as: Cannell P. (2016) “Getting started with Open Learning” Workshop Template”, CC BY 4.0

2.
Learning Online
Have you studied a course
online before?
Have you used Google or
YouTube to learn a new skill
or solve a problem?

3.
Aim of this short session
To share some ideas about options for studying free
online courses
To give some guidance on how to find suitable
courses
To advise on supportive ways of engaging with online
courses

4.
Open Learn
This is the Open
University site where
you can find a large
number of free courses,
videos and audio
material. There are no
time restrictions on
when you start or finish
the courses on
OpenLearn.

5.
Badged online courses on OpenLearn
Badged Online Courses are a new
feature on OpenLearn and they are
particularly useful as a stepping
stone into learning online or to
further study. Badged courses on
OpenLearn involve 24 hours of
study – courses available at the
moment include:
Succeed with Maths Part 1
Succeed with Maths part 2
Taking your first steps in higher
education
Succeed with learning
English: skills for learning
Succeed in the workplace

6.
Future Learn
FutureLearn provides a
platform for Massive Open
Online Courses (MOOCs)
from a variety of leading
universities and from
organisations like the
British Council. MOOCs
typically have a start and
finish date and are
therefore only available for
study while they are ‘live’.

7.
Show an example of a current Future Learn
course

8.
Show a second example if time

9.
Structured study over several weeks

10.
Finding courses
The OU in Scotland’s Open
Pathways materials help with this
process.
The short course ‘Supporting
Collective Learning in Workplace
and Community Settings’ gives a
lot more help and guidance

11.
Supporting each other
All these courses can be accessed via a computer, a tablet or a
smart phone. But just because they are online it doesn’t mean
you have to be isolated as a learner. There are great advantages
in forming a study group with others in the workplace. This can
be as simple as meeting up on a regular basis to share
experience, swap ideas and explore what you’ve been learning.
Pixabay.com

12.
If you are an Open Learning Champion, a Union
Learning Representative, or in any way someone
who supports colleagues or clients to think about
learning opportunities, you may find it helpful to
study the short badged open course “Supporting
collective learning in workplace and community
settings’
http://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/course/v
iew.php?id=2692