Teaching, assessment and support online

The teaching and learning strategy for this programme is informed by key principles in digital education.

The starting point is recognising and taking seriously the digital medium that profoundly changes the context for learning. On this programme, we seek to build meaningful and supportive relationships between teachers and students to facilitate critical analysis.

All courses are taught through a combination of lectures, group activities and independent study via Moodle, the programme’s virtual learning environment.

Some of the activities on the programme include:

• Synchronous and asynchronous lectures (including podcasts from guest speakers), group discussions (through Collaborate and discussion forums) and tutorials (through Skype or Google Hang Out)
• Individual and group blogging
• Creation of digital artefacts through group wikis

Courses will be assessed through a diverse range of methods and will support your development as an independent and critical learner. Course assessment is designed to align productively with your professional practice.

Assessment methods include a number of traditional academic approaches such as essays as well as more innovative methods such as blogs, community case studies and a briefing paper on a policy issue.

Studying online and student support

The programme does not require specialist IT skills, but to access your courses you will need to have a computer with a broadband internet connection.

Academic support

You will be assigned a Student Adviser - who will provide academic guidance and support and signpost you to other relevant student support, for example wellbeing advisors, as needed. 

All teaching materials will be available online and you will have full access to the library’s digital resources. In addition, we have a dedicated learning technologist for this programme who will be on hand to help with any technical problems you may experience.

Peer support

In terms of student networking, you will join a growing and vibrant group of online distance education students in Moray House School of Education and Sport and the College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences.

It is a particular aim of this programme to ensure meaningful interactions with students, their peers and a range of academic colleagues by linking them to a number of other relevant online distance learning programmes, such as the MSc in Digital Education and the MSc in Global Challenges.