Funded by the Skills Funding Agency and available free to all authorised organisations in the post-16 sector, the NLN materials represent one of the most substantial and wide-ranging collections of e-learning materials in the UK.
The NLN Materials are small, flexible 'bite-sized' episodes of learning. They are not whole courses but are designed to support a wide range of subject and topic areas. The materials adopt a range of approaches involving some knowledge acquisition, a chance to practice and absorb, and some form of assessment to check that the learning has been understood and the learning outcome(s) achieved.
The materials give learners things to do and a chance to think for themselves. They are designed to be fun. Learners can make mistakes but can try again. There is plenty of in-built help if they get stuck and opportunities to go back and revise. Many of the materials include games or quizzes. Accessibility options are available on many of the materials to suit learners' individual needs. The materials are also designed to appeal to the different learning styles of your students.
The materials were created by commercial developers, in partnership with subject matter experts and a wide range of colleges and adult and community learning experts. All the materials have been trialled by tutors and students and tested for accessibility at the Royal National College of the Blind in Hereford.
The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) is pleased to announce that - following a tender process - a new contract has been awarded to host the NLN materials. The new contract will rationalise the current arrangements and simplify access for all sectors, enabling users from authorised organisations in education and training to access the NLN Materials free of charge under licence from the LSC. The management of the service will now be provided by JANET(UK) in partnership with the LSC and the hosting service contract has been awarded to Xtensis Ltd. who have been involved in the NLN Materials programme since its inception and have been successfully offering NLN Materials access to Adult Community Learning and offender learning providers for the last 2 years.
The new service will be fully integrated into the existing support site at www.NLN.ac.uk, providing a unified point of access to the Materials, and supporting the entire community of NLN Materials users. The new site will include all the features currently enjoyed by the ACL community, such as collection creation, powerful search and browse, and export for easy import into virtual learning environments (VLEs), such as Moodle, or immediate use on CD, DVD, or Intranets, plus a range of new features and enhancements. The service will be launched mid October.
For all the latest site news, click here.
Site created and maintained by Xtensis ltd.
All content and graphics ©2010 the Skills Funding Agency except where specified.