General
Unit 11
Hello everybody, in Unit 10, we discussed how we can find, adapt, create, and share Open Educational Resources and the important role these resources play in teaching, learning, and research. In this unit, we are going to discuss some important criteria in evaluating the usability of a digital resource.
Evaluating a digital teaching resource is a really important topic in the life of every tutor and learner. The internet has brought a wealth of information right to our fingertips, but it is not every resource that is worth our time and effort. So how can we tell if the information we have online is accurate, credible, and reliable? This is an important question for every teacher and researcher.
By the end of the unit, you will be able to:
- identify digital teaching resources
- evaluate digital teaching resources
- select the right digital teaching resources to support the curriculum.
- Work through the resources below in sequence
- Work through the interactive tutorial below that provides an overview of how to evaluate digital resources, conduct a fact check and detect fake news.
- Use the forum below and consider the question, "How has the Internet impacted your career as a teacher?" Please post once and reply to your colleague's posts at least twice.
- View Make forum posts: 2
- Read the following resource.
- We have gone through the checklist of using meaningful criteria to evaluate digital teaching resources in the page above. In the links below, we will investigate some other meaningful criteria for assessing digital teaching resources.
- With lots of information on the web, it can be overwhelming working out which to use and which to discard. How do you determine what is good quality material and what is not? Having studied the two links above, take some minutes and watch the videos below to further figure out how to evaluate digital academic resources.
With lots of information on the web, it can be overwhelming working out which to use and which to discard. How do you determine what is good quality material and what is not? Having studied the two links above, take some minutes and watch the videos below to further figure out how to evaluate digital academic resources.
- Does it help to achieve the objectives of the lesson?
- Does it enhance the teaching and learning processes?
- Does it motivate the learners?
- Does it allow interaction and active participation?
- Does it help to develop different creative and critical thinking skills?
As a professional educator, you must ensure that your resources are fit for purpose and do not expose your learners to danger. Always keep your learners safe and secure, use resources in compliance with institutional policies and ethical guidelines. Teachers need to systematically evaluate the quality of a resource before use. Digital resources authored by highly qualified professionals provide teachers with relevant and up-to-date content that will engage learners, expand learning opportunities, facilitate collaborative learning, and promote digital literacy.
From this unit, we have learned that not every digital teaching resource is used for academic purposes. We also learned the importance of digital teaching resources in the life of educators to enhance the problem-solving skills required for real-world problems. We have also been exposed to the major ways of evaluating digital teaching resources before they can be useable for academic purposes in line with government and institutional policies.
The field of education has been positively impacted by the use of digital teaching resources which have also enriched learning content and enhanced knowledge acquisition and delivery. When you use reliable resources to back up your points, you will be able to actively engage your learners interactively; and also, demonstrate your quality as a good teacher.
- Give an online resource or website where you can search for reliable information on the following topics:
- Stock prices in Nigeria
- The ratio of police to the population in Nigeria
- COVID 19 vaccin
- List the sites you have identified with a screen shot in a PowerPoint presentation.
- In the PPT explain what criteria you have used to evaluate the resources.
- Use the assignment tool below to submit your presentation