E-learning resources and learning objects

Prezi for Education – a versatile and engaging way to present information

Cj Taylor E-learning resources and learning objects, Interaction and interactive tools, Sharing good practice and examples, Slides and presention media, Training and development opportunities
CJ Taylor profile photo CJ Taylor
BSMS Learning Technologist

Using Prezi for teaching and learning

Prezi is a presentation platform used in both business and education that seeks to break away from the usual linear presentation. It is a more versatile alternative to PowerPoint and other liner platforms, providing a slicker way to present ideas.Instead of presenting content one slide at a time, Prezi lets you move around the information and zoom out to see the big picture and zoom in to focus on minute details or examine further supporting material. What’s better is that it is has a free version!

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Quizlet – a great free tool for students to learn and test their knowledge of your topic

Tim Vincent Assessment and feedback to students, E-learning resources and learning objects, Interaction and interactive tools

Testing your knowledge with quizzes is an established method and teachers are increasingly looking for ways to provide this for their students outside the classroom. There are a growing number of online tools that offer the means to do this and I’m going to focus on Quizlet because I think it can offer some genuine teaching benefit for the following reasons:

It is free to use – you can sign up and use the majority of the features for free. There is a Teacher paid-for version (£3/mo) which offers progress tracking, creation of specific classes, and others but all the core features for learners are there.

Use existing quizzes – search for and use thousands of existing quizzes. You don’t need to create anything if you don’t want to! Or you can take a copy and adapt an existing quiz to tailor it to your needs.

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The flipped classroom at BSMS – What happened at a recent workshop

Julia Montgomery E-learning resources and learning objects, Flipped classroom model, Large group teaching and lectures, Video, audio, images, multimedia, Workshops and seminars
Dr Julia Montgomery
Director of Assessment & Feedback and Senior Lecturer in Medical Education

We recently ran a one-day workshop, titled “Do you want to flip?”, for BSMS teachers interested in learning more about this approach and have a go at developing pre-lecture material. Here is a quick report back on how it went.

What is the flipped classroom?

The ‘flipped classroom’ approach to teaching is relatively new, emerging as a term around 2010.

The first principle is that students are given pre-lecture work to do that covers the basic/fundamentals of the subject so that the time within the actual lecture with the lecturer can be used to explore the subject in greater depth and thus moving the student from a receiver of facts to the higher stages of Bloom’s taxonomy of learning, the application of knowledge and critical thinking.

The second principle is the use of blended learning both before and during the lecture time. Blended learning involves the use of both on line digital media (videos, podcasts, animations, quizzes, narrated slides) as well as face-to face-teaching. Continue reading →