Home: eLearning Toolkit

Interactivity is considered the holy grail of eLearning content and (assuming the learner is interested from the start) there are a number of techniques that you can use to maintain their engagement with the course material. As this blog post, Designing Interaction in an Online Curriculum explains, there are several strategies for significantly enhancing the level of interactivity in your materials such as promoting active learning, incorporating social media, and creating a community of learners. It's also a great idea to structure content so that learners "pull" the information they need, as this article on interactivity explains. Below are some additional techniques and good practices that can be employed. (Note that in some cases you may need to download the zip file and double-click the Player.html file to launch.)

Online Programmes: IT Online Examples

• Make sure they know what resources are available throughout the course. See an example of a good introduction here :  Intro.zip
• Create discovery-type and self-check questions. To see some self-check question examples, take this quiz from the Software Engineering & Database Technologies (MScSED) programme: Fundamentals of Programming (MCT612) Self-Check Quiz 
• Be creative about other ways to involve your learners – in the same programme, in the first section of the Software Engineering (MCT610) module, the course developer set up a poll on Google Docs as a basis for class discussion.  See various interaction approaches implemented here: Software - The Wonders & The Challenges.zip 
• Use a variety of visual techniques (e.g. Post It notes or Notepad graphics) to prompt the user to take notes or signpost a particular type of content, such as code.

Blended Programmes

Suggestions for examples of coursebooks that are particularly strong on interactivity are welcome!