Digital Learning Glossary

ACCESSIBILITY: Accessibility involves designing systems to optimise access. In education this involves reducing and overcoming the barriers that might occur in:
• Digital content
• Teaching and learning activities
• Assessments
The social model of disability suggests that the society or environment is disabling the individual rather than their impairment or difference. For example videos without subtitles disadvantage anyone watching in a noisy environment but they disadvantage deaf people all the time.
Accessibility is about removing those barriers to enable users to engage and take part in everyday activities. https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/getting-started-with-accessibility-and-inclusion

Accessibility: A characteristic of technology that enables people with disabilities to use it. For example, accessible websites can be navigated by people with visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive impairments. Accessible design also benefits people with older or slower software and hardware. https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY: This is a term used for technology that assists someone to do something they would otherwise be unable to do. Assistive technologies can be more accurately described as productivity tools.
A good example of this would be the use of a screen reader to enable a blind user to access online content or a dyslexic student using text to speech for reading on screen.
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/getting-started-with-accessibility-and-inclusion

APPLICATION: Computer software; also called a program. There are many types of software that fit into the category of application. Application software is distinct from other forms of software, such as operating system and utility software.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

Application software perform a group of co-ordinated functions tasks or activities for the benefit of the user.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_software

Apps is a shortened version for application, typically a small specialised program downloaded onto mobile devices.

ASYNCHRONOUS LEARNING: When learners participate in an online learning course at different times, it is known as asynchronous learning. This might also be called eLearning or web-based training (WBT). Asynchronous learning allows learners to go through a course at their own pace and on their own schedule.
http://theelearningcoach.com/resources/online-learning-glossary-of-terms/

The term is most commonly applied to various forms of digital and online learning in which students learn from instruction—such as pre-recorded video lessons or game-based learning tasks that students complete on their own—that is not being delivered in person or in real time. Yet asynchronous learning may also encompass a wide variety of instructional interactions, including email exchanges between teachers, online discussion boards, and course-management systems that organize instructional materials and correspondence, among many other possible variations.
http://edglossary.org/asynchronous-learning/

BLENDED LEARNING: A method of delivering teaching and learning that involves both face-to-face teaching and the use of technology together. For example the internet may be used to support a session that includes interactive tasks for the learner.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

BLOG: A way of posting educational material online, normally organised by date and topic category. Images, video and audio can be shared in this manner. Blogs typically allow commenting, which can be a useful feature for teaching and learning.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

CLOUD COMPUTING: Capability to access data from anywhere rather than being tied to a particular machine. Also called “the cloud.”
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING: Collaborative learning takes place offline in small groups or online via social networks utilising social media and other collaboration tools.

https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/enhancement/definitions/collaborative-learning

COMPUTER-BASED ASSESSMENT: A method of assessment where both the delivery of the learning and the assessment are completed solely on the computer.
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/enhancement/definitions/computer-based-assessment
Computer Assisted assessment (CAA) is a common term for the use of computers in the assessment of student learning http://www2.le.ac.uk/Members/rjm1/talent/book/c3p2.html

COURSEWARE: Courseware refers to any instructional software that is delivered on a computer.
http://theelearningcoach.com/resources/online-learning-glossary-of-terms/

CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSING: A way to share copyrighted work within a documented licence scheme. Creative Commons licences are increasingly applied to teaching resources that are typically made available using the internet.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

DIGITAL LITERACY: Jisc define digital literacies as the capabilities which fit someone for living, learning and working in a digital society.
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-students-digital-literacy

DISCUSSION FORUM: A communication tool for posting messages/ work/ comments/ opinions. Often text-based but some do offer the ability to use multimedia.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

A discussion board (known also by various other names such as discussion group, discussion forum, message board, and online forum) is a general term for any online "bulletin board" where you can leave and expect to see responses to messages you have left. Or you can just read the board.
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/discussion-board-discussion-group-message-board-online-forum

DISTANCE EDUCATION or DISTANCE LEARNING: Delivering teaching and learning remotely, typically using technology and the internet Multimedia resource are often incorporated to provide context to text-based resources.http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

eLEARNING: The e stands for ‘electronic’. It usually means learning using a computer.
https://about.futurelearn.com/blog/the-online-learning-glossary/

EMBEDDING: The act of adding code to a website so that a video or photo can be displayed while it is being housed at another site. Many users now watch embedded YouTube videos or see Flickr photos on blogs rather than on the original site.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

END USER: The person for whom a particular technology is designed; the individual who uses the technology for its designated purpose. In e-learning, the end user is usually the student.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

FLIPPED CLASSROOM: The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements are reversed.
https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7081.pdf
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/infokit/models-of-learning/flipped-learning

The flipped classroom inverts traditional teaching methods. Students watch lectures at home at their own pace, communicating with peers and teachers via online discussions. Concept engagement takes place in the classroom with help of the instructor. https://www.knewton.com/infographics/flipped-classroom/

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: Assessment that is part of the learning process that provides constructive feedback to the learner; which allows students to improve their quality of work.
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/enhancement/definitions/formative-assessment

HAMBURGER: 3 stacked lines, usually in the top left or right hand corner of a website, which people can click to see a menu of pages on the site.http://www.theatlantic.com/product/archive/2014/08/the-hamburger-menu-debate/379145/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31602745

HASHTAG: A hashtag (#) is a way of indicating a posting on social media is related to a particular subject. They are particularly used on Twitter. Establishing a hashtag for a collection can help both track conversations about your collection across social networks, and empower users to contribute to the conversation by using the hashtag.
Hashtags can be associated with events, short-term campaigns or promotions as well as medium to long term use in relation to a collection. https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/using-social-media-to-promote-your-digital-collections
Community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to tweets. Users add them in-line to Twitter posts by prefixing a word with a hash symbol (or number sign).
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): The structural code that makes websites. Multimedia is typically delivered from websites that are built from HTML. Websites in turn allow us to produce e-learning for teaching and learning.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN: Instructional design involves the identification of the knowledge, information, and skill gaps of a particular group of people and creating or selecting learning experiences that close this gap. Instructional designers base their learning decisions on cognitive psychology, instructional theory and best practices.
http://theelearningcoach.com/resources/online-learning-glossary-of-terms/

INTEROPERABILITY: The ability of hardware or software components to work together effectively.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

JAVA: An object-oriented programming language developed by Sun Microsystems. Java isn't dependent on specific hardware and can be launched from within an HTML document or stand-alone.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary
There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed.
https://java.com/en/download/faq/whatis_java.xml

LEARNING CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (LCMS): A software application (or set of applications) that manages the creation, storage, use, and reuse of learning content. LCMSs often store content in granular forms such as learning objects. https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (LMS): Software that automates the administration of training. The LMS registers users, tracks courses in a catalogue, records data from learners; and provides reports to management. An LMS is typically designed to handle courses by multiple publishers and providers. It usually doesn't include its own authoring capabilities; instead, it focuses on managing courses created by a variety of other sources.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

LEARNING OBJECT: An object such as an audio file. Courses are typically made of many learning objects.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning
The idea of learning objects is to create media content that is:
• interoperable - can "plug-and-play" with any system or delivery tool
• reusable - can be used or adapted for use in multiple learning events
• accessible - can be stored a way that allows for easy search-ability
• manageable - can be tracked and updated over time http://www.instructionaldesign.org/learning_objects.html

MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES (MOOCs): A form of distance learning, MOOCs are massive in the sense that they are open and free for anyone to participate in: some MOOCs have thousands of students participating from across the globe. Openness also refers to the open-access philosophy of some of these courses (but by no means all) in which materials are made available under a creative commons licence for reuse and adaptation.
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/enhancement/definitions/massive-open-online-courses-moocs

METADATA: Information about content that enables it to be stored in and retrieved from a database.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

METATAG: An HTML tag identifying the contents of a website. Information commonly found in the metatag includes copyright info, key words for search engines, and formatting descriptions of the page.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

MICROLEARNING: This is when learning is split into lots of small chunks, or units – so you learn a bit at a time.
https://about.futurelearn.com/blog/the-online-learning-glossary/

MOBILE LEARNING: Using mobile devices including mobile phones to facilitate teaching and learning.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

MOODLE: An Open Source VLE that is commonly used in the UK.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

MULTIMEDIA: Usually encompasses interactive text, images, sound, and colour. Multimedia can be anything from a simple PowerPoint slideshow to a complex interactive simulation.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

NETIQUETTE: The word netiquette is a combination of ’net’ (from internet) and ’etiquette’. It means respecting other users’ views and displaying common courtesy when posting your views to online discussion groups.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/guides/about-netiquette
Online manners. The rules of conduct for online or internet users. https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

ONLINE LEARNING: The term online learning is often used synonymously with eLearning. It is an umbrella term that includes any type of learning accomplished on a computer and usually over the internet.
http://theelearningcoach.com/resources/online-learning-glossary-of-terms/

OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE: Software that is provided under a licence that permits the user to have access to the source code. Open source software can be used to create, consume and deliver multimedia. An example is the audio editing tool ‘audacity’ which is very popular for creating and editing audio podcasts.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

PERSONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT (PLE): A concept of understanding that individuals utilise a range of networks– combining both institutional and personal networks and devices to learn.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

PODCASTS: A method of delivering multimedia content. The video podcasts are sometimes called vodcasts/vidcasts.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

QR (QUICK RESPONSE) CODE: A two-dimensional barcode which a camera phone equipped with the correct reader software can scan to provide information for the user.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

RSS: RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ but many people describe it as a ‘web feed’ or ‘news feed’ that you subscribe to. The subscription is dynamic, not periodic, with new information delivered to you every time there’s an update on a website you’ve subscribed to. http://web2practice.jiscinvolve.org/rss-2/

RSS is a method used to push and pull content across the internet. It can be particularly useful for subscribing to a podcast
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model): A set of specifications that, when applied to course content, produces small, reusable learning objects.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

SCREENCAST: A video that captures what takes place on a computer screen, usually accompanied by audio narration.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

SELF-PACED LEARNING: Self-paced learning refers to the type of instruction that allows a person to control the flow of the courseware. It implies the learning environment is asynchronous.
http://theelearningcoach.com/resources/online-learning-glossary-of-terms/

SOCIAL LEARNING: When you learn through other people. Sometimes it’s interacting with them, discussing ideas and sharing projects to improve your collective knowledge, and sometimes it’s learning from them, from their activities and ideas.
https://about.futurelearn.com/blog/the-online-learning-glossary/

SOCIAL MEDIA: Social media tools are used to communicate between people on the web and can be used to support teaching and learning. For example it is often desirable to use social media tools to facilitate online community opportunities including learner collaboration.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

STREAMING MEDIA: Streaming media refers to video and audio that is downloaded to a computer from the internet as a continuous stream of data and is played as it reaches the destination computer.
http://theelearningcoach.com/resources/online-learning-glossary-of-terms/

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT: The process of evaluating learning at the conclusion of a programme of study. Summative assessments include standardised tests delivered by examination.
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/enhancement/definitions/summative-assessment

SYNCHRONOUS LEARNING: A term used to describe learning that occurs at the same time but not always in the same place. It is most commonly used in the context of online or digital learning.
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/enhancement/definitions/synchronous-learning

TAGS: Keywords added to a blog post, photo, or video to help users find related topics or media, either through browsing on the site or as a term to make your entry more relevant to search engines.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

THREAD: A series of messages on a particular topic posted in a discussion forum.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

USER INTERFACE or UI: The user interface (UI) is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the machine that aids the operator in making decisions.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

URL (UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR): Uniform resource locator, the address of a Web page or other Web resource.http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/glossary/#u-matic
VIDEO CONFERENCING: Video conferencing refers to the use of video technology (both hardware and software) to create a virtual meeting between two or more people in different physical locations. Participants can see and hear each other through this technology. http://theelearningcoach.com/resources/online-learning-glossary-of-terms/

VIRTUAL CLASSROOM: The virtual classroom refers to a digital classroom learning environment that takes place over the Internet rather than in a physical classroom. It is implemented through software that allows an instructor and students to interact. http://theelearningcoach.com/resources/online-learning-glossary-of-terms/

VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT (VLE): An online space provided by the institution to support e-learning. All forms of digital media can be delivered using its various tools. There is a wide range of VLEs on the market.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

WEB 2.0: Essentially leveraging some of the more recent developments to support better interaction including social features. Many of these web 2.0 services provide community tools for sharing and commenting on resources, such as video.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

WEBINAR: A webinar is a seminar or workshop in which the facilitator and participants view the same screen at the same time. Usually the webinar has an audio component that the facilitator controls and functionality that allows participants to chat by entering text, answering polls, raising their hands and asking questions.
http://theelearningcoach.com/resources/online-learning-glossary-of-terms/

WEB-BASED TRAINING (WBT): Delivery of educational content via a Web browser over the public Internet, a private intranet, or an extranet. Web-based training often provides links to other learning resources such as references, email, bulletin boards, and discussion groups. WBT also may include a facilitator who can provide course guidelines, manage discussion boards, deliver lectures, and so forth. When used with a facilitator, WBT offers some advantages of instructor-led training while also retaining the advantages of computer-based training.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Glossary

WEB SERVICE: A web delivered service that can be used for many types of activity including the storage and delivery of multimedia. Examples of web services include YouTube and web storage.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning

WIKI: An editable tool for working with others that has a trackable history of changes (wikipedia is the most popular example). Much like a blog, its strength is that can be used to share multimedia resource.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-elearning