E-learning Course Design - External websites
British Museum
The Learning section of the British Museum has some excellent examples of course structure and activities. It is aimed largely at Key Stage 2 children, but still has some great ideas for designs for learners of all ages.
The Story, Explore, Challenge, and Creative Spaces structure is particularly effective. The Museum's Web Resources section is also impressive.
You'll need a Macromedia Flash player on your computer to see many of the animations and games, but you'll be prompted to download this automatically if you don't have one so you shouldn't have any access problems.
BBC History
The BBC History website is a rich source of ideas for multi-media games, assessment and learning structure online.
Interesting areas of the history site include:
- History trail (inc. articles, games, activities and quizzes)
- British history timeline
- Other interactive content
Many of these games are Flash movies that have decision points in them. You can produce less graphical decision activities by using Quandary software.
Do History
Do History is a first-class example of e-learning design is at the DoHistory website run by George Mason University in the US. This example is of a history project on a diary kept by a 17th century midwife, Martha Ballard. Some parts of the site require authenticated access, but you can still see quite a bit of the functionality without this. In particular, take a look at the Magic Lens page - a really effective use of technology in learning.
Mars Explorer - NASA
NASA's Mars Explorer site has some interesting graphics and design ideas for an information site, together with a trivia quiz to test your knowledge of Mars, fact and fiction. Some useful ideas for e-learning design. Again, this site is produced in Macromedia Flash.
British Library
The British Library's online gallery is an example of a great online resource to support teaching, either face to face or distance, take a look at the Turning the Pages activities on the British library website.
Two sections of the site are:
In fact, the British Library has digitised a significant number of its treasures such as the Magna Carta and their whole website is a place to lose yourself on a rainy weekend!
Page last updated 2 April 2012