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Create content guide

Overview of the popular resource types that you can create to present content to students.

Create sustainable and reusable resources

Designing and creating online content takes time. Maximise your content with our tips below. This will help you to supplement your module with free to use content and help you to create content that you can reuse.

  1. Before you start creating video/screencast content, check if you have any recorded content that you can repurpose, e.g. you could reuse a section of last year’s Lecture Capture.
  2. Check for online video resources to which the University subscribes that you can use on your module. This includes content from Box of Broadcasts (BoB). BoB provides access to off-air television and radio resources.
  3. Supplement your content with multimedia from free-to-share sources or Open Access. See below for a list of Open Educational Resources (OERs).
  4. For video content where the licence enables you to adapt the content, you can add value by adding interactivity into the video. The H5P activity in Moodle enables you to create H5P interactive videos. H5P training can be booked or requested via the LEaD staff booking system.
  5. Identify topics that remain consistent and that you are likely to in future years. You can spend more time creating video/screencasts of these topics.
  6. If you are intending to reuse content, avoid referring to current news stories or trends as this can date your content quickly.
  7. Create short discrete screencasts so you can quickly update some of the content. Screencast guidance is available on the Create a screencast with Kaltura Capture guide.
  8. If you can't segment your video or presentation, or are using a long lecture recording, list out the key time points to highlight the start of a new topic. You can direct students to specific places and structure learning activities, e.g. add questions around the content.
  9. When incorporating scenarios into your activities, ensure that the content has long term relevance.
  10. Staff who are interested in finding out more about Open Practice may be interesting in signing up for the Digital Literacies and Open Practice module as part of the MA in Academic Practice. Even if you can’t make the module, there are lots of fantastic resources on the topic on the module blog.

OER sources

  • Edinburgh at its Best highest quality media and learning materials produced by the University of Edinburgh
  • EU resources Resources, activities and courses created and shared by European HEIs
  • Khan Academy: free tutorial videos covering topics such as engineering, computer science, economics and finance and health.
  • Merlot The MERLOT system provides access to curated online learning and support materials and content creation tools, led by an international community of educators, learners and researchers.
  • Open Education videos This is the YouTube channel for Open Educational Content from the University of Edinburgh. Many of the videos from our various MOOCs can be found here, as well as a growing list of open educational video resources.
  • Open Learn 900+ short courses, thousands of articles, quizzes and interactive games , hundreds of videos and audios
  • University of Edinburgh have compiled a list of Open Educational Resources (OER).
  • UNow Open Courseware The University of Nottingham’s open courseware initiative Open CourseWare (OCW) is a term used to describe collections of educational materials that are freely available, usually via the Web for use and in some cases, modification.

Business and Finance List compiled by Library Services.

EU and International Law List compiled by Library Services.

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