Learning Object Creator

The Learning Object Creator (LOC) Tool is a simple authoring tool for teachers, which has been specifically designed to enable teachers to create their own e-learning materials without the need for technical support or training. It has been developed by the LLAS Subject Centre, in collaboration with the University of Southampton eLanguages group, according to a tried and tested effective pedagogical design developed over 4 years. It is available free of charge to colleagues in UK Higher Education Institutions to use for educational purposes, and can be used for any subject area (not just languages!).

After a successful phase of testing and development, LLAS has begun to deliver the LOC tool through workshops which aim to encourage good practice in the design of online learning material, and to build a community of LOC users who can share their outputs through the LLAS website.

About the tool

“Very user-friendly” - Leticia Goodchild, University of East Anglia

LOC is activity-based and includes 6 different interactive task types, provision for formative feedback, bibliographic referencing and the accommodation of a variety of media formats (text, audio, video, pictures). It is easy to use and comes with 4 different stylesheets that gives teachers the opportunity to create professional-looking learning materials.

LOC’s outputs are delivered as normal (HTML) web pages and can be incorporated into websites, VLEs or other tools that are html compatible.

“The pedagogy behind the LOC helps to ensure best practice in materials design…Using the LOC has…increased my understanding of effective online learning material.” – Carole MacDiarmid, University of Glasgow

One of the key concerns of the LOC developers was to support the creation of good quality e-learning materials: e-learning that is pedagogically rather than technologically driven.

How do I get LOC?

Access to LOC is given out through workshops which train new users in understanding the pedagogical underpinning of the tool. Workshops can be booked through our website.

Licences are available for commercial use and/or for non-UK HE institutions on application to the Subject Centre: llas@soton.ac.uk

Training Options:

1. Attend a LLAS workshop. It costs £75.00 to attend a workshop.
2. Book a workshop for your own staff and/or postgraduate students in your own institution. Contact us for more information.
3. Host a workshop for your area. Contact us to find out how.

Note: if you are not a UK HEI and would like to attend or book a workshop please contact us for more information.

Project Outputs

A selection of learning objects created during the pilot workshops (some unfinished) can be found in our materials bank and on the LOC website and sample some of the possible uses and ideas that can be achieved with the tool.

Sharing LOC outputs

We ask all workshop attendees if they are willing to share the material that they create using the LOC tool, and to share their experiences of using the tool via the LOC website. All online material produced is subject to peer-review before being uploaded to the LLAS materials bank.

JISC collaboration

“This resource has been developed as part of the Higher Education Academy/JISC Collaboration initiative to support practitioners in further and higher education in their use of technology to enhance learning, teaching and assessment.”

Further reading

JISC distributed e-learning programme
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/programme_edistributed.aspx

JISC Distributed e-Learning / Higher Education Academy Subject Centre Projects
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/distributedelearning.htm

Subject Centre Distributed e-Learning Programme Projects
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/1877.htm