E-learning and LMS blog articles

eLearning has developed significantly over recent years, sharing innovative, creative and unique ways to learn online with its users. Whilst updates and additions are helpful within the technological world, we can’t help but notice that there are many buzzwords surrounding online learning – and honestly, they rarely mean what we think they mean.

Here at Howtomoodle, we thought that it would be helpful to do the hard work for you and find out the true definitions behind these eLearning buzzwords which have developed over time.

The Cloud

We’ve all heard of the cloud, and no – it’s not the one in the sky. Within the tech world, we have another type of cloud where you can save your work, such as documents, spreadsheets, media and other items. This techy cloud has been used over the years for users to save their work, without using up the storage on their devices.

We are initially led to believe that The Cloud is somewhere in the sky and our files are floating around above our heads. You may or may not be surprised to discover that in reality, your work is just being saved to another online server. Your work is being saved to a server which can be accessed from any device, anywhere in the world – so long as you have an internet connection.

Blended Learning

Officially, blended learning is “an education program that combines online digital media with traditional classroom methods” In short – it’s an online place where students and teachers can interact. In relation to a Moodle or Totara site, “blended learning” requires both the teacher and the learner to be present within the online learning platform.

Gamification

The process of integrating an online game as part of the online learning platform for learners to make use of during their studying to make revision more interactive and engaging.

SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model)

A collection of standards and specification for eLearning, which also defines how content may be packaged into a transferrable ZIP file.

Microlearning

An education approach which deals with smaller learning units, focusing on short-term strategies which are especially designed for skill-based understanding, learning and education.

Webinar

An online seminar where multiple users, teachers and learners can be involved and interact and engage with one another.

BBB (BigBlueButton)

An open source web conferencing system for online learning. This can be installed to your online learning platform from the Moodle plugins site.

VLE (Virtual Learning Environment)

A web-based platform for the use of teachers and learners to conduct online learning.

PFC (PayForCourses)

An eCommerce LMS site where you can sell your online Moodle courses.

LMS (Learning Management System)

In simple terms, a learning management system is an online software application for the admin, reporting, tracking and delivery of education courses or training programs.

Whiteboard

An application allowing drawing online.

MOOC (Massive Online Open Course)

A study course made available online for a very large amount of people – often free of charge.

Open source

A software which has a source code which is available to users; meaning they can modify, edit and redistribute the code.

Social Learning

The theory of learning with and from others. It also helps the learner gain more control over their learning.

Plugins

The official definition is, “a plug-in module or plugin software”. For example, here at HowToMoodle, we offer a number of plugins for your organisation to install onto their Moodle site, such as BBB (BigBlueButton).