Learn anytime, anywhere

This course provides access to learning anytime and anywhere via the Internet. To enable and support your learning this course uses a number of different online communication and publishing technologies .

An open philosophy of inclusion

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) has a strong commitment to free and open source learning and software as we believe that no learner should be denied access to learning for lack of funds to purchase a proprietary software licenses or should be forced to sacrifice their freedoms in software choice.

The resources and interaction technologies you will be using in this course are based entirely on free and open source software. You will be able to complete all the learning activities using open source applications without the need to purchase any software. You are free to use proprietary technology applications of your choice, but you can also use this course to explore and experiment with open technology.

Summary of technologies used on this course

You do not need a password to access the CTVSD2 course. However, if you want to post comments and /or receive instructions via email you will need to register an account on the course site by clicking on the “head graphic” at the top of your screen.

Your registration login details will provide you with authenticated access to most of the course technologies.

The following table provides a summary of the main technologies used in this course.

Technology Details
Learning resources All learning resources are hosted at OARAS-Assessment (CTVSD2) and contain the instructions and all the learning projects to guide your learning. Bookmark this page in your browser.
Course forum feed Course comments are posted using a technology called WENotes (WikiEducator Notes). You will be prompted to post your work or comments to course forums within the learning project pages or you can post directly from the Course feed page when you are logged in to the course site. The course forums are hosted on [[1]]. Search using the course tag: ctvsd2.
Adobe reader Adobe reader you can download for free to be able to access readings, view resources and examples.
Apache OpenOffice Apache OpenOffice is compatible with other major office suites and is free to download, use, and distribute. You can use it to open and edit the templates provided in this course which are in .odt or .ott format.

Learn by doing

Some of you will be familiar with these technologies, while others will be using them for the first time. We use a learn by doing approach and you will be prompted in the course materials when to interact with these different technologies.

Have fun and enjoy the learning experience.