Asynchronous course
Characterized by communication where the learner, classmates and facilitators are entering their questions, information, completed projects at different times. The interaction between course participants does not take place concurrently. In contrast, during a Synchronous course, student and facilitator communication takes place in real time or while individuals are simultaneously present via audio, chat or video conferencing.
Blog
A website created by an individual or group with the purpose of publishing ideas, observations and experiences including but not limited to text, images, audio, video and links to other websites. The author can enable comments with or without moderation. Popular blogging software includes, for example: WordPress, Blogger, Medium
Cohort based offering
An enrolled group of learners following the same schedule toward completing an OERu course by a nominated specified date.
Course feed
Provides a collation of course related posts from registered learners participating in an OERu course. The course feed automatically harvests learner posts originating from different technologies including: WENotes comments (see below), forum posts, hypothes.is annotations, contributions to the resource bank, Mastodon toots and learner blog posts tagged with the relevant course code.
Course code
Each OERu course has a unique course code, for example LiDA101 or IPM103. The course code is used to tag or label blog posts for the course feed harvester and to categorise forum and microblog posts. See also definition of Tags below.
Course technologies
May include computer or other web accessing devices, “software” applications, websites and social media communication. For more information see the OERu learning environment page on the support site.
Declare yourself
Introduce, present yourself to classmates. A first step to becoming part of a learning community.
Forums
Are discussion spaces for learners to post text responses to course topics. Additional linked sites, animations, audio or video can also be posted to build on learner ideas and questions.
Forums site
An online discussion web site hosted at https://forums.oeru.org/ for digital communication postings including text, linked or embedded audio, video and animations. Course learning topics are provided by the course developers and linked from the course site. OERu learners can reply to posts or add new topics for discussion on the forums site. For more information visit the course forums page on the OERu support site.
Hashtag
Is a tag prefixed with the hash or pound sign (“#”) without any spaces, for example “#LiDA101”. Many social media sites support the use of hashtags in the body of a text post. This enables users to search for posts using a specified hashtag. See also Tags below.
Independent study
OERu courses designed for self-directed study. Unlike a cohort-based offering with a fixed start date, learners can start and finish an independent study offering at anytime.
Learning pathways
A sequence of sub-pages on an OERu course site that contains the learning content and activities on a given topic to guide and support learning. Think of a learning pathway as a “lesson” which forms part of a course.
Mastodon
An open source alternative to Twitter social media communication format that allows microblogging; the broadcasting of short messages to other subscribers. OERu learners may use Mastodon as a way to share course related knowledge.
Open access resources
Are freely accessible, text, media, and other digital assets that are useful for teaching, learning, and assessment as well as for research purposes.
Pathway
A way of achieving a specified result; a course of action. For this course, a Learning Pathway is characterized by learning activities designed for students to learn by doing.
Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) learning circles
Free study groups for people who want to take online classes together and in-person. There are learning circles around the world. The P2PU site provides examples and guiding instructions on how to create a local learning circle.
Personal Learning environment (PLE)
A digital work space comprising learner selected software applications and online tools to support learning, interaction and communication with fellow learners. At OERu, the learner’s course blog will be the the hub of a learner’s PLE.
Resource bank
A central course space sometimes called a Digital Repository where learners share links to online resources they have found useful in supporting their learning. At OERu it is important that contributions be open and free.
Tags
Are user generated keywords or labels added to posts. This tag metadata helps to search for related posts using the same tag and assists software applications to automatically generate tag clouds or filter posts using the specified tag. Many software applications provide support for a dedicated tag field (for example blogging software or forum software) whereas other applications support the addition of hashtags in the body of the text, for example #LiDA103. (See also hashtags).
Tertiary education
Tertiary education is a concept commonly used in the UK, Australia and New Zealand to describe study after high school or secondary school education.
Personal Learning Network
Is a network of people a learner interacts with to support their learning using a Personal Learning Environment (PLE)
TECEP
Thomas Edison State University Examination Program (see TECEP Exams).
WENotes (WikiEducator Notes)
An OERu hosted technology for posting comments on course sites.

LiDA101 Course concepts

Academic literacies
Hands on practices dedicated to university-level learning. Learning in a Digital Age academic literacies include note-taking, preparing annotated bibliographies, paraphrasing and reflective learning skills.
Digital Age
The present, characterized by use of digital hardware tools and applications to share, research and create information.
Digital Literacies
A combination of digital devices, digital skills and critical thinking skills levels used to create and comprehend web online content such as text, video and audio.
Digital Skills
The ability to use digital technologies and to discover, access, modify, assess and distribute digital content.
LiDA
Learning in a digital age