Critical media literacies and associated digital skills (LiDA104) is an open online course and its time to get started. The course materials are hosted on this web site. Learners participate and interact using their own personal learning environments. We will show you how to set these up during Session 0 which you should complete before the course starts.

5 things you should do before starting the course

1. Register on this course site by clicking on the user icon () in the site menu.
   This will enable you to submit microblog posts using WEnotes, manage your registered course blog url and receive course instructions via email. (Note: As an open course, registration is not mandatory and we will post copies of the course announcements on the course site.)
2. Familiarise yourself with the web site navigation to find out where the:
   • Course syllabus
   • Learning materials (see learning pathways in the menu above), and
   • Course guide are located.
3. Review the course guide, in particular the:
   • Learning outcome and course objectives, and
   • Syllabus
4. Post a comment on the course feed page:
   • Log in to the course website
   • Type a comment in the text area at the top of the course feed page, for example, say hello to your fellow learners, and tell us why you are taking the course.
   • Click the “Post a WENote” button and after a few seconds you comment should appear in the course feed.
5. Complete the optional OERu new participant survey.

Study tips

There are a few things you should know about the Critical media literacies and associated digital skills (LiDA104) micro course.

1. Course tag: The course code is “LiDA104“. Write this down because you will use this course code for tagging your blog posts, forum posts and web sites which support hashtags, for example : “#LiDA104”. (These tags enable the OERu to automatically harvest posts from selected sites on the Internet for the course feed).
2. Course feed: The course hosts a live feed where you can monitor posts from WEnotes, registered participant blog posts using the “LiDA104” tag or label, the course forums site etc.
   • WEnotes is the locally hosted microblog technology for posting comments to the course feed from the course site.
3. Suggested study time: This is an asynchronous course which means you can participate at times which are convenient for your own schedule. The course is divided into 5 sessions (comprising 7 learning pathways) and is spread over two weeks. You should aim to spend approximately 2 hours per working day at times which suit your own schedule. However, as an open course you can sip and dip participating in the topics or activities you find interesting. The time you will need to successfully complete the learning challenges will vary according to your own experience and previous knowledge in using digital technologies. We estimate you will need about 20 to 25 hours hours of online study time to complete the course. Learners participating in this course for formal academic credit will need to allocate an additional 15 to 20 hours required for preparation of the final assignment.
4. International time zones: OERu courses typically register students across 24 time zones. You should study this course in your own time zone. For example, carry out the instructions for Tuesday on your Tuesday, not the time zone of your facilitators.
5. Using social media technologies: If you are new to using social media technologies, we provide instructions to help you set up your own personal learning environment during the orientation session. We recommend that you establish your personal learning environment before the course commences. Blogs are recommended and provide a good way to interact with course participants while maintaining control over your own content. You can create a personal course blog or use an existing blog.
6. Information overload: At times the aggregated feed can generate a large number of posts. You are not expected to read everything. Read what is current when you log in and follow the links which you find interesting. After a few days you will identify participants with similar interests and you can then follow these posters in the feed.
7. Learn by doing and sharing: Most of all, have fun! We are changing the world for the better by returning to the core value of sharing knowledge freely in education.