U101 is yet to formally start, but we have just been given access to Open Design Studio. This is a tool within the Moodle environment that the OU LMS is based on. It allows course designers to set tasks around multimedia resources. Students can upload a range of media into specific categories or “buckets” set for certain tasks. Names and descriptions can be added and comments can be made and feedback requested. It has different visibility levels, for example, the who module cohort, or one tutors’s specific group.

This is screenshot shows what a post with feedback looks like. Ignore my tape banana ;-)


The platform also has a “space” for pinning potential future resources or resources that have not been edited yet. In effect a  virtual pin-board:

The system is set up, so we upload our work into specific slots: Here you can see I have completed the first pieces of work from Week 1, which starts this Saturday.


One quite interesting feature is the ability to  do a pretty good search / filter process:

I also like (for now) that it tracks our engagement. Not sure if this will create too much pressure:

I am really looking forward to see how the use of this develops over the module.