Solent Online Learning Overview

Solent Online learning made by Solent University which was previously known as the Southampton Solent University is a public university which was established in the year 1,855 by the names Southampton College of Art.

• Solent University
• Solent Online Learning
• How to make the most out of the Online Learning Solent?
• Take a look at these four areas
  • Course Content
  • Communication
  • Working Together
  • Working Independently
• Solent Online Learning and Teaching
  • Technology-Enhanced Learning
  • Blended Learning
  • Research-Informed Teaching
  • Student Learning
  • Teaching Practice
  • Assessment and Feedback
• Final Thoughts

As years passed by, the status of the University changed accordingly and now in 2018, it was changed to the name Solent University. This University is located in Southampton, United Kingdom and has more than 11,000 students at present. The University has 10,545 undergraduates and 515 postgraduates as of 2016-2017.

Solent Online Learning:

Solent Online Learning is a platform that has been carefully curated in July 2016 for the students of Solent University so that they can enjoy a rich and interactive virtual learning environment. Precisely. The Online Learning Solent contains all the learning materials and online activities for a student’s course. The idea here is to enable a Solent student to get access to the portal 24/7, whether they are in the class, at home or wherever they want to be can get access to the Solent Online Learning portal easily.

How to make the most out of the Online Learning Solent?

As the Solent University focuses to a great extent towards promoting a Virtual Learning Environment that allows a student to work easily from any location. The purpose of Solent Online learning is to expand the classroom experience by taking it online. With the help of Learning Online Solent, a student is encouraged greatly towards gaining knowledge through interacting with others and becoming independent and successful at the same time.

Martin Reid who has been working at the Solent University since 2002 has been very consistent in sharing different tips and techniques as to how SOL can be effectively used. He claims that there has to be a lot of content-rick media, authentic links for research, numerous quizzes and feedback as well in order to make SOL as interactive as it can be. Martin Reid claims that with the content being important on one hand, the design also plays its part on the other hand.

So that is why he uses lots of images and is always working on different ideas to structure the whole information properly. In this way, when a student of any calibre uses the SOL, he is at the very least able to find exactly what he is looking for which is the purpose of the SOL.

Now we are going to discuss Solent Online Learning’s pedagogy that is the teaching method. Martin Reid claims that the Solent Online Learning’s pedagogy revolves around four key areas and these areas are totally achievable by anyone.

Take a look at these four areas:

Course Content:

The first area is the course content, being a teacher it is very important to make sure that whatever the resources a teacher is providing has a narrative context in it as well. This is important so that a student is able to understand what he is looking at and how it is related to the lecture that he has attended.

Communication:

As we know that after a lecture is delivered, the majority of the students have a lot of questions in their minds that needed be answered. So Solent Online Learning is best for a teacher to answer all of the most common questions on the forum as quickly as possible. Solent Online Learning tool will not only save a teacher’s time but a student’s as well. Also, it will enable all the students to get the same information. Another thing that is very important here is to make a path for your students to talk to you. For this purpose, you have to use the feedback tool and let any student talk and discuss their ambiguities with you.

Working Together:

This is another area that puts a great impact on how well or poor a student is doing. By giving them the opportunity to build and share their knowledge with everyone else is a great way for every student to understand how well they are learning. A teacher must make sure that he is giving his students the option of sharing their feedback with one another on the blog. Consider Solent Online Learning Solent Online Learning tool a blessing where every student is giving their input by sharing their views, theories ideas, helping out each other which means less work for the teacher as well. Also, let students work out on their own boosts confidence in them thereby preparing them for the future endeavours.

Working Independently:

In order to actually analyze how well or poor a student is understanding or test their learning, there has to be a quiz. So Martin Reid proposes there should be follow up videos with a quiz in order to analyze the situation. This will not only give a view regarding a student’s understanding but also their ability to work through a lesson at their own pace.

Solent Learning and Teaching:

Solent University is always onto something that can help others to improve their teaching skills. Whether it’s about technology-enhanced learning or blended learning, researched-informed teaching or student learning, Solent University has numerous suggestions for everyone. So let us take a look at the different categories.

Technology-enhanced learning:

There is a team of learning technology advisors that are based on the second floor of the library and are available to support all the staff members and students in any way possible. The team is even available at the weekends to assist anyone with digital literacies and technology-enhanced learning via Solent Online Learning. So if any of the members of the Solent University have any problem or query regarding any aspect of teaching enhanced learning, or even regarding how they can make the most out of the Solent Online Learning, there are high chances that the learning technology advisors will help you in every possible manner.

Blended learning:

As we know that blended learning is a style of education that emphasizes students to learn through different mediums like studying electronically and physically and via online media. So that is why Solent University is always looking up for ways to enhance the blended learning methods. For example, there is this technique that is known as flipped learning. It demands to give students such a task to do on their own before the teaching session and that will help them understand the lecture easily because it will be used as the foundation of the session’s activity. This kind of activity enables students to do a lot of brainstorming which empowers them greatly and at the same time saves a lot of time and effort of a teacher.

Research-informed teaching:

Solent University believes that in order to become the best, one must keep struggling towards finding new ways and that is why they keep the doors open in the world of research. Solent University is always keeping an eye of different conferences, ways and creative ideas that can lead to research-informed teaching. The main purpose here is to enable a student to think out of the box and engage with the world as much as they can.

Student learning:

A student is the most important asset that the education sector has. Everything revolves around a student, whether he is able to understand something or not, whether he can keep up with the rest of the class and many other factors contribute here. Solent University understands this aspect very well and that is why they have a whole student learning category that only has a number of techniques and tips for teachers.

Teaching practice:

This section is especially for teachers and educators to help them become better. This section has different stories and articles that have a number of new and different techniques, helpful activities and much more that will support the teachers in changing the way they teach. For example, there is this article named “Sharing is caring: The benefits of team teaching” where the importance of team teaching is being discussed. With that, different elements are discussed that will lead to success in team teaching as well. Similarly, the teaching practice category is filled with a number of articles that can turn out to be very helpful in understanding the importance of team teaching.

Assessment and feedback:

This category also happens to be an important one as it has different examples that teach colleagues and teachers the criteria for assessing a student. What should be the criteria for assessment, why feedback matter, how to make the best use of the feedback, supporting students with assessment and many other examples similar to these are available in this section.

Final Thoughts

Thus we can say that the Solent Online learning Portal without any doubt is a platform that allows students to learn from any location and at any time and doesn’t demand that a student has to be in a classroom to get access to the SOL. This platform, on one hand, is responsible for letting students participate as much as they can in sharing their knowledge and views with one another. On the other hand, it also lets a teacher offer more to his students than he can when in a classroom.
So precisely we can say that the SOL enables both students and teachers to come on a single platform and enhance their learning and teaching experience respectively.