Sharing Learning Resources across the West Midlands

I’m often asked about sharing resources – where can providers obtain useful e-resources? Is there somewhere providers can securely store their own e-resources for their staff/learners to log in and access remotely? The answer to both is yes; there are a number of options depending on your needs. I’ll cover some of the others in later posts but for now I’d like to draw your attention to one of our exclusively regional solutions, E-Source.

What is E-Source?
E-Source is an online storage area that holds e-learning resources stored for the benefit of the post-16 education sector in the West Midlands. It is a sort of one-stop-shop which allows you to add your own resources, and to share them with your colleagues, your networks, and ultimately, with a wider group of learners. E-Source can be customized to present each provider, and even each individual with a personalized workspace where users can seek out and bring together their favourite resources, and even to upload their own resources; creating and managing their very own personalized content area – entirely free of charge.

What sort of content does it store?
E Source has word processed documents, presentations, content packages, images, video clips and other types of files. The collection is built out of your contributions, so some subjects will not have many resources and others will have plenty. As this collection is built on your contributions the more people that get involved, the better it gets.


How is it being used?
Shropshire County Council’s County Training (the largest training provider in Shropshire) is currently piloting the use of E-Source to host their learning resources and make their resources accessible remotely from across a number of sites. They chose the tool because apart from being an easily accessible learning resources repository it also opens up opportunitities to work together with other educational organisations in the West Midlands, exchange ideas and promote innovations in teaching.

How do I find out more?
If you are interested in learning more about how E-source can help you and your organisation please email me your details. Depending on numbers I’ll then either arrange either one to one visits, or a hands on training event to show you how you can benefit from the system and how it works.