Intute - web resources for education

I have featured a number of free JISC services on our website that the Work Based Learning sector is now able to freely access. I thought I’d periodically choose to highlight one of them to outline how the service benefits the WBL sector; to begin with I’ll start with Intute.

Intute is a free online service providing access to handpicked web resources for education. Intute is different from general search engines (e.g. Google) because it uses a national network of subject experts to select and evaluate all the Internet resources for their quality and relevance – saving you time in finding materials you can trust. I’m finding it increasingly common for providers to have html pages of links and web based resources that support learners working in a particular area. A link to Intute would make a useful addition to these resources.

For example, let’s consider hairdressing. Here are the Google search results for hairdressing resources: approx 1,180,000 results!! That’s a lot of resources, but also a lot of filtering through to get to what you want. Now the Intute results for hairdressing: 28 unique resources each with a description, classification and url. Quite near the top of the Intute results is “Hairdressing Training - an interactive online training resource covering every area of the NVQ Level 2 syllabus including: cutting techniques; colouring techniques; styling techniques; shampooing and conditioning; drying hair; hairdressing equipment and hair care products; health and safety; and consultation and client care.”

Already you can see the difference.

You can also use Intute to set up personalised alerts for new online resources in a particular area. With sections that span Science, Engineering and Technology, Arts and Humanities, Health and Life Sciences and Social Sciences and a database of 120212 records there’s bound to be something there for everyone.

It’s worth noting that Intute is also created by the education community for the community. If you would like to suggest a website for inclusion in the database, simply send the details to the team using their online form.