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LRNT Course Learning Environment

Overview:

The majority of LRNT courses use a variety of online tools and platforms. The main ones include:

  • WordPress for the course sites
  • A companion Moodle shell primarily for the course grade book and assignment uploads although some courses may use other tools as appropriate.
  • Student personal WebSpace powered by WordPress site. This is a home for your learning journey in the LRNT courses, and you can customize it to meet your needs and reflect your style.

You will be provided with a link to your personal WordPress site prior to your first LRNT course. All students taking LRNT courses will receive the same toolset so it is important that you spend time fully immersing yourself in the environment and creating your blog prior to the course start date. Tutorials for customization and personalization will be provided on your personal WordPress site when you receive the first instance.

For a quick tour of the LRNT course ecosystem watch this short video.

Download LRNT Course Ecosystem

Most of your learning will take place on the course WordPress site, your own student WordPress site, and other environments found on the open web. This means that much of your learning will be in the “open” or public. When you write a blog post on your WordPress site, anyone who stumbles upon it or is directed to it can read it. When you comment on another student’s WordPress site, it can be read just as easily. There will be some elements of your learning that will be private – particularly those confined to the course Moodle instance, as well as any part of your student WordPress site that you choose to keep hidden. Please be aware that we take RRU and BC privacy policies very seriously. While the LRNT course sites are open to the public, the companion Moodle shell is not, it is password protected and not open to anyone other than your fellow students in the program, your faculty members, and your RRU support team. As with all learning management systems (LMS), it is important to note that your course instructor can see what you have accessed in Moodle.

On your first entry to your course companion Moodle site, you will be asked to consent to using cloud-based learning sites. Open and cloud-based learning sites form an important part of the LRNT course learning experience. This is not just a technical shift that offers you the opportunity to develop a WordPress site while you learn; it is learning in spaces of community at various scales, and it provides opportunities to build your digital learning network(s). If you have any questions about this, please contact the MALAT Program Head, Dr. Elizabeth Childs.

WordPress Resources:

As you are building your blog site as part of your LRNT course experience, you may find these resources useful:

  • RRU Knowledge Base – support resources for your student WordPress site
  • Still have questions? Try asking other LRNT students via the #RRUMALAT hashtag on Twitter.

Readings and Resources:

All LRNT courses predominantly use open educational resources (journals, papers, proceedings etc.) for course readings or journal articles and e-books available through the RRU library. If there is a required textbook that is not an open educational resource, the bookstore will send the notice for any required textbooks a month before each course starts. One notable exception is the APA Manual. APA writing style is used in all LRNT courses and you are required to adhere to it in all of your assignments. As a result, the APA Manual is a required program resource and can be purchased through the RRU library, or through online bookstores.

Personal email accounts:

You are all provided with your own RRU email account. Please be aware that there are known issues with some email clients and/or Internet service providers (ISPs) that may result in technical challenges for you. For example, some company networks have been known to block access to services such as FTP, which you may require during your program. Also, there have been reports that Hotmail has a restriction on the acceptable size of attachments, and a (sometimes) overzealous spam filter, which can prevent certain communications from reaching your Hotmail inbox. If you are currently having your email redirected to a Hotmail account, please submit a ticket via the Computer Help Desk. There may be other email clients and service providers with similar issues. If you are not sure whether or not you meet the computer requirements, please check online at https://computerservices.royalroads.ca (or click on the link for Computer Requirements for Online Learning under the Computer Equipment section). Feel free to reference these if you need to speak to your ISP.

Updating your contact information:

If your address or email address has changed, remember to update your MyAdmin page here: https://myadmin.royalroads.ca/Pages/welcome.aspx. It is very important to update this as soon as possible, as this updates all of our records.