Every elearning company uses slightly different names for the types of content they produce. To avoid confusion, we thought it would be helpful to provide a brief glossary of some of the terms we use on FoxyLearning!
Module: We refer to our main products as learning modules, or just modules. Others might refer to them as online courses. We do not call them courses, however, because they are often used to supplement traditional college (or training) courses, which could lead to confusion. We also think "course" implies a length and coverage of a topic that does not always adequately represent our modules, which are often more like individual lectures or classes than full-blown courses. All of our modules are on-demand and self-paced and come in three primary formats:
Multimedia Tutorials: These are self-paced tutorials that consist of multimedia content (including audio narration, text, graphics, and sometimes video or animations). Tutorials are broken into lessons. They are mastery-based, requiring correct responding to advance, and developed using principles from behavioral approaches to education, such as programmed instruction, the personalized system of instruction, and behavior skills training.
Interactive Videos: These are videos that have questions and other interactive content embedded directly within the video. As you watch the video, questions will automatically pop up. They are also mastery-based and require correct responding to advance through the video.
Lesson: A lesson is a component of a module. A module might be comprised of zero lessons, one lesson, or multiple lessons.
Coursepack: A coursepack is a collection of one or more modules assembled by an instructor for use as a course supplement. Anyone who purchases a coursepack will gain immediate access to the module(s) included and will be placed in a private group for the course. The instructor of the course will be able to monitor the progress and performance of anyone who purchases the coursepack.
Open Educational Resources (OER): OER are teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation, and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. We release much of our content under an open license, and it can be found in the OER section of our site.
