Editor's choice: RDN Virtual Training Suite

Developed by: University of Bristol ILRT
Type of resource: Online tutorials
Target audience: General, Trainers
Cost: Free access

Conceived and built by staff at the Institute for Learning and Research Technology at the University of Bristol and part of The Resource Discovery Network (RDN), Virtual Training Suite is an initiative designed to teach information skills to students, lecturers and researchers in higher and further education-and help them to become e-literate! Although primarily designed for higher education in the UK, it is also freely available for anyone else to use. It comprises a set of "teach yourself" tutorials delivered over the Web, each of which offers Internet skills training in a particular subject area grouped under six main headings: engineering and mathematics, health and life sciences, the physical sciences, reference, the humanities, and the social sciences, business and law. 39 subject areas are covered at this time, with each tutorial created by a subject specialist drawn from universities and professional organizations across the UK. The tutorials take around an hour to complete, and includes quizzes and interactive exercises to lighten the learning experience. Each tutorial is structured under four sections: (i) Tour key Internet sites, (ii) Discover tools and techniques to improve your Internet searching, (iii) Review the critical thinking required when using the Internet, (iv) and Reflect on how to use the Internet for studying, teaching or research. The Virtual Training Suite is also an excellent resource for librarians who need tools to support their user-education programmes.

Of particular interest will be "The Internet for Development" at http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/tutorial/development/ written by Tracy Zussman-Kay of ELDIS at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex.

http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/