CHAPTER 1

TEACHING AND LEARNING WITH DIGITAL LEARNING TOOLS

Introduction
The usage of digital learning tools in teaching and learning has expanded
due to changes in educational practices and technological advancements
over time. However, there is a vast difference between identifying and using
digital learning tools and the application of these digital tools to create
learning activities. Integrating digital learning tools in teaching and learning
helps in varying instruction and makes the delivery of lessons effective and
meaningful. In volume 1, Chapter 4 of the Digital Literacy Handbook, how to
use basic digital literacy resources available within the context of education
was introduced. Hence, this chapter focuses on applying digital learning
tools in teaching and learning to enhance learning outcomes as stated in the
21st century skills and competencies.

Purpose:

At the end of the chapter, the teacher should be able to use digital learning
tools to teach different learning concepts.
Learning Outcome:
At the end of the chapter, the teacher must be able to:
• Plan, create, and deliver lessons using digital learning tools.
• Apply Open Educational Resources (OERs) and other digital learning
resources in classroom teaching and learning.

Activities

Activity 1:
Adapting TESSA OER by embedding ICT

Foundational knowledge: ICT and digital literacy

Competencies: Critical thinking and problem solving, creativity,
communication
Character Qualities: Self-directed learning, resourcefulness

Having gone through volume1 chapter 4, which shed light on Open

Educational Resources such as:

1. Brainstorm about the resources that you have available to you,

2. Go online and choose a TESSA Open Education Resource material,
and
3. Think about how you could improve your lesson by embedding some
meaningful ICTs that add value to the learning experience.

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The table ‘TESSA’ sets out some ideas for integrating digital literacy into
classroom activities in primary science. As a teacher, create a similar table for
your subject area using a word processor application.

Table 1: TESSA Table

Activity 2:

Foundational knowledge: Financial literacy and entrepreneurship and ICT

and digital literacy
Competencies: Critical thinking and problem-solving, creativity,
communication, discipline, and responsible citizenship
Character Qualities: Self-directed learning, resourcefulness, leadership

In this activity, teachers are expected to use spreadsheet software to create

a working spreadsheet with a clear purpose. Teachers will work methodically
through a design and development process, being able to test, correct and
modify the spreadsheet as they progress. They should create a final
spreadsheet that suits its purpose and is presented appropriately for their
audience. They begin to understand how to evaluate their work and can
assess how well they can meet their objectives using the spreadsheet.

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Step 1
Teachers design tasks on spreadsheets to model real-life scenarios, e.g.,
researching into which teaching learning resources (TLRs) to purchase for
their subject areas. Teachers write about the objective of the task and how
the spreadsheet will help them to meet that objective. Teachers understand
enough about the data and formulas they need to include in the
spreadsheet to begin creating them.

Step 2
Teachers enter data, text, and formulas to create their spreadsheet. They
make modifications to their design to make it work.

Step 3
Teachers test their spreadsheets to check for errors and to ensure that
formulas are correct, making any corrections required to create an accurate
spreadsheet.

Step 4
Depending on the purpose of the spreadsheet, teachers should be able to
make the spreadsheet user-friendly, e.g., good use of titles and formatting, or
presenting the results of the spreadsheet in a way that is easy to understand
by using appropriate graphs or charts.

Step 5
Teachers evaluate how well their spreadsheet manages to suit its purpose.
They are able to make suggestions for improvements or give reasons for
modifications they have already made. Teachers share the design with
professionals.

Activity 3: Planning or scheduling of lessons using Calendar App (Timetabling)

Foundational Knowledge: ICT and digital literacy
Competencies: Collaboration, communication
Character qualities: Discipline and integrity, adaptability, and resourcefulness.

Steps: For the benefit of this activity, we shall use steps for setting up a Google
calendar.

How to set up a new calendar (In windows and not Mac or IOS)
You can only create new calendars from a browser and not from the Google
Calendar app. Once the calendar is created, you can find it on your browser
and in the app.

1. On your computer, open Google Calendar.

2. On the left, next to ‘Other calendars’, click ‘Add other calendars Plus
and ‘Create a new calendar’.
3. Add a name and description for your calendar.
4. Click ‘Create calendar’

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How to share a calendar with specific people.
1. On your computer, open Google Calendar. You can’t share calendars
from the Google Calendar app.
2. On the left, find the ‘My calendars’ section. To expand it, click the Down
arrow.
3. Hover over the calendar you want to share and click More Settings, then
Sharing.
4. Under ‘Share with specific people’, click Add people.
5. Add a person’s or Google group’s email address. Use the drop-down
menu to adjust their permission settings.
6. Click Send.
7. The recipient must click the emailed link to add the calendar to their list.

Additionally, users can share a Google calendar on various social media

platforms for them to accept and integrate into their calendars.

Activity 4:
The following activity will guide teachers on how to use PowerPoint
presentations to enhance their numeracy, critical thinking, problem-solving,
creativity and communication skills. These competencies will further help
teachers to develop self-confidence and resourcefulness in their professional
practice.

The activity in Table 2 below presents a sample exercise to guide teachers in

completing the activity

Table 2: Rounding off numbers

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Rule:

• If the number you are rounding is followed by 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9, round the

number up. Example: 28 rounded to the nearest ten is 30
• If the number you are rounding is followed by 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4, round the
number down. Example: 24 rounded to the nearest ten is 20

1. Open a new PowerPoint Presentation and create a new slide.

2. Go to Microsoft Clips online and download a picture of a

grasshopper.

3. Draw a portion of the number line with circles beneath the line with
numbers 20 through 30 and at least 10 digits long. Place the
grasshopper above Number 25, with a caption reading “Round 25
to the nearest 10.”

On the next slide, copy the number line. This time, place the grasshopper
over the Number 30, with the caption reading “25 rounds to 30 because 5 or
more rounds to the next higher 10”.

At the end of this activity, you should have a PowerPoint presentation as seen
below:

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Diagram 1

Diagram 2

Activity 5:
One essential skill of teachers is their ability to communicate clearly and
effectively to their learners. It is not enough for teachers to have mastery of

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their subject matter but the basic communication skills to present ideas,
content and clear instructions to their learners is paramount. It is in this light
that this Handbook presents activities that will position teachers to acquire
and improve basic communication skills using digital learning tools like
presentation software to sharpen their professional practice.

This activity aims to guide the teacher to use Presentation software to

develop fluency in speech, especially in the pronunciation of words.
Teachers after going through these activities will improve on their critical
thinking, creativity, and communication skills.

Table 3 presents a sample exercise to guide the teacher to complete the

following activity.

Table 3: Vowels

Activity 6:

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 1. Open a new PowerPoint Presentation, and create the title slide as
“short vowels (a, e, i, o, u)”.
2. Go to Microsoft clips online and download an image of a megaphone
and place a caption that reads “find the missing word, look at the
picture and say the word, then chose the missing vowel” beside the
megaphone.
3. Download images that represent short vowel words such as bed, dog,
bat, net, sun, and kid.
4. Place under each downloaded image the words that correspond to
the image and put an underscore (_) to represent the missing vowel
sound.
5. Find the missing word by saying it aloud.
6. Record yourself saying the words and import the recording using the
action button feature in PowerPoint application to the slide.
7. Repeat the same procedure on a new Presentation slide and create
the title as “long vowels (a, e, i, o, u)”. Download images that represent
long vowel words such as nose, ice, meal, bean, tea, and scream.

At the end of this activity, the teacher will have a PowerPoint presentation
as seen below:

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Using the guide from sample activity 2, the teacher is encouraged to use
presentation software to develop the slide as seen below and fill in the
question mark tags.

Activity 7
The following activity will guide teachers on how they can use a spreadsheet
application to demonstrate the use of appropriate oral language to describe
learners’ experiences about themselves and others through play-base
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activity. The activity focuses on developing teachers’ communication,
presentation, creativity, attention precision and leadership skills.
1.
Open a new Excel spreadsheet
2. Write the topic of the game in cell B1 as “Simple Tense Game”. (You
can style or format it in any way that looks good to you)
3. In cell D2, write the Activity (e.g., “Present”), and in cell E2, write the
Activity (e.g., “Past”)
4. Fill up the cells with the words you want to find their results. In this
example, we are filling the words from cells D3 to D7
5. To display remarks, select cell J3 and use this formula as a guide =IF
(E3="The result", "What to display if correct "What to display if wrong"). A
practical example of applying the formula to display remarks = IF
(E3="drove", "You got it!", "Good attempt, please try again")
6. Repeat step 3 of the process above by selecting each of the cells and
on the Activity cell, write the type of tense you want students to find.
E.g., “Future” or “Simple Continuous”
7. Finally, ask students to fill in the cells with the right answers.

At the end of this activity, you should have a PowerPoint presentation as

seen below:

Before the teacher fills in the answers

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After the teacher fills in the answers

Activity 8: The image below shows the life cycle of a frog as shown in Word
Processor which is not in sequential order. Arrange the life cycle in sequential
order using Word Processor. Think of other ways to apply this activity in your
subject area.
Foundational knowledge: Scientific Literacy, ICT, and digital literacy
Competencies: Critical thinking and problem-solving, Creativity
Character Qualities: Self-directed learning, Resourcefulness, Leadership

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Activity 9: Data collection
Learners can be put in small groups to interview one another as a form of
data collection exercise. The sample survey questions are below:
1. What is your name?
2. How old are you?
3. What is your favourite food?
4. What is your hobby?
5. What is the region of your hometown?
6. The size of your shoe?
7. What fruit do you like best?
Using spreadsheet application, teachers collect data from learners, organise,
present, interpret and analyse the data.

Step 1:
Convert questions into themes and enter them into the spreadsheet cells as
shown in image 1

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Step 2:
Teacher enters their responses into the spreadsheet, with each row
representing a response from a learner as shown in the image below.

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Step 3
Sort the collected data by clicking on the Home menu and selecting Sort &
Filter drop-down from the ribbon as in the image below. It can be sorted from
either A to Z, Z to A, small to large, large to small, or any other preferred
sorting style by clicking on custom sorting depending on the row selected for
sorting.

Scenario 3: Data organisation and presentation

Put learners in small groups to organise and present data from a survey into a
table and/or chart and analyse it to solve and/or pose problems.
E.g., use tallies to organise into frequency table marks obtained in a
mathematics test by learners in a class using spreadsheet application.
10 7 4 5 6 8 7 6 7 5 3 4 6
5 4 5 4 6 5 6 7 6 3 4 5 8
6 7 5 9 4 6 6 1 7 7 9 5 1
5 2 7 10 8 6 7 4 1 6 6

Draw a pie chart to illustrate the data in the frequency table.

Step 1
Populate the excel sheet columns with the data sets and create a row for
marks and frequency. Go to data tab at the menu bar and select advanced
filter to display the advanced filter settings pop-up as shown below.

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Step 2
Choose copy to another location from the advanced filter settings pop up,
at the List range, select the entire original data set (In this example, we select
from cell $B2 to $B51), at the Copy to text box, select the cell where the
unique numbers must display from thus $C$2 and click on Unique records
only. Click on Okay to display unique numbers.

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Step 4
To find the number of times a value/number appeared in the entire data set
(frequency), use the countif formula. Hence at cell D2 which is the first item
under frequency, place this countif formula there: =countif ($b2: $b5, C2)
and hit enter on the keyboard.
Finally, copy the formula/number on cell D2 through to cell D11.
COUNTIF FORMULA ABOVE MEANS THAT CHECK FROM CELL B2 TO B51, IF THE
NUMBER IN CELL C2 IS FOUND, COUNT IT.
NB: $ (Dollar) sign is used in cell b2 and b51 basically to lock those cells as we
copy the formula to other cells.

Scenario 4: Analyse the frequency table above using spreadsheet by

converting the data into pie chart.
Step 1
Highlight the Marks and Frequency and left-click on Insert, from the ribbon,
select the first 2-D Pie to insert a pie chart.

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To show the values or percentages on the chart, double-click on the pie
chart, then locate “Add Chart Element” from the ribbon, place your mouse
on Add Data Labels and click on More Data Options. “Form Data Labels”
settings will pop up and then you tick either value or percentage to display it
on the pie chart.

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Integrating Word Processors in the Classroom

Word processing is frequently the initial computer application used in

classrooms since its usage has enhanced the productivity of both learners
and teachers. The use of the Word processors in the classroom can help to
broaden the frontiers of learning in ways that were not previously feasible. As
teachers and learners create documents, the word processor prompts them
to consider how the material will appear on the printed page, including
choices about margins, spacing, and fonts. The editing feature enables
collaborative writing processes between teachers and learners and among
peer teams. Multiple people can edit one piece of writing, encompassing
various expertise and viewpoints. The time saved for both learners and
teachers is one of the positive aspects of word processing.

Word processing is also beneficial in content areas such as history, social

studies, English, mathematics, physics, and the arts. Teachers at all levels can
use a word processor to create lesson plans, exams, and other classroom
resources. The material may be updated as needed from year to year
without having to reinvent the entire body of knowledge. Instructors may also
use a word processor to give and grade tests and quizzes. Teachers can use
word processing to help them satisfy professional and administrative
demands such as authoring manuscripts, research reports, grant submissions,
and public relations materials.

How does this work in the classroom?

Activity 10:

The following activity will guide teachers on how they will use a word
processor to enhance learners' writing, editing, formatting and collaborative
competence. In volume 1, Chapter 4, teachers were introduced to the word
processor and its basic functions and features. This activity aims to sharpen
teachers’ collaborative skills and to be conscious of the content they create
for their learners. Teachers are encouraged to engage in peer editing by
using the editing features in the word processing software. Teachers must
engage collaboratively and learn from one another to improve their practice
collectively.

1. Have one teacher distribute a piece of writing electronically to the

others and activate the Track Changes button. The Track Changes
feature will automatically save each teacher’s contributions in a
different colour.

2. Have teachers discuss how the perception of a piece of write-up

changes when formatted in various ways.

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This activity aims to improve teachers’ creativity and ability to reuse
templates from any productivity software to create resources for their
learning space. Teachers are to design templates for reuse in various
assignments, such as a template for a picture story book or report in which
their learners can enter text and insert clip art or photos. Teachers are
encouraged to design other templates to inspire creativity in generating
content and other learning resources in their subject matter area to support
learners in achieving their learning outcomes. For example, a science
teacher can design a lab observation and reporting template to help
learners record their observations in a lab activity and produce reports
accordingly.

This activity is to support teachers’ use of Auto Style formatting to

demonstrate the organisation of a paper with multiple heading levels and to
improve basic information literacy and ethical use of materials from any
source. Teachers can apply the Auto Style formatting in the Home tab of the
word processor application to their research or term paper to help them
easily generate a table of contents and quickly see whether their headings
are organised by viewing the document in Outline view. The following step-
by-step activity helps teachers to create in-text citations and a bibliography
for their paper.

Adding a new citation to a document

Step 1
• Click the arrow next to Style in the Citations & Bibliography group on
the References tab, then select the style you wish to use for the citation
and source.

• Position the insertion pointer at the end of the phrase you want to cite

Step 2
• Click Insert Citation on the References Tab and select Add source from
the drop-down menu.

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Step 3
• Select your preferred source type from the type of source menu

Step 4
• Enter the source information in the Bibliography field

• Select “Show All Bibliography fields” if you want to add additional

information (Optional step)

Step 5
• Select OK button, your citation will appear in your text as shown below

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 •
Step 6: Inserting Bibliography
• Once you have added all your sources, you can go ahead and add a
bibliography.
• On the Reference Tab, click the arrow next to Bibliography.

• A drop-down menu will appear

• Select your preferred Bibliography from the drop-down menu

The bibliography will appear at the end of the file with all your sources as
shown in the Figure xxx below.

Figure xxx

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Integration with other Digital Learning Tools

• Open Education Resources (OERs)

• Google Classroom

How to verify that, a video you want to download from YouTube has creative
common LICENCE

First log on to the YouTube website: www.youtube.com and search for the
information you seek.

• Look for ‘FILTERS’ and click on it.

• After clicking on Filters, go to features and click on creative commons

as seen below.

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 • After clicking on Creative Commons all resources found there are free
and therefore can be used without a licence. You can choose from
any of the videos which appropriately fit your content.

How to verify that, an image you want to download from Google has a
creative commons LICENCE

• Go to google and search.

• Type in what you are searching for and click on image as seen below.

• After clicking on the image, you then look for tools and click on it

• Move to ‘Usage Rights’ as seen below and click on it

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 • Click on Creative Commons Licences which will be highlighted as seen
below and all images you will see are free to be downloaded.

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Teaching and learning with Google Classroom

Creating Google Classroom Account

1. Open your web browser on your computer connected to the internet.

2. In the address bar, type “classroom.google.com” and press the
“Enter” key.

figure1, classroom google home page

3. Type your Gmail account address and password respectively.

4. Click “Go to Classroom”.
5. Click on “Create or Join a class” button at the extreme right of the
window.

Figure2, classes window

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 6. Click on “Create Class” command button as shown above.
7. Click in the “check box” to accept the agreement terms.

figure3, agreetment dialogue box

8. Click on “Continue” tab.

9. Provide the needed information for the form which appears as shown
below.

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 Figure4, create class dialogue box

10. Click on Create button.

11. Copy and save the class code the “Google classroom” displays.
12. Click on the “Got it” tab and start inviting your students by typing their
respective email addresses.

13. Share the class code with students.

14. 14. Students will use the class code to access the classroom when the
need arises.

Congratulation on your ability to create the account.

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Signing Into Google Classroom as a Teacher
1. Connect the computer-based device to the internet.
2. Open a browser application.
3. In the address bar of the browser window, type “www.google
classroom.com”

4. From the Homepage, click on “Sign-in to Google Classroom”.

5. Type the email account used in creating the Google Classroom
Account.
6. Type a password.
7. Click on next to display Google Classroom as shown below.

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 8. From the above window, there are two “Google Classrooms”
available. Click on the Google classroom you want to use. Example:
Most Outstanding Grade 5.

How to Upload Lessons on Google Classroom for Students

After signing into the Google Classroom, follow the following steps to assign
work to learners.

1. Click a class.
2. Click Classwork tab at the top part of the window as shown in Figure
A.

3. Click on Create button or tab as shown in Figure B.

4. Click on “assignment” button to display the assignment portal.
5. Type the title for the assignment, e.g., “Mock three”
6. Type the instructions governing the assignment as shown below.

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 7. Click on the “Attach File” tool to upload the file for the assignment.
8. Click on the upload button if the file is on your computer.

9. Click on “Browse” button at the bottom of the page. Browse to the

storage location of the file.
10. Select your file.

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 11. Click on “Open” button to upload the file as shown in Figure C above.
12. The file will be uploaded to the portal as shown in Figure D.

How to Invite or Add Learners

1. Click on “People” tab in the window.
2. Click on “Invite students” tab as shown below.

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 3. Type the email addresses of the learners to invite.
4. Click on the “Invite” tab as shown below.
5. Wait for the invitation process to be completed.

6. Copy the class link to be shared with learners.

7. Use the checkbox to select all learners who are to join the Google
Classroom.
8. Click on the drop-down arrow beside the “Action” tab.

9. From the drop-down option, click on the “Email” command to display

the compose window.
10. Locate and click on the “Insert link” icon.

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 11. From the “Edit Link” dialogue” box, paste the copied link in the “Web
address” bar as shown above
12. Click on “Ok” to insert the link as shown below.

13. Click on the send tab to deliver the link to the destination addresses.

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Supporting Learners to Join the Classroom with the Class Code
1. Type “classroom.google.com” in learners’ browsers and press the
enter key.
2. Click “Sign In” command and sign in with their Google Account.
3. At the top, click Join class.
4. Enter the class code.
5. Click Join to join the classroom.

Steps for Getting Learning Materials from TESSA an Open Educational

Resources (OER) website:

1. Visit the TESSA website. https://www.tessafrica.net/

2. Select the language and country to filter the learning materials to use.
Ghana is selected for the purpose of this Handbook.

3. Enter what you are looking for in the search text field and scroll down
using the scroll bar to select the format of the material you want to
access before clicking on the search button to display search results.

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 4. From the available displayed search results, look through to find the
learning material you want to use and click on the title of the material
to access the learning material.

Note: All contents at TESSA website are under Creative Common licence
except for third parties.

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Steps for getting learning materials from OER Commons Website:

1. Visit any of the OER Commons websites.

https://www.oercommons.org/
2. Enter what you are looking for in the search field and select from the
available drop-down boxes the criteria for your search and click on the
search button.

3. To filter your search, select “Criteria” from the filter panel to display the
results.

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 4. Verify legal usage rights of the material or content to know how to use
the material using the symbol displayed. After that click on the course
title.

Refer to table 1.0 to refresh your mind on the legal verification rights using the
symbols.

5. Finally, click on view resources to access the material.

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NB: This activity serves as a general guide to access learning materials from
OER websites and must not be regarded as the main steps to get access to
learning materials from all OER websites. Steps used may vary depending on
the OER website, but the processes are often similar.

How to Publish Material at OER Commons Website

Open your web browser (e.g., Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Edge etc) and
type the following www.oercommons.com and press the enter key as shown
in the image below.

From the homepage of oercommons.com click on “Add OER”. see where

arrow is pointing) to display dropdown menu as shown below.

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Click on “Create Resources” button to see the log in/registration page as
shown in the image below.

As a first-time user, register by clicking on the register button located on the

right-hand side of the page. If you already have an account, go ahead and
login with your login details.

After logging in you should see the page which allows you to provide
information about the materials to be published with OER commons.

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When done providing all the information to the fields on this page, click on the
“NEXT” button located at the top right-hand side

This will take you to a description page, which now allows you to provide
additional information and detailed description about the materials. Users are
expected to acknowledge permission to publish by ticking the checkbox and
clicking on the publish button to make the materials available on OER
Commons.

How to share OER resource with your Google classroom

• Select and open the OER you would like to share with your class.

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 • Select ‘share to classroom’ from the Open Author toolbar.

• Select Share to Classroom from the OER Commons frame.

Log into your Google Classroom account and select the Class with which you
would like to share the resource. Once you have selected your class, click
GO.

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 • Select your course and click “GO”!

• Select the action you would like to take with your OER.

On the next screen, you can add instructions to your students, select a Due
Date, assign, schedule, or save a draft of this resource.

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Assign your OER, including due date, instructions, and scheduling options

You will then see a notification screen indicating that you have successfully
posted the resource to your Google Classroom™ class. To see the resource
within your class, click “View”.

The image above shows how your OER Commons resource will appear in
your Google Classroom Class.

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This is how an OER Commons resources appears as an assignment in Google
Classroom

Source: (https://bit.ly/3DCNvSh)

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