We designed an educational resource to enable teachers to teach the history of internationalism. The site’s relationship model is structured to house chronological chapters, associated thematic topics, timelines and related resources.
Challenge
Birkbeck University, with a long-standing reputation for ambitious research initiatives, had been reflecting on how to support the education of internationalism across the UK. The project
A huge thank you for all your work. I am delighted, and the others are too with all the results. We have had a lot of fantastic compliments about the website and the teachers resources!
Process
The Reluctant Internationalist research group had gathered an immense array of audiovisual and text documents and analyses, and were looking to share the accumulated knowledge. The most immediate challenge lay in integrating such a vast quantity of material into a straightforward architecture – to translate the concept of a history book into a usable digital resource, articulating complex content in a inclusive look and feel with an intuitive flow that allows for full and free site exploration and is easily navigable. Our proprietary WordPress theme’s layout engine enables just such an organisation, making content expansion a breeze.
Solution
The ground-breaking teaching resource which we collaboratively named “Illuminating Internationalism” echoes the structure of a textbook whilst enriching the educational experience by using imagery, rich media, interactivity and a range of resources to accompany the text. It acts as a one-stop repository for teachers to browse and download the project’s material, and integrate it in their didactic activities.
With highly useful features such as timelines, in page navigation and search filters, any topic or item in the project’s vast resources can be easily retrieved and downloaded or printed as needed; internal linking connect between chapters and themes, encouraging continued discovery; additional resources, such as a map for walking tours through London, offer inspiring real world experiences of the historical themes explored online.