Lessen Materials, Not Lesson Materials: Strategies for Decluttering the Classroom in UK Higher Education

The past decade has seen a shift away from paper-based teaching materials such as published textbooks and in-class handouts towards digital alternatives. This chapter outlines how digital technologies, such as freely available website builders and authoring tools, have transformed materials development on an English for Academic Purposes course at the University of York, UK. Traditionally, in-house digital materials are produced on documents or slides which are uploaded piecemeal to a virtual learning environment (VLE). However, this approach can give materials a fragmented feel, cause problems with the clash of multiple versions, and require excessive uploading and downloading. As a solution to these issues, embedded, interactive tasks were hosted on a single website to allow greater control over course design, to bring all course content in one place, and to provide a more functional and aesthetic study space than the University’s VLE. This chapter explores how open source, digital authoring tools provide freedoms and opportunities for learning that, until recently, did not exist and how they can be used to promote learner engagement and critical thinking skills through flipped, asynchronous activities. This chapter explores the theme of sustainable, innovative, and creative teaching materials through authentic examples, and offers practical advice for teachers and course writers on the principles underlying their development. Finally, it discusses how practitioners can incorporate some of these ideas into their teaching, even if they do not normally consider themselves tech-savvy or are unable to access the latest technologies.