Pre-Conference Workshop A2
A2 - Creating Open Learning Materials with Open Source Xerte, that's Easy!
Date Wednesday, 2 Dec Time – Room: Charlottenburg II Price: 95.00 € Status: places available
Inge Donkervoort
Xerte Documentation Team, Xerte PMC Member and Apereo Board Member, Open Source Xerte Project
Inge Donkervoort is a passionate educator with a strong belief that digital learning should be accessible to everyone. Known for her enthusiasm, warmth, and practical mindset, Inge helps teachers, organisations, and beginners feel confident using Xerte. She enjoys turning complex accessibility requirements into clear, usable guidance, and she thrives on empowering others to create inclusive learning materials. Inge is an active and supportive member of the Xerte Community, always ready to share knowledge and inspire creative learning solutions.
Tom Reijnders
Core Developer Xerte/ PMC Member, Open Source Xerte Project
Tom Reijnders is a lead developer and core maintainer of the Xerte open-source authoring environment. With extensive experience in software architecture, accessibility implementation, and standards-based development, Tom has been instrumental in modernising Xerte’s codebase and ensuring its alignment with WCAG guidelines. He specialises in developing scalable frameworks, improving authoring workflows, and integrating emerging technologies while maintaining the tool’s accessibility-first philosophy. Tom plays a critical role in coordinating contributions across the global developer community.
How can educators and learning designers create engaging, accessible and media-rich online learning experiences without advanced technical skills? In this practical, hands-on workshop, participants will explore Xerte, an open-source authoring tool for creating interactive e-learning content.
Working step by step through the design and development process, participants will create their own online learning module and explore how to combine multimedia, interactive elements and learner engagement strategies. They will also discover how Xerte’s built-in accessibility features and responsive design can support more inclusive digital learning experiences.
The workshop focuses on learning by doing. Participants will experiment with different interactive components, make design decisions and apply the tool to a learning context relevant to their own practice. By the end of the session, each participant will have created a functional prototype module and gained the practical skills and confidence to continue to continue using Xerte independently. No prior experience with Xerte or programming is required. This workshop is ideal for educators, instructional designers, trainers, educational technologists and anyone interested in open-source solutions for digital learning.
Agenda:
- Welcome, Goals & Demonstration (15 min)
- Getting Started: Creating Your First Xerte Project (20 min)
- Guided Practice: Building Your First Pages (30 min)
- Coffee Break (10 min)
- Adding Interaction & Media (45 min)
- Coffee Break (10 min)
- Hands-on: Independent Building Challenge (35 min)
- Publishing, Sharing & Wrap-up (15 min)
Target Audience: Educators, Learning Designers, Instructional Designers, Trainers, Educational Technologists
Target Audience Sector: Primary Education, Secondary Education, TVET / Vocational Education, Higher Education, Adult / Continuing Education
Prerequisite Knowledge: Basic computer skills. No prior experience with Xerte or programming is required.
Expected Outcomes:
- Understand the core features and possibilities of Xerte as an open-source authoring tool.
- Create an interactive, media-rich and accessible e-learning module.
- Apply multimedia, interactive elements and accessibility features to an online learning experience.
- Gain the practical skills and confidence to develop open-source digital learning content independently.