Students are shunning multi-million pound high-tech college library services in favour of cheaper external resources such as Google and YouTube in order to carry out information searches when studying, research to be published at the 17th annual conference of the Association for Learning Technology at the University of Nottingham in Nottingham reveals.

When used effectively, digital learning resources have the power to engage and stimulate learners and to contribute greatly to learning achievement. It is not possibly to specify exactly what makes a ‘good quality’ learning resource, because so much depends on the type of the resource (tutorial, simulation, game, podcast, screencast, video, presentation, text document, etc.), the purpose of the resource, the way in which the resource is used and the characteristics of the particular users.

Following on from last year's highly successful inaugural debate at the Oxford Union, a prestigious 186-year-old debating society, Epic will be taking the oldest of topics, informal learning, and then weaving it into a thoroughly modern debate motion about learning technologies:

"This house believes that technology-based informal learning is more style than substance."