AppliedProjecteTeachingCertificateProgramFebruary2010

  Background  CourseProposal

  Context  content  Goals▪  Technical▪  Social▪  organizational

  WhatWorked  WhatDidn’tWork  Comments

  TargetGroup  EnglishasaSecondLanguage‐InternationallyTrainedProfessionals

  AdvancedEnglishLevel  EngineersandTechnologists  Varietyofethnicities  Upto10students

  Context  OfferedtostudentsattendingCommunicationforEngineersandTechnologists(CET)atVancouverCommunityCollege

  CETonhiatusduringOlympicperiod‐nof2fcontactduringon‐linecourse

  Courseranfor12days Metstudentstopresentcourseandgetrecruits  8studentsenrolled

  Content▪  Communicationsfocusinaprofessionalsetting–listeningandspeaking▪  Moreonlisteningthanspeaking▪  Listeningstrategies▪  Listeningpractice

  Technical  topostinadiscussionforum,reply,oreditapost  toaddanimage,emoticons,alink  touploadawrittendocument  touploadanaudiofile(MP3)  toaddanentryinaclassglossary(VocabularySharing)

  touseVoiceThread(tocreateavoicemessage,to“TellmeAboutYourself”)

  toparticipatein‘Elluminate’on‐linesessions  tocompleteavarietyofquizzes(multiplechoice,matching,True/False)

  Organizational

  Contentpresentedonadailybasis–notallatonce  Studentsmanagedtheirtimetocompleteavarietyoftasks:

▪  completeshortlisteningitemsandquizzes▪  createwrittenandspokeninstructionstoteachothers▪  createavoicemessage▪  sharelisteningresources▪  sharenewordiscoveredvocabulary(minimumof9entriesperstudent)▪  evaluateavoicemessageandaclassmate’soralresponse▪  completeavocabularyquizbasedonVocabularySharing▪  createaminimumof24‘quality’postsorinteractions(eachpostmust

respondtoestablishedcriteria)

  Social  Asynchronouscommunicationwiththeinstructoronadailybasis

  Asynchronouscommunicationwithotherparticipantsonadailybasis

  synchronouslyinElluminate  Communicateforavarietyofreasons‐toteachothers,askquestions,comment,respondtofeedback,sharevocabulary,stateopinions

  Fewtechnicalproblems  Studentseasilynavigatedthecourse

  Instructionswereclear

  Studentsenjoyedcommunicatingon‐line  Communicatedwithinstructorandwitheachother  Communicatedtoaskquestions,share,givefeedback,stateopinions

andtoproblemsolve

  Studentgeneratedmaterial  Sharedresources  Sharedimages  Createdanactivitynotplannedbytheinstructor(SongSharing)  Vocabularysharing

  ElluminateSessionsaddedcohesivenesstocourse

  Posts  Generallythoughtful‘quality’posts

  VocabularySharing  Fun–usefulphrasesshared“painintheass”

  Studentsreflectedonlisteningstrategiesthrough  Randomlisteningglossary  Quizzes  Videosandfeedbackonvideos  Feedbackfrominstructor

  Feedback  Instructorabletogiveeffectivewrittenandoralfeedbacktostudentsabout

theirspeaking/pronunciation

  Participation  astudentdroppedoutatstart(workcommitments)

  Anotherdisappearedhalfwaythrough  OneonlyparticipatedintheElluminatesessions

  Posts  Somestudentsparticipatedmorethanothers  Somestudentsdirectedtheirpostsmoretotheinstructorthantoeachother

  Onlyafewmanagedtopost2x/day

  Voicethread  Tookalotoftimeforinstructortolearnandadapttocourse

  Fewstudentsdidthisactivity  VocabularySharing

  NotallstudentsconsistentlycontributedtoVocabularysharing

  Assessment  Studentsnotformallyassessedbyinstructor  No‘marks’givenexceptforquizresultsandanecdotalfeedback

  Lackofformalassessmentmayhaveaffectedparticipation

 Workload Moststudentsreportedtheyspent2hoursadayinthecourse

  InstructorResponse  planningthecoursemorestressfulthanrunningandmoderatingthecourse

  Senseofwonderwhenstudentsstartedparticipatinginplannedactivities(It’sworking!!)

  Feltliketherewasmoreparticipationfromstudentson‐linethanintheclassroom

 Wonderhowitwouldbetomanagesamecoursewith20studentsaswedowithf2f.