Alison Hayes

Independent Learning Materials

March 2012

Background

Language modules comprise:

•26 hours contact time including tutorials

•24 hours SOL

•150 hours of independent learning

The original project

• To encourage students to make better use of

allocated SOL hours

• Foster independent study

• Encourage reflexion and self-evaluation

The materials

Packages of materials for students to study on or off campus (via Moodle)

These consisted of

• listening/ reading / vocabulary / grammar exercises

• suggestions for further study + weblinks

• encouragement to self-assess

• details of work for inclusion in portfolio including formative assessment

activities

Limitations

• The SOL packages only covered weeks 1-5 by way of a trial (since extended to whole module)

l• The software is only licensed to myself and to Alison Organ

The software

• Articulate Presenter to create package

• Articulate Quizmaker and Engage to convert paper exercises to electronic

Collaboration

• Mainly with E-learning (Daniel Mackley)

• Colleague (Alison Organ) had problems with software – see below

• Module now co-taught in semester 2 so Head of Languages (Liviana

Ferrari) involved in demonstrating materials to students

Additions to the project

• A weekly study guide pdf to explain how language learning theories are

relevant. Topics included: What makes a good language learner?

Listening / reading / writing strategies

Good language learning habits to acquire

• Language learning tip of the week

- brief message sent as Moodle announcement

• Trialled e-marking with two written assignments (formative assessment)

Creating the materials

• Very time-consuming!

• Had to rethink some existing exercises to fit Articulate format

• Used software to create additional and better exercises – more challenging,

testing more skills, allowed for differentiation

Issues and challenges

• Time constraints

• RSI

• Student access of materials from home

• Software new to Daniel Mackley as well as myself

• Problems adding video to slides – sabotaged Alison Organ’s plan for use

of materials

Feedback from students

• Only 5 students provided feedback – more had accessed materials

• Used Articulate questionnaire feature to gather feedback – problems

accessing results

• Feedback was not anonymous – will use different programme next time

What the students thought- SOL materials

• “They were great practice as they had exercises from all areas eg listening,

reading etc”

• “A good support for learning outside of the classroom, clear and engaging”

• “The exercises were OK, sometimes too easy, but I didn’t like the programme”

• “Some worked and some didn’t. There seemed to be quite a few where the

submit button was off the bottom of the screen… the ones that didn’t have this

problem were useful”

What the students thought- pdfs of Learning Tips

• “Clear and easy to access in your own time”

• “I already had my learning strategies”

• “They helped to find different methods of learning the language…might

have been easier to read in a powerpoint form”

What the students thought- Learning Tip of the Week

• “It helped to make you think about the homework in a second light taking

on the advice given”

• “It was good to get some additional pieces of information”

What the students thought-e-submission and e-marking

• “…good because it is much easier than rushing into uni and also saves money

on printing, however there are a lot of technical problems…”

• “Everything was fine. It was really fast and easy”

• “Great tool, easy to go back to and much clearer over written marking”

• “… amount of feedback appropriate to writing work, easy to understand which

points of essay was good, which not”

What the students thought- did it make you a more independent learner?

• “They gave me a good platform to go from being a new Spanish learner and

were fun to do as well as helping with understanding of the language not just

learnt vocab”

• “They were good practice but I needed extra resources to help me learn

such as worksheets and basic repetition of information”

What the students thought- paper or electronic?

• “I preferred the electronic as more attractive and engaging. One

major advantage being you could go back to where you started from

easily”

• “The paper ones were easier to complete and there were also

answers given whereas in the SOL activities I could not find the

correct answers easily”

Snags to sort out

• Work out how to add video so Alison Organ can make package of independent materials for Advanced Language and Culture module

• Work with Daniel and IT to eradiate issues of students not being able to open materials off-campus

Plans for the future

• Continue creating exercises for remaining weeks of module

• Include much more feedback so students know where they are going

wrong (already underway)

• Create materials for other levels of Spanish course

Summary

• A much more all-encompassing approach to language learning

• Definitely a work in progress – many more aspects of the software to exploit

• Huge potential