Course Management System to promote language learning

Hiroyo SaitoNEALLT 2006 conference

at University of Pennsylvania

April 8, 2006

CMS as a communication tool You can use Blackboard

just to place course materials online.

as communication tools that can be used to promote language learning inside and outside the classroom among students, and between students and instructor.

Blackboard tools Journal Tool Chat Tool Course Documents Assignment Tool Grade Book

Journal tool (blog) Ease of use

Format (font, size, text color, highlight color, bold, italic, underline, align, and lists).

Upload pictures. Add links. Add comments by both faculty and classmates.

No need to click on the link to read a message like the Discussion Board.

Journal 1/5

Journal tool (blog) The Journal tool allows to

Create theme-based journals. Create group journals. Trace the history of writing. Sort all the messages by writer.

Journal 2/5

Journal tool: survey results Survey: 17 students taking 1st year Japanese class. 17 students agreed that the journal tool is easy to use.

17 students prefer typing directly in Blackboard to tying in Word and sending it to the instructor.

17 students agreed that the color coded editing by the instructor helps them to correct the mistakes.

No students mind the fact that their classmates can see what they write in the journal.

Journal 3/5

Journal tool: students’ comments “I think the Blackboard journal is a useful tool. It is nice to be able to use both in the LLC and in my computer in my room. The tool works exactly like a word document, so it is easy to use.”

“very helpful for review purposes.” “It's really good. I like it just fine and I hope it doesn't change.”

“I think it works pretty well.”

Journal 4/5

Journal tool: faculty’s comments “I find this to be very useful, because this function enables our students to submit their individual work, to receive instructor's feedback, to edit their original work, to resubmit their revised work, to do pair work and even to exchange messages with their pen-pals.” Yoko Koike

“I believe we both get a better sense of where we stand with the language. It gives a unique opportunity to those students who are usually shy or slow in speaking in class. I might say that, in this respect, journal is better because the student is the one writing, by him/herself, without others seeing the product, except at the time of submitting…” Asima Saad-Maura

Journal 5/5

Chat tool Can be used for

course-wide chat. group chat. them-based chat.

Can be archived for later analysis.

Chat 1/5

Chat tool: survey results Survey: 16 students taking 1st year Italian. 16 students like the chat activity in the LLC.

16 students think that the chat activity is helpful for their learning.

Only 6 students agreed that they participate more in class when they have the chat activity.

Chat 2/5

Chat: students’ comments

“I like the chat activity because it allows you to go at your own pace during classroom discussion. Too often do I feel students get close to fully understanding what's going on and each sentence, but the pace is too rapid for them to fully get it. I think the chat tool is useful for reconciling that difficulty.”

“Ultimately, the largest benefit for the chat activity we engage is in constructing full sentences (in Italian) and having immediate help from peers as well as an instructor to correct or enhance those sentences.”

“It is a unique opportunity that I enjoy taking advantage of.”

Chat 3/5

Chat: faculty’s comment “A word of caution is important about chat, though: it is advisable to prepare a set of questions beforehand for the students to answer, otherwise, it can be confusing to them; not knowing exactly what to write, they’ll then resort to “small talk” and fragmented phrases.” Asima Saad-Maura

Chat 4/5

Chat: faculty’s comments

“Change of scenery, gets us out of the class-room, especially important for year-long courses.”

“Video is always interesting, visually and for learning purposes to watch people speak in the target language, to observe gestures, expressions and to talk about it via chat provides for all participants to express opinions and ask questions.”

“Good tool to help one another and feel good about that by writing in Italian.” Ute Striker

Chat 5/5

Pronunciation Exercise The objective of the exercise

to raise the students' awareness of and improve their pronunciation and intonation.

The tools used Blackboard Course Documents / Assignments / Grade book

Audacity /Dartmouth Language Recorder USB microphones Headphones

Pronunciation 1/6

Pronunciation Exercise Process for students

Download a sound file (mp3) stored in the course document folder in Blackboard. Each sound file has pauses for students to record themselves.

Upload the sound file to Audacity. Record themselves after each phrase.They are encouraged to try as many times as needed until they are satisfied with their recording.

Delete the master sound and save it as mp3 file. Upload the mp3 file to Blackboard via assignment tool. They write comments and scores for their own recordings.

Pronunciation 2/6

Pronunciation Exercise The instructor’s process

Listen to each student’s recording stored in the grade book section of Blackboard.

Give them feedback and scores in the grade book of Blackboard.

Pronunciation 3/6

Pronunciation exercise:

survey result: 17 students 15 students agreed that the pronunciation exercises are useful for them.

14 students agreed that the instructor’s feedback is useful for them.

15 students agreed that having model pronunciation right before they record helps them to pronounce better.

13 students agreed that this exercise has been helping them to pay more attention to their pronunciation when they speak Japanese.

Pronunciation 4/6

Pronunciation exercise:students’ comments “Good exercise for learning to speak quickly while trying to speak with proper pronunciation.”

“a good supplement to the regular review of speech in the class.”

“The only problem I have with the recordings is that the space we have to record each sentence is small. I must say them fast to fit them into the allotted space. So my words are not a clear and concise as I might be able to get them.”

“It is fun to use different voices when doing the pronunciation exercises. I think they're useful, but I think the way they are most useful is in helping us to read.”

Pronunciation 5/6

Pronunciation exercise:faculty’s comment “Working on students' pronunciation and intonation issues in class often presents difficulties to language teachers. This exercise using Audacity in the Blackboard environment makes it possible for students to work on their own pronunciation/ intonation in a relatively safe space while they can receive the instructor's regular feedback, through the Blackboard gradebook.” Yoko Koike

Pronunciation 6/6

Assignment tool / Gradebook1. Faculty create an assignment folder for a specific assignment.

2. Students submit their assignments (word documents, sound files, etc) into the specific assignment folder with their comments. The student’s name and the assignment name are automatically added to the file.

The submitted assignments appear in the grade book.

Grade book3. Faculty check the students’ assignments in the gradebook and give the feedback and grades. Faculty can download all the assignments into a folder.

Faculty can add paper-based exams or attendance into the gradebook manually.

4. Students check the grades and feedback as soon as the instructor puts them in the gradebook.

Grade book: Faculty’s comment “The best part of gradebook is as soon as I grade a quiz, it will be known to students. The gradebook function on BlackBlard allows them to see their scores of all the quizzes with the average scores/highest scores and lowest scores. I also hope that it has helped at least some students view the course to be as much as theirs as it is mine. When they receive their quizzes back, they can also easily check and see if its recording is correct.” Yoko Koike