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REDESIGN OF AN EXISTING DISTANCE-TAUGHT COURSE OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE FOR ADULTS, WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF COLLABORATIVE LEARNING SUPPORTED BY ACCESS TO AN ONLINE FORUM

author: Peter MORTIMER


©
If you are reproducing any of the work on this page, please quote the following reference:

Mortimer, P (2001): Redesign of an existing distance-taught course of English as a foreign language for adults, with the introduction of collaborative learning supported by access to an online forum, Assignment for Course 11, MA in Distance Education, Institute of Education, University of London / International Extension College, Cambridge   
http://peter.mortimer.free.fr

For all enquiries, please contact me: elearning.france@gmail.com



INDEX

INTRODUCTION
   Course description
   Rationale
   Audience
   Aim
   Objectives
   Content
   Media
REDESIGN OF COURSE
EVALUATION
   Start-up questionnaire
   Frequency of e-mail contact
   Course evaluation
CONCLUSIONS FROM THE EVALUATION
   Tutor dependency
   The 'house of learning'
PROCESS
   Course structure
   Motivation
   Learning style
   Community of learning
SCHEDULE FOR 2001-2002
MEDIA FOR 2001-2002
JUSTIFICATION OF MEDIA
   Course book + CD-ROM Dictionary
   Issues in English + CMC
   Online group chat application
   Final Project
CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY/RESOURCES


INTRODUCTION
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Course description
English Online (Anglais en ligne) has been running for 2 years: 1999-2000 and
2000-2001. The course lasts 8 months, with one face-to-face meeting per month on average, called the Communications Workshop.  The programme is based on Computer Assisted Learning (CAL), using a CD-ROM, Issues in English, lent to each learner. Regular e-mail and telephone contact between individual learners and the course tutor enable the preparation of the workshops, which serve to discuss the topics on the CD-ROM.
The course, run by the Adult Training Centre of the Jean Moulin-Lyon 3 University, Lyon, is still in its experimental stages. The greatest difficulty to date is in communicating the concept of e-learning to a French audience - hence the very small cohorts: 1999-2000: 2 learners; 2000-2001: 3 learners

Rationale
The rationale for offering the course lies in the vastly influential role of English in present-day French society. Mastering English is now recognised as essential - after many years of strong resistance to the potential hegemony of the language - in order to meet the international challenges facing French industry, commerce and tourism.

The cultural influence of the language - via American, British and Australian cinema and popular music - has anchored 'la langue de Shakespeare' (as the French affectionately call it) firmly in their own culture, whether they like it or not.

Audience
The audience over the past two years has been mixed gender-wise: 2 women and 3 men. The average age has been late 30s to early 40s. Of the five learners, three were self-financing; the other two having their courses paid for by their employers.

Computer-literacy has not proved a problem in general. Nonetheless, prospective enrolees need to be informed of the degree of computer literacy required for the course. Some form of pre-entry evaluation of basic Internet navigation skills needs to be implemented. And if necessary, a brief start-up course in these skills should be offered to those who need it.

Aim
The overall aim of the course - anchored in a lifelong learning perspective, but with no external summative assessment - is to offer adult learners the means to revise and improve their skills in spoken English.

Objectives
When questioned at the outset of the course, learners request the core skills such as those advocated in the European Language Portfolio. These skills, when prioritised, can be translated into the following objectives:

  • Listening: the ability to decipher short blocks of information of an everyday nature;
  • Reading: mastering - with the help of a dictionary if necessary - texts of general interest, such as newspaper articles, webpages, etc.;
  • Spoken Interaction: the ability to maintain a fluent conversation in an everyday context;
  • Spoken Production: the ability to communicate spontaneously with no 'prompting' due to prior interaction, e.g. asking for directions in the street;
  • Strategies: coping with making oneself understood in unforeseen contexts, i.e. 'muddling through'.

Content

  • CD-ROM Issues in English, Protea Textware, 1996.
  • CD-ROM Dictionary: Oxford Advanced Learner's or Longman.
  • Test Your English Idioms, P Watcyn-Jones, 1990, Penguin Books.
  • Websites, notably the BBC and sites of general or specific interest, subject-oriented and grammar-oriented.
  • Audio and video material.
  • Print-based documents.

Media

Learning media

  • CD-ROMs
  • Internet
  • Print
  • Video and audio recordings

Dialogue media

  • 3-hour monthly face-to-face workshops
  • E-mail
  • Individual telephone conferencing
  • Online forum (This was introduced in January and sheltered on the then eGroups site - now taken over by Yahoo! and called Yahoo! Groups.)

In format, the course may be compared with the 'Content + Support' model that:

'relies on the separation between course content […] and tutorial support (which in its simplest form is delivered by email or alternatively by computer conferencing).'

(Mason, 1998)

The CD-ROM is the core autonomous learning medium. E-mail and individual telephone conferencing with the tutor provide linguistic backup and extrinsic motivation. The monthly face-to-face workshops afford the learners the opportunity to put into practise the newly acquired vocabulary and concepts they have met in the CD-ROM. The debates serve as extrinsic motivation as learners compare and confront their individual interpretations of the topic under debate and the web-based research each one of them has carried out beforehand.

REDESIGN OF COURSE
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The redesign of the course aims to 'bring learners together' over the intervening four weeks or so between workshops. Past experience has shown that isolation and professional commitments have been the source of poor motivation.
 

Learner 2 (JD): I'm still at the office with tons of things to finish. I won't be able to ring you at 7:10pm as planned.
Learner 3 (DV): Ooops I forget our last telephone call. I was in Ibiza (for holydays) last week and I'm going to Perpignan (for work) where I organize a congress. […] And I'm trying to call you during the week but don't wait me […] If not, see you on next Friday 

EVALUATION
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Start-up questionnaire
This questionnaire - in month 2 of the course - enables the tutor to see where the learners are having trouble in self-directing. Follow-up discussion in an ensuing phone call is necessary to probe this feedback. Learner 3 (DV), for example, rated his 'Keeping reasonably up-to-date' in his studies as 'B', on a scale from 'A' to 'E', where 'B' indicates 'I feel reasonably competent about this'. It is regrettable to have to record that DV had not at that stage submitted any of the e-mail exercises that were already overdue, nor did he manage to do so over the ensuing 6 months.

This instance, early on in the course, highlights the weakness in the design of the these exercises, i.e. submitting to the course tutor, via e-mail, the answers to questions from the course book. An alternative task design for these exercises will be implemented in the Justification of Media section.

Frequency of e-mail contact
These statistics, slight though they appear, nonetheless enable us to identify the troughs and peaks in learner-tutor communication. They confirm several points:

  • The need for a break during the 8-month period because of fatigue, demotivation, isolation, personal/professional commitments, poor time management.
  • The difficulty in 'circumnavigating' holiday periods. Face-to-face workshops fall on a Friday often preceding extended weekend holiday periods or before school holidays.
  • The burst of enthusiasm at the outset of the course; the 'rush' to make the most of the course before the end of the year.
  • February and March constitute a very slack period, with poor learner commitment. A distinct reorientation in the learning cycle is needed at this point.

Course evaluation

The following results outline the degree of learner satisfaction with the autonomous learning media, on a rating scale from 0 to 10:
 

MEDIA RATING FROM 0 TO 10
CD-ROM Issues in English 9.3 for listening comprehension
6.6 for self-correction exercises
CD-ROM Dictionary  9 for learners 2 and 3
learner 1 did not buy it
Recordings on audio cassette lent to learners
Sound files attached to e-mails
9
Texts as basis for discussion uploaded to forum 9
Internet 7.6
Video/TV  5.6
Exercises submitted by e-mail 5

The eGroups forum proved to be a mitigated success due to its implementation three months into the course. Despite a face-to-face training session to familiarise learners with the application, it proved difficult for learners to integrate it into the learning mode they had, by then, constructed. This learning mode reposed essentially on learner-tutor communication, and while the forum did provoke and encourage the exchange of e-mails among the three learners and the occasional uploading of documents in preparation for the face-to-face workshops, it was impossible to instigate any form of valid computer mediated conferencing (CMC). This was due to the limited number of participants, aggravated by the limited computer skills of Learner 1 (BA):
 

Learner 1 (BA): I think I didn’t help the other learners to communicate with me especially through the forum because I wasn’t used to computers’ technic. 

Moreover, when the learners were questioned on the media for dialogue with the tutor that were available to them, the forum was rated very poorly:
 

MEDIA RATING FROM 0 TO 10
Workshop 9.6
Telephone 9.3
E-mail 8.3
Forum 4.6

This brief attempt at CMC through the forum highlights the unfavourable dichotomy in the 'Content + Support' model pointed out by Mason when he states that:

'these online elements tend to be added onto the course and students of such courses frequently report conflicts with learning the materials and participating in the online activities.'

(Mason 1998)

CONCLUSIONS FROM THE EVALUATION
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Tutor-dependency
The course is not sufficiently learner-oriented. A top-down structure imposes a schedule and content that ultimately causes demotivation. Furthermore, the stress on learner-tutor communication encourages an attitude of tutor-dependency that causes learners to remain ensconced in schoolish attitudes towards learning. When meeting deadlines for submitting work, learners manifest a 'getting the work in to please the teacher' approach. This scholarly perception of the tutor was highlighted when one learner, upon being reminded of a telephone call she had missed, drew a telling picture of herself and her fellow learners when she replied in an ensuing e-mail with the phrase:

 

Learner 1 (BA): I just would answer we are naughty adults. 

To counter this situation, the creation of a community of learning at the outset of the course is needed, in which the function of the tutor is perceived as that of a facilitator. The learners' motivation must not be tutor-dependent, but find its raison d'être in their responsibility towards the other learners in the community.

Higher Order Thinking
The orientation away from conditioned attitudes to learning can be equated with the concept of Higher Order Thinking (HOT) qualified as:

'[…] the capacity to go beyond the information given, to adopt a critical stance, to evaluate, to have metacognitive awareness and problem solving capacities […] to be an autonomous thinker and make reasoned judgements.'

(McLoughlin & Luca, 2000)

HOT in a language learning context should encourage the learner to go beyond the rote-learning mechanisms of memorising new vocabulary and grammar rules. Its aim is to stimulate learners to restructure the mind map of how they learn and to support each one of them in finding their own learning style with regard to a foreign language. Collaborative learning - and notably Computer Mediated Collaborative Learning (CMCL) - opens the way to this new awareness. McLoughlin & Luca (2000) state that:

'[…] the social, participatory and shared verbal activity in online environments is a trigger for higher order thinking'.

(McLoughlin & Luca, 2000)

In support of this, they cite McKendree, Stenning, Mayes et al (1998):

'Learners can see their peers and tutors modelling the process of interpretation and application; they can analyse and compare their own understanding to that of others'.

 (McLoughlin & Luca, 2000)

It is, however, important to stress that the learner is not being asked to 'wipe the slate clean'. The 'learning to unlearn' concept prevalent in distance education theory should not blind us to the importance of encouraging learners to build on certain elements they already possess and which they may feel to be positive in the development of their learning style. In short, beware of 'throwing out the baby with the bathwater'!

The 'house of learning'
By rubbing shoulders with other learners - albeit in a virtual space - learners assemble the bricks of a structure that is their own personal 'house of learning'. Some bricks from past experience will be kept, others removed and replaced by new bricks.

Taking the metaphor further, entire walls of the edifice will at times collapse and rebuilding them may be painful and long. And, as with a real-life house, the structure is assembled to suit the inhabitant, which means that, with time, walls sometimes have be knocked down to make room to accommodate new concepts.

Creating a community of learning - as in CMCL - brings together the 'houses of learning' of all its participants. Through windows we may glimpse what is inside a house. Some doors will open more easily than others. Some 'inhabitants' will be eager to 'roam the streets' of the community and visit other houses; some will require time before venturing outside their own house. And ultimately, inhabitants will invite each other 'back home', when the time is right. And it will be this socialising that will bring participants the opportunity to compare the architecture of their houses and enable them to pursue the construction - involving perpetual deconstruction and reconstruction - of their 'houses of learning'.

Finally, pushing the metaphor of this virtual village of 'houses of learning' to its limits, collaboration between learners may be seen as the paramount social gesture of 'lending a hand' or 'mucking in'. Building or rebuilding a wall is easier with the help of those who have done it before; and clearing out the rubble of walls that have collapsed is easier in teams….

The symbol of a 'house of learning' is rooted in constructivist theory, according to which 'people are active learners and must construct knowledge for themselves' (Barclay 2000). Barclay develops this posit and introduces the repercussions on task design by stating:

'Instructors should encourage students to engage in active dialog and discover principles by themselves […] to be more self-regulated and take a more active role in the learning process by setting their goals, evaluating progress, and exploring interests beyond basic requirements (Bruning et al, 1995). Constructivistic concept (sic) such as these are suggested to provide a theoretical and practical foundation for e-learning processes.'

(Barclay, 2000)

PROCESS
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Four areas are under discussion in this section to lay the groundwork for CMCL in the English Online forum:

1. Course structure
2. Motivation
3. Learning style
4. Community of learning
 

1. Course structure

'The educational effectiveness of computer conferencing depends on a balance of task design, facilitation and scaffolding of participant interactions so that higher order thinking can be achieved.'

McLoughlin & Luca (2000)

With a view to achieving the balance put forward by McLoughlin and Luca, the course as it stands must shift from its present 'Content + Support' model to the 'Wrap Around' model, in which:

'[…] the online interactions and discussions occupy about half of the students’ time, while the predetermined content occupies the other half […] giving more freedom and responsibility to the students to interpret the course for themselves.'

Mason (1998)

This represents a veritable sea change in the present distribution of media.
Time-wise, online communication via the forum will represent approximately one third of the course; another third will be devoted, as in the past, to face-to-face learning in the workshops; and autonomous learning will make up the rest.

The CD-ROM will constitute, in months 2 to 5 of the course, the core resource for the learner to revise and revitalise the basic notions of English grammar and syntax, as well as the vocabulary pertaining to the topics under debate. This usage may lend itself to criticism as being behaviouristic, but it is justified in that learners, in a French context, need some form of lifeline to their past learning habits. It is utopian and perilous to aim to coerce them into a constructivist approach to learning overnight when they have - for the most part - a lifetime's rote-learning behind them. Salmon touches upon this dilemma, when he poses the question:

'Does the use of English imply acceptance of a certain cultural traditions? In the United Kingdom for instance, the model of teaching and learning is based on acceptance of a certain level of independence. Other cultures' teaching traditions may give the impression that the 'teacher is king', thus posing a challenge to e-moderators aiming for democratic and collaborative approaches'.

(Salmon, 2000: p92)

As an offline medium, the CD-ROM is also justifiable in that it entails no outlay for the learner, as opposed to material accessed through the Internet which involves extra cost. Laurillard pinpoints this argument, among others, when she stresses the need for diversity in learning media:

'The efficiency and enjoyment of study will be optimised if media fit the learning objectives, if the choice of method for each medium is well matched to study logistics such as time or place constraints, access to equipment, etc., and if an appropriate balance is achieved across the range.'

(Laurillard, 2001: slide 10)

Developing Laurillard's premise, the computer conferencing element in English Online can be equated to the 'enjoyment' factor she evokes. The exchange of opinions on the issues raised on the CD-ROM enables learners to 'play' with ideas: in short, to debate; while the CD-ROM furnishes the 'efficiency' factor in Laurillard's equation, i.e. the linguistic grounding necessary to support debate.

2. Motivation

For the tutor, managing motivation in a CMCL environment may best be defined as simply keeping one's ear to the ground. No one rule or set of rules can be applied. An alert, discriminating and open mind is the moderator's greatest asset in apprehending the motivative 'make-up' of any one learner.
Any element the moderator introduces to trigger motivation is worthless unless careful and permanent attention is paid to the repercussions that that element provokes. In a face-to-face environment, the tell-tale signs of flagging interest are easily perceived and remedying the situation can be swift. In a CMCL environment, however, the time lag, which asynchronous communication inevitably generates, dulls the signs of demotivation, be it in any one participant or in the group as a whole. The moderator may consequently lose precious time in identifying the demotivation and, in turn, lose or misjudge the means of supporting learners.

These opening remarks on motivation are born of the dilemma facing the course moderator in juggling what may summarily be called the two extremes of 'too much, too soon' and 'too little, too late'.

How does the CMCL course designer eke out support for learners in such a way that they neither rest on their laurels nor fall by the wayside? An advanced organiser, as advocated by Ausubel (1968), may stimulate learner motivation; yet an overblown and intricate programme coming too soon in the learning cycle may dismay and diminish motivation if learners feel overburdened at the prospect of the programme before them. Some form of staggered advanced organiser is therefore necessary, especially for novice self-directed learners, because:

'Human beings are equipped with a built-in tendency to notice and react to novelty. This natural curiosity is an aspect of intrinsic motivation. Too much novelty, however, may make an experience disorientating and confusing. […] An interesting experience then, is when novel inputs are arriving and are being assimilated to our existing cognitive structures at our preferred rate.'

(University of Surrey, UK, undated webpage)

It follows then that it is the moderator's ability to perceive and measure the 'preferred rate' of 'novel inputs' of any one individual or a group that will ensure stable and constant progression in learner motivation.
At present, learners with English Online receive an advanced organiser at the first workshop outlining all eight months of the course. Experience has shown however that learners lose sight of the architecture of the course as it progresses, forgetting deadlines and telephone appointments, for example. Furthermore, confronted with the entire schedule, learners may perceive this very detailed overview of the course as something monotonous or mechanical. The course therefore needs to be broken up into 3 trimesters and, at the first face-to-face meeting, learners should be given nothing more than the dates for the workshops. Instructions for the three trimesters would be staggered over the year, with learners receiving details of how each trimester functions only when it begins.

3. Learning style
Distance learning theory has always encouraged the designer to allow the learners the freedom to 'find their feet' in the range of media at their disposal. Learners analyse and hone their learning style by incorporating the media that - at any given moment - may suit their personality. The first weeks of the English Online course therefore should be devoted to getting learners to review their learning style through dialogue - be it synchronous, asynchronous, online, face-to-face, telephone or chat - to enable them to construct that style. Howell-Richardson stresses the role of dialogue and the task of activating dialogue that is incumbent on the tutor:

'Laurillard […] speaks of the importance of dialogue in learning. […] Through questioning the theories you start a dialogue with yourself, which makes you examine the theories more deeply and develops critical thinking. […] and she sees it may have to be prompted by the tutor to check understanding and to set off new trains of thought.'

(Howell-Richardson, 2001)

Quoting Leino's remark (1999) that 'Chatting increases belongingness', Salmon (2000: 29), for his part, underlines the value of informal dialogue among learners, yet in vaguely muted terms, stating:

'It is also important that the e-moderators are tolerant of "chat" conferences and online socializing'.

(Salmon, 2000: 29)

McConnell attaches far greater importance to informal dialogue saying that:

'[…] the talk indulged in need not be formal or structured for learning to occur. Informal talk, or chat, can help many learners make the link between their present understanding of a topic or issue, and a more meaningful understanding:

"[…] Tentative and inexplicit talk in small groups is the bridge from partial understanding to confident meaningful statement. Present talking is future thinking." (Barnes et al, 1969, p126).'

(McConnell, undated webpage)

Such considerations as these lead us to debate on the extent to which a tutor can model a course in order to support learners in the quest for each one's preferred style. The emotional intelligence or EQ (=emotional quotient), that governs this capacity to self-direct one's learning is distinguished from IQ by Goleman (1995), and is summarised as:

'[…] that which shapes how we use our intellectual ability through self-control, zeal and persistence, and how we motivate ourselves.'

(Hocking College, undated webpage)

Barclay describes how emotional intelligence underpins the construction of a learner's preferred style, and while favouring its adoption, she nonetheless admits the difficulty of providing such extensive support:

' […] introducing materials through an individual’s preferred learning style will improve processing time to learn new matter. […] the constraints of technology will affect an instructor’s abilities to provide for multiple styles of any category, but awareness of learner diversity may foster more meaningful, challenging, and relevant training.'

(Barclay, 2001)

In conclusion, this debate brings us back to the centrality of the learner in CMCL and to the concept of keeping an 'ear to the ground', with tutors supporting learning through their own reserve of emotional intelligence.
Spector (1999) reminds us that the very virtuality of CMCL obliges designers to be cautious before erecting this or that framework or theory, and, in view of the newness of the medium, encourages us to be unceasingly on our guard.

'Designing environments to support collaborative learning is a new enterprise, and we, as a community of professional practitioners, have yet to develop widely help competencies and frameworks for this praxis. Fjuk (1998) argues that:

"…a distributed collaborative learning community is a ‘place’ that is created by the individual students through their individual and collective actions […] These ‘places’ are not developed by the systems designer. The designers’ role is to support the students’ work of creating that community, and in such a way that the computer systems become integrated parts of the students’ activity" (Fjuk, 1998, p. 70).'

(Spector, 1999)

Fjuk's statement introduces the tutors' delicate role, with one foot in, and one foot out of the learning community they are moderating. Fortunately the role of 'the tutor as evaluator and assessor (punishing and rewarding)' (McConnell, 2000: 137) is absent from the English Online programme, as no summative assessment is conducted on the course. This simplifies the task of moderation in one respect, thus enabling the tutor to interact on an equal footing with learners and to concentrate with them on developing and nurturing a community of learning.

4. Community of learning
Building a community of learning in the English Online forum will repose, from the outset, on learner-learner dependence, that is to say:

'[…] based on concepts of social constructivism related to Vigotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development, where students working together can "scaffold" each other to achievements and understanding beyond what could occur with the student working individually.'

(Collis, 1997)

Salmon (2000: 25-26) views teaching and learning online through Computer Mediated Conferencing (CMC) in a highly linear, hierarchical fashion, with an 'upward' progression through 5 stages:

1. access and motivation
2. online socialisation

3. information exchange

4. knowledge construction

5. development

He states that:

' […] at stage five, e-moderators and participants are essentially using a constructivist approach to learning. Constructivism calls for participants to explore their own thinking and knowledge building processes. (Biggs, 1995).'

(Salmon, 2000: 36)

This however begs the question: Should self-directed learners not be exploring their 'thinking and knowledge building processes' from the very outset of a CMC course? Granted that initial exposure to the medium is challenging and at times unnerving, nonetheless why suppose that learners cannot, at an earlier stage, evaluate the means of communication and self-instruction that is at their disposal? As is common in CMC, a Feedback area can be implemented for this purpose. This is not enough however. Learners must be given the opportunity to give voice to analysis of their learning style through other media. This is where the tripartite environment of mixed-mode distance courses, especially those with access to synchronous communication through regular face-to-face sessions and individual telephone conferencing can prove a distinct advantage. Furthermore, the medium of online group chat can also serve this purpose of spontaneous collective debate with a view to supporting learners in the construction of their 'thinking and knowledge building processes'.
 

SCHEDULE FOR 2001-2002
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The course will be divided into three distinct trimesters.

Trimester 1, Stage 1: Start-up
Stage 1, lasting 4 weeks, will be devoted to exposing learners to the media at their disposal and encouraging them to set up and use multi-channel peer-to-peer dialogue facilities: shared telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, online chat, conferencing and socialising through the forum.

Trimester 1, Stage 2: Groundwork
Throughout the 10 weeks of Stage 2, learners will test the research and debate formats at their disposal, such as multi-participant conferencing and peer collaboration in groups of 3 or 4, with a view to supporting the development of their preferred style of learning. Towards the end of stage 2, learners will also be invited to evaluate the course to date and to run some form of evaluation of their evolving style of learning.

Trimester 2: One-to-one collaboration
Trimester 2 is designed to cultivate peer responsibility through a tighter format, by inviting learners to work in pairs. This approach is dictated in part due to the difficulties experienced in physical participation and motivation of the whole group at this time of the year. It is also a step calculated to remove the stays of peer-group scaffolding used during trimester 1 and to allow participants to develop the social bonding on a one-to-one basis that will by then have occurred within the group.

The first 6 weeks of trimester 2 will allow for a certain amount of 'slack'. The schedule will be flexible; those participants that wish to 'forge ahead' will be encouraged to do so; those who are in need of a lighter schedule will be allowed to free wheel to some extent. This approach will move the onus from the constraints of physical participation thereby enhancing, we hope, online participation and collaboration. It is also necessary in order to allow for the two-week school holiday that falls during February, when participants may be away from home.

The remaining 3 weeks of the trimester, in March, will require learners to prepare intensely for chairing face-to-face debates on the subjects they have prepared over the preceding six weeks.

Trimester 3: Developing learning style
Lasting 12 weeks, trimester 3 is entirely devoted to learners preparing a Final Project of their own choosing and carried out individually, but with open preparation and tutoring via the forum. The project - produced in any format the learner wishes - is presented at the final face-to-face session mid-June. The only criterion governing the project is the obligation that the finished product be in English.

MEDIA FOR 2001-2002
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Choice of media

  • The same learning and dialogue media will be used as in 2000-2001.
  • The Yahoo! Groups site will be used for CMC.
  • ICQ: synchronous chat application. An online group chat through ICQ will take place once a month (on a Friday, i.e. the same day of the week as workshops in order to help learners regulate their learning schedule.)
  • The various media will be introduced in a staged approach, i.e. not all at once, in accordance with the 'novelty inputs' theory evoked earlier, thus maintaining intrinsic motivation.

JUSTIFICATION OF MEDIA
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Course book + CD-ROM Dictionary
The idiom exercises from the course book which familiarise learners with dictionary research techniques are maintained. However, to eliminate the tutor-dependent aspect of the correction of the exercises, learners will be requested to simply post up their exercises each week, before Friday, to the forum; solutions to the exercises will then be published on the forum the following day. This approach establishes a form of tutor-independent routine and deadline for the work.

Issues in English + CMC
As prescribed by Mason's 'Wrap Around' model, the CD-ROM, Issues in English, constitutes the 'content element' of the course, in tandem, with the online conferencing of the issues  that figure on the CD-ROM.

Online group chat application
Online group chat is favoured for its value in encouraging group cohesion, but particularly for the opportunity it offers for immediate yet reflective expression. As Faber points out:

'Through writing in a communicative fashion, such as Y-talk , RTA , or even
e-mail (although it is not in 'real time'), the student writes in an informal discourse that allows for negotiation of meaning. Also, he or she has the extra time needed to create language at a comfortable pace, while getting the feedback of direct communication.'

(Faber, undated webpage)

Chat session content may be based on issues under debate from the CD-ROM, or be devoted to learner-led topics. It will also be a valuable medium in supporting
self-assessment. Working on the assumption that there will be between 6 to 10 enrolees in the course, the chat will be divided into two consecutive sessions of 20 minutes with half the group online (3 to 5 participants) per session. As the course progresses, chat sessions involving all the participants will be tested. To avoid confusion with 8 or 9 people in a chat function, the session will be designed with 3 or 4 learners debating while the others 'listen'. Those 'listening' can intervene silently at any given point with emoticons (McConnell, 2000: 81). The moderator may then invite the new participant to join the debate and ask someone already debating to step down for a while.

An essential reinforcement element of chat is to request that learners save the whole chat transcript in order to read it with hindsight, to analyse the language in play and to spell-check it.

Final Project
The open tutoring of the Final Project by the moderator via CMC with the opportunity for peer viewing and comment of the process or content fulfils the overall pedagogical objective of the course, i.e. raising learners' awareness of their preferred styles of learning.

Keeping awareness of learning style centre-stage is the thread that weaves throughout the course

'...to maintain a narrative, in collaboration with the learner' [...] It is the responsibility of teacher and designer to […] motivate their own [the learners'] articulation of what they know, motivate them to refine it, and enable them to assess for themselves the extent to which they are achieving the goal.'

(Laurillard et al, 2000).

CONCLUSIONS
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The new design of English Online aims to cultivate awareness of learning style through its scaffolding of the learner, where scaffolding is seen as:

'[…] a commitment to be in harmony with the students' thinking, and then fade when the scaffolded knowledge is internalized.'

(Brattan, B et al, undated webpage)

Throughout the course, the learner will run the gamut from working as many - in the start-up multi-participant conferencing sessions, followed by the one-to-one peer collaboration in trimester 2 - to ultimately working independently, yet not alone, in the open environment of the Final Project in trimester 3. The scaffolding does not 'fade' as such, however, because the principle of scaffolding will itself be internalised. Learners will learn that one can scaffold oneself, and that one can - with time - become the architect of one's own learning.

 


REFERENCES
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Ausubel, D P, (1968): Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Wilson, Inc.

Barclay, K (2001):Humanizing Learning-at-Distance
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Barnes, D, Britton, J, Rosen, H & the L.A.T.E. (1969): Language, the learner and the school, Penguin, England.

BBC website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk

Biggs, J (1995): The role of metalearning in study processes, British Journal of Educational Psychology 55, pp185-212

Brattan, P, Durrah, S, & Uecker, J (undated website): Scaffolding Student Learning, Instructional Approaches and Issues
http://hale.pepperdine.edu/~pcbratta/scaf4.html#anchor525864

Bruner, J. (1966). Toward a Theory of Instruction, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press

Collis, B (1997: Experiences with Web-based environments for collaborative learning and the relationship of these experiences to HCI research, Presentation at "HCI and Educational Tools", Working Conference of IFIP WG 3.3, Sozopol, Bulgaria
http://users.edte.utwente.nl/Collis/papers/bulgaria.htm

European Language Portfolio:
http://www.eaquals.org/Portfolio_Web_Final.htm

Faber, K (undated webpage): Technological Web Page Curriculum for First-Year Spanish Classes
http://www.oberlin.edu/~kfaber/resources.html#WRITING.2

Fjuk, A (1998): Computer support for distributed collaborative learning. Exploring a complex problem area. PhD dissertation, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
http://www.ifi.uio.no/~ftp/publications/dr-scient-theses/AFjuk.pdf

Goleman, D (1995): Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, New York, Bantam Books

Hocking College, USA, webpage: Emotional Intelligence
http://www.hocking.edu/~aaffairs/EQ.HTML

Howell-Richardson, C (2001): Summary of Learning Theory Discussion, Computer Mediated Communications in Education module, MA in ICT in Education Module/MA in Distance Education, Institute of Education, University of London

ICQ website:
http://web.icq.com/

Laurillard, D (2001): Rethinking University Teaching in a Digital Age, Digital Learning Tools Conference, Oslo 3 April 2001, Open University, UK
http://www2.open.ac.uk/ltto/lttoteam/Diana/Oslo/Oslo_files/frame.htm

Laurillard, D, Stratfold, M, Luckin, R, Plowman, L & Taylor, J (2000) Affordances for Learning in a Non-Linear Narrative Medium, Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2000 (2)
http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/00/2/

Leino, A (1999): Virtual United: Online course to 22 countries by an international team, Proceedings of Online Educa, Berlin

Mason, R (1998): Models of Online Courses, ALN Magazine Volume 2, Issue 2 - October
http://www.aln.org/alnweb/magazine/vol2_issue2/masonfinal.htm

McConnell, D (undated webpage): Computer Supported Cooperative Learning: What is Cooperative Learning?
http://www.idb.hist.no/mecpol/pol0297/lessons/12/cscl.htm (link now outdated)

McConnell, D (2000): Implementing Computer Supported Cooperative Learning, (2nd edition), Kogan Page, London

McKendree, J, Stenning, K, Mayes, T, Lee, J & Cox, R (1998): Why observing a dialogue may benefit learning, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 14(1), 110-119.

McLoughlin C & Luca, J (2000): Cognitive engagement and higher order thinking through computer conferencing: We know why but do we know how? In A. Herrmann and M.M. Kulski (Eds), Flexible Futures in Tertiary Teaching. Proceedings of the 9th Annual Teaching Learning Forum, 2-4 February 2000. Perth: Curtin University of Technology
http://cleo.murdoch.edu.au/confs/tlf/tlf2000/mcloughlin.html

Protea Textware, Australia
http://www.proteatextware.com.au/

RTA home page:
http://davinci.cs.ucdavis.edu/

Salmon, G (2000): E-Moderating: The key to teaching and learning online, Kogan Page, London

Spector, J M: Teachers as Designers of Collaborative Distance Learning, Paper Proposal for SITE '99, Department of Information Science, University of Bergen, Norway
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Université Lyon 3, France, website:
http://www.univ-lyon3.fr/

University of Surrey, UK, undated webpage: Applied Professional Studies in Education and Training, Module S46, Introduction to Interactive Multimedia Training Systems, Unit 2: The Learner
http://www.surrey.ac.uk/Education/APS/s46/s46unit2.htm(link now outdated)

Yahoo! Groups website:
http://fr.groups.yahoo.com

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY/RESOURCES
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A Review of Issues pertaining to Farm Business Management Education, prepared for The Canadian Farm Business Management Council by Knowledge Connection Corporation:
http://www.farmcentre.com/english/downloads/distance.pdf

Faerber R, Enseignement et apprentissage collaboratif sur un campus virtuel : les leçons d’une expérience, ULP Multimédia : Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg 1:
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FlexVoice 2 text-to-speech engine:
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The Efficiency of Instant Messaging:
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Warschauer, M. (1996): Computer-Assisted Language Learning: An Introduction, in Fotos, S. (ed.) Multimedia Language Teaching, Tokyo: Logos International [Online]
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Warschauer, M. (1996): Computers and Language Learning: An Overview, Language Teaching
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Wegerif R, The Social Dimension of Asynchronous Learning Networks:
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