Is an advanced language course doable online

1
Is an advanced language course do-able on-line?
TEL_at_YORK 2007

• Norio Ota
• Japanese Korean Section
• DLLL
• York University

2
Course

• AS/JP3000 6.0 Advanced Modern Standard Japanese
  a joint class between students at York University
  and St. Marys University via videoconferencing
  facilities.
• Class schedule
• Tuesday Thursday
• 930 1130 (York)
• 1030 1230 (St. Marys)
• E-Office Hours T/W
• Web http//kusu.arts.yorku.ca/japanese/jp3000.htm
  l

3
Format

• Distance education
• video-conferencing seminar twice a week, two
  hours each, 24 sessions
• web-based course materials interactive reading
  materials and other reference materials
• individualized video-conference sessions, using
  Polycom video-conferencing system with students
  for consultation during electronic office hours
  (E-Office Hours)
• Partial on-line testing based on Moodle
• a part-time assistant to help students with
  oral/aural activities and testing (at St. Marys)
• a part-time administrative and teaching assistant
  to assist the main instructor (Norio Ota) with
  correspondence, course administration,
  individualized instructions and overall
  operations (at York).
• Site visits by the Course Director to St. Marys
  University, and the Professor in charge at St.
  Marys to York University in order to enhance
  hands-on cooperation.
• chat service
• listserv

4
Faculty/Staff

• York University
• Course Director and Project Coordinator Norio
  Ota
• VC Consultant Jim Poole, ITC
• A part-time administrative and teaching assistant
• On-line testing consultant Mike Street, CNS

• St. Marys University
• Coordinator Prof. Charles Beaupre
• VC Consultant George Alanson, Telecommunications
  Information Technology Systems and Support
• A part-time teaching assistant Tomoko Miyano

5
Facilities

• York
• Steadman Lecture Hall 120E (SLH120E) equipped
  with video-conferencing and video-streaming
  facilities
• Multimedia Language Centre (MLC) for on-line
  tests
• Polycom video-conferencing unit (DLLL) for
  individualized instruction
• BizTablet with JustWrite for correcting
  assignments
• SMU
• Polycom video-conferencing system, classroom
• PeopleContent IP (presentation from a local
  site)
• Servers
• Kusu web server
• Tsuge web and mail servers
• Udo Moodle server

6
Instructional materials

• Interactive and self-study reading materials
• Content-based texts
• Grammar and exercises
• Resource materials from other sources
• Templates for writing
• PowerPoint presentations for mini-lectures
• Interactive manuscript paper
• 
  AS/JP3000 6.0 site

7
Class management

• Limited mobility
• Modifying the studio setting
• More camera pre-set spots
• Seating change
• Limited interactivity
• Participatory activities such as interviews and
  debate
• Encourage students to express themselves
• Enhance cross-cultural understanding among
  students

8
Activities

• In-class
• Text reading and Q A
• Discussion
• Movie viewing and discussion
• Interview
• Debate
• Summarization
• Web presentation
• Mini-lectures
• Weekly quizzes

• Out-class
• Essay assignments
• Book reading
• Internet search
• Movie viewing
• Preparing for group conversation assignments
• Extra-curricular activities such as JLPT and
  speech contest

9
Video-conferencing with streaming

• Pros
• Real-time
• Face to face
• Ease of control
• Virtual community
• Supervise distance sites
• Free and reliable connection
• Accessibility (from an Internet café in Japan)

• Cons
• Artificial environment
• Hard to have real communication
• Operational cost
• Two dimensional
• Need an operator
• High cost of equipment

10
On-line testing with Moodle

• Pros
• Non-essay types questions work fine
• Can be administered even overseas
• Sound and video clips for listening comprehension
  
• Can track progress
• Possible elimination of marking

• Cons
• Limited correcting tools for essay, translation
  and short answer questions.
• Unexpected problems
• Time consuming in marking
• Limited types of questions

11
Course assessment

• Pros
• Far-reaching
• Accessibility
• Communicative
• Interactive
• Virtual community
• Immediate feedback
• Reviewable and previewable
• Self-study

• Cons
• Costly
• Lack of mobility
• Artificial environment
• Time consuming
• Lack of communicative activities
• Not self-manageable
• Hardware, software and connection problems

12
Conclusion

• A professional and experienced VC operator
• A good teaching assistant on the distant sites
• On-line tests should not contain essay-type
  questions
• Weekly quizzes are important
• On-line assessment of assignments is too
  time-consuming
• Develop various types of classroom activities
• Incorporate extra-curricular activities
• Level difference among institutions is the most
  serious problem.
• Find external funding
• E-office hours for individualized instruction