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Members: Aaron, Alison, Jane
Dr Smith teaches in Law Faculty of a university. Every year, he has about two dozen international students whose first languages are not English. Dr. Smith is interested in exploring effective ways to improve the linguistic skills of ESL law students while introducing them to Australian law and the legal system. Recently, the faculty granted Dr Smith a teaching improvement grant of $10,000. You, as an instructional designer, are retained by Dr. Smith to design a blended learning module to teach ESL students contract drafting skills while improving linguistic skills (with focus on word choice, sentence structure, and paragraph structure).

Your task: to come up with a blended learning solution to Dr. Smith’s problem. Specify the blends (media) and how each medium will be used.

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**The Problem: **
Dr Smith’s problem is an interesting and without a fully researched proposal we have had to make a few assumptions. These being 1) that the $10,000 was used to retain us, and not to spend on technology, 2) that the non-English speaking students are part of a wider group of students who do speak English as a first language, 3) lectures are currently held face to face, and 4) a module is more than one session.

**A blended solution: **
Advocating a truly blended solution means incorporating ICT elements into the equation. We believe dynamic, online collaborative tools are best suited for this purpose as they can be easily and cheaply sourced by individual users and allow for grouping.

To start implementation of a blended solution we might first look at a range of key areas to assess our options in selecting a blended solution. These include:


 * **Culture of the organisation/faculty:** Is it a Faculty open to an experienced with blended online solutions. In this case, we believe the faculty is open to all possibilities.
 * **Measurement of expected outcomes:** How will results be measured? Law is the key ingredient of the learning and will still need to be assessed in traditional examination format. The english component therefore is more qualititative and not directly assessable therefore gives us greater flexibility in our approach.
 * **Organisational hierarchy:** Who is running the training program? The lecturer of the faculty? In our case the lecturer is running it and therefore has more freedom to implement tools independently.
 * **Individual learning preferences:** It would be ideal to assess and cater to individual learning preferences within our solution however it's size makes it prohibitive but we have an awareness of how different individuals learn.
 * **Internal ‘facilitators’:** In our case, Dr Smith will be implementing and facilitating the course.
 * **Age of participants:** The majority of our learners are young (under 25) and therefore are generally familiar with most technologies which will aid implementation.
 * **Choosing the right tools:** Having determined the above we can now choose the blend of tools to use to suit the above and subject matter.



Language learning generally takes place in workshop settings, written material and accompanying audio materials are provided to students, who are usually enrolled on a full time immersive courses or part time day/evening basis. A variety of teaching tools, activities and material which will contribute to a successful blended learning experience for teachers as well as students.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This would take place in a face-to-face classroom setting incooporating various teaching tools as well as methods in order to meet learning outcomes. Data projectors and interactive whiteboards will open up the classroom to a host of innovatie approaches to language learning when connect with high speed internet and computers. An increasing number of IWB compatible resources ar enow available for users to download. Instructors may also create their own tasks based on the needs and ability of their students. The advantage of IWB is its ability to demonstrate graphics. The combination of text and colour coded or multimedia tables/graphs will be able to provide visual aids for ESL students to gain in depth understanding of the content. Classroom language learning may involve the performance of role plays, consolidating their knowledge on the content ad also providing them with the ability to discuss issues and develop their ability to speak English in front of an audience. -Immersive language learning: Research on the Canadian French immersion program has found immersion to be effective in ensuring students have base level skills in both native and second language, especially in early immersion programs (Cummins, 1998). This could be difficult for Dr Smith to run himself as he may not have the necessary second language skills; thus would have to be taught by a language specialist.

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Online content learning **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Online content allows the students to be engaged with self-paced learning. Examples of self paced learning media include instructional print material, for example books, printed course materials,which should include a glossary of key terms and their definition. Audio presentations such as such as podcasts, audio files, CD's, tapes and video presentations may be used, this particular medium of presentation allows the students to develop their listening skills. Other computer computed based files which may also be used for this purpose includes video files, DVDs, videos, film and satellite television broadcasts with subtitles. These materials have the advantage of being self paced, allowing learners to study the material in their own time and would work well within a blended learning environment. Subsequent to in class discussions or a series of asynchronous learning, interactive multimedia programsshould be used. The allows the students to use internet chat programs (such as iChat) to speak the language with experts in a distributed manner. Not only does this allow students to clarify new concepts, it also provides the students with an opportunity to gain confidence in relations to their ability to use the English language. It was shown in an Internet Relay Chat study that "online communication [the use of ICQ and MSN] has been perceived as havining been stimulating and beneficial [for ESL students]." (Wong, 2004). Virtual Learning Environment is becoming increasingly popular amongst teachers and students. "A virtual learning environment (VLE) is a software system designed to support teaching and learning in an educational setting..." (Wikipedia, 2010). Virtual learning environments are a collection of tools for instructors to use within their teaching, enabling the use of multimedia content in a distributed environment. VLEs can include both synchronous and asynchronous tools, and provides instructors with much increased interactivity in their instruction. As Steele discusses in his 2002 study "it is becoming possible to not only transmit instruction, but to facilitate communicative and collaborative learning for language students at a distance" (Steele, 2002). The VLE provides a multimedia environment conducive to facilitating Dual channel encoding in learners (Sweller, 2005; Mayer, 2005) to create greater opportunities for knowledge transference, and providing opportunities for learners to interact with each other and experts. Generally, VLEs (and the internet in general) are used to facilitate language learning in one of four ways:
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As a means of interaction among teachers;
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As a means for students to interact with other students, or receive tutoring;
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As a means of offering additional tutoring/help to students enrolled in a face to face class;
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As a primary means of offering a class.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">VLE is a valuable teaching and learning tool especially for ESL teachers and students, as some ESL students may be hesitant to speak within a face-to-face classroom setting, due to language barriers. The use of VLE encourges all students to participate and allows the discussion to flow, consolidating their understanding of the content. Student will be able to practice role plays, discuss group work and at the same time have access to instant feedback from the instructor.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Learning activity/blend || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Classroom based || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Online/self directed ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">VLE -second life ||  || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Practice for classroom role play. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Video/Film || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">practise/understand language skills || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">practise/understand language skills ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Online language learning courses ||  || Practice/understand language skills ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">books || Unserstand content || Understand content, further reading ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Audio files CD's podcasts etc || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">practise/understand language skills || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">practise/understand language skills ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">conversations ||  || Practice language conventions, consolidate content knowledge ||