Abstract
This project aims at developing and deploying a one-unit, credit-bearing online course with 13 hours of approximately 45 minutes of student engagement time each. With a focus on mobile, independent, and self-paced learning, the purpose of this course is to offer CU students a first experience in approaching the German language and culture. It is also intended to be a taster course for and an introduction to the course offering of the German Programme in the Modern Languages Section of the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages.
The goals of the course are to motivate students to engage with a new language and culture; to develop their intercultural awareness and sensitivity; to contribute to the development of multilingualism by teaching basic German words and phrases; to improve students’ readiness to engage in self-directed learning of languages by offering a motivating self-paced online course; to use the Small Private Online Course (SPOC) format as an innovative approach of independent, self-paced mobile learning.
The main content of the course will encompass travelling to Germany (geographical names/languages, German-speaking countries, international words), first contact with Germans (greetings, introducing oneself, asking and answering relevant questions about people, numbers 0-40); food (typical dishes of German-speaking countries, asking and answering selected questions on food likes and dislikes, ordering food), and hobbies (German football, other popular sports, asking and answering selected questions about hobbies).
Brief write-up
Project objectives
This project aims at developing and deploying a one-unit, credit-bearing online course with 13 hours of approximately 45 minutes of student engagement time each. With a focus on mobile, independent, and self-paced learning, the purpose of this course is to offer CUHK students a first experience in approaching the German language and culture. It is also intended to be a taster course for and an introduction to the course offering of the German programme in the Modern Languages section of the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, CUHK.
Activities, process and outcomes
• activities carried out
- the general structure of the units has been developed
- the content of units 1,2,3 (including interactive content and exercises as well as self-check quizzes) and language-related content for unit 4 has been created and implemented on the CUHK Moodle GERM1001 “First Steps in German website”.
- four unit videos have been produced/filmed.
• examples of process: enhanced curriculum designs, enhanced educational practices, changes in approaches to teaching
- enhanced curriculum design: Due to our development of the SPOC and of the teaching materials for this SPOC, the German team have now a clear view of how to design and implement self-learning/flipped classroom modules, especially with respect to which activities/tools (Moodle activities/H5P/etc.) are suitable for which goals. While producing the online modules, our team have acquired skills in video production/editing and in the production of interactive exercises. By virtue of these newly acquired skills and experience, we have been further enabled to plan, develop, and assess in a more targeted manner self-learning online modules for our current German classes on our Moodle platform.
- enhanced educational practices, changes in approaches to teaching: By virtue of the experience gained from developing the SPOC and pertinent materials, the German team are going to identify areas in our current teaching that can be implemented as self-learning/flipped classroom modules, and we are going to work towards implementing them as self-learning modules in our current courses. Asynchronous learning for certain content will be beneficial to and motivating for our students.
- outcomes in terms of student capabilities that have been developed, student satisfaction, or staff competencies that have been enhanced staff competencies enhanced: - conceptualization and implementation of educational videos, including editing videos (with Adobe Premiere Pro, Camtasia), using green screen and video effects
- conceptualization and implementation of educational audio activities, including editing audio files (with Adobe Audition, Audacity)
- development of interactive online content using H5P/Moodle activities
- development of interactive educational videos that contain self-checking elements (for the students, this enhances to a great extent the sense of engaging in a “real” conversational context and increases motivation to continue with the course)
Deliverables and evaluation
Deliverables
• development and deployment of 13 hours of Beginners’ German SPOC (to be completed shortly)
• production of accompanying videos (all videos have been produced)
• Presentations of SPOC held at department level (more presentations planned)
Evaluation
• Student Feedback (to be requested once all modules are completely deployed)
• Peer Evaluation by external educational professional (to be requested once all modules are completely drafted/deployed)
Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices
We have created the Moodle course website First Steps in German:
https://moodle.cuhk.keep.edu.hk/course/view.php?id=32
We have presented our German SPOC project structure, modules, and exercises in 2 presentations at department level. We are planning to present our project at CUHK Teaching and Learning Innovation Expo and at an international conference with colleagues in Greater China.
Impact on teaching and learning
Learning: Our project is a lighthouse project at CUHK as an introductory, asynchronous self-learning online language course that enables CUHK students to get acquainted with a new language and culture in an extraordinarily accessible way: they can study where they like; and when they like; and at their individual learning pace. CUHK students will benefit greatly from this internationalization at home (or, in fact, anywhere they take their mobile devices), since the gap between their own and a new, exciting language and culture, is bridged by actively engaging with the motivating content of the course.
Teaching: Our team have much clearer insight now into how to build online teaching materials that can be used within a self-learning approach, and how to make them as interactive as possible. As we are using Moodle as a teaching platform in our regular teaching, we are planning to implement self-learning modules for selected topics (e.g. pronunciation; test-taking strategies; test format training; and others) in our current Moodle teaching platform. Since we now have gained great experience with the available tools (H5P, Moodle quizzes and activities), we can now more effectively tailor our materials to our students’ needs, especially with respect to asynchronous self-learning modules. Going forward, we are going to implement such self-learning modules in our Moodle platform environment and make these modules an integral part of our overall teaching approach.
