Speaking Exams.

It has  been a long week with  the end course evaluations.

Work weeks in my Social Service keep being interesting and busy. Level one is over and I am left with   exams and paperwork to mark. This week involved the exhausting final evaluation process to close midterm courses during the semester.  Some evaluation issues with regards oral evaluation seeme  to have not entirely gotten solved yet .  Some colleagues are students'  favorites not  because they favor them with good grades, but because they make  students feel relax and welcoming during the evaluation. “ The teacher just looked at me in a very kind way, and I immediately felt relaxed  and started to remember  everything, and I was able to answer most of what she asked.” a shy student of mine said the day after she had her speaking test. On the other hand a group of my students went in class “ Oh, no!” ( like in a  chorus) when they  heard the name of their speaking test examiner. I encourage them to just relax and feel confident during such exams.

The teachers’ board has constantly pointed out the issues concerning oral evaluation, but only very few teachers still seem to believe   that oral examinations should be  fast, serious and challenging – they do not openly say it; they just keep on rushing students into answering as if they were in a police station.

There is a couple of  lines, that one of the teachers  keeps on posting as a note  in the material that is handed  in   to the speaking  examiners before the  exam day, that says “ Dear colleagues, let´s make this  a meaningful experience for students, rather than a bitter one."

Thanks for reading me. I would also  like to mention that I have new data  to comment  about my blending learning project,  but it will have to be in my next post.  

Take care and  see you soon.

My Action Plan on a blended learning course

Goals.

That content in  the Moodle learning platform,  which is  part of   the blended learning  course   for  our Saturday´s students ,  can be  more  manageable and understandable  for students,  so they  can  efficiently use content and tools in such platform towards   their language learning and towards the  encouragement and development  of  independent  learning  .

 Objectives:

Units Objectives and instructions will be modified looking for improvement unit by unit in the Moodle learning platform to match general syllabus goals and to meet clear understanding.

Content will be reorganized and updated,  if necessary, in each unit  to aid student  during  their  learning process in the course

Tutorials will be carried out during class and  through Skype  on how to use new content .

New changes in content and instruction will be under constant observation and analysis during fate-to-face  in class, through Skype  and  during online participation.

IMPLEMENTATION				EVALUATION
What needs to be done?	By whom?	When? (	What resources (human and material) are needed?	What evidence indicates progress?	How and when will that evidence be collected?
Step 1 Set up clear and visible  titles and subtitles  for unit 5	Norma Hernández Nava	April 19 to May 6th,2013. ( See dates  at the end of this column for  the continuation of the Action Plan in units 6,7 and 8) Saturday April 20th. (unit5) Saturday May 11th (unit 6) Saturday May 18th (unit 7) Saturday May 25th (Unit 8) From April 19 to May 6th,2013 Unit 6:May 7th to May 14th Unit 7: May 14th to may 21st Unit 8: May 21st to June 8st  Final evaluation and comments on the Online Learning Platform Action Plan Project June 10th     to June 20th. End of English course June 20th.	Human resources:  -Teacher in charge   of Blended learning course level 1  and Social Service, Norma Hernandez  Nava. -Colleagues from the blended learning course  with in the same institution. - Coordinator. - Students  and colleagues from the Blended Learning course  students - Staff from the Computer Systems Engineering  Department Other resources: Internet Access. Moodle  Learning platform. Skype software applications.  Projector Laptop computer Desk computer Printer Audio recorder Video recorder Areas; classroom, and coordination office.	-The  kind of questions students might have  on  what to do and their efficient participation on line. Fulfilment of assignments following the requirements specified in the unit instructions.   Students using platform content to participate during  the face-to-face  class  Comments and suggestions made by students all along the project implementation Comments and suggestions made by  colleagues who will help evaluating the changes done in the platform.	Through Registered or recorded students’ online work. Questions and doubt expressed by students during the tutoring (stgep7) Through   constant Interviews and surveys with students. The applications of questionnaires  in other blended learning classes with in the same institution Observations
Step 2 Set up clear instructions on how to use content and how to carryout assignments.	Norma Hernández Nava
Step 3 Upload content of unit 5 Step 4	Norma Hernández Nava
Set up due days to handing in assignments.	Norma Hernández and coordination
Step 5 Ask  a colleague to test the content of units 5 and 5 in the platform and give some feedback.	Norma Hernandez Nava and  a colleague teacher.
Step 6 Carry out a quick tutorial in class. This tutorial will  allow students to visualize unit 5 content in the learning platform Online tutorials  Through Moodle Platform or Skype.  Step 7  Observe  and monitor students  participation and performance in unit 5  in the online work and during the face-to-face classes Step 8 Review the process, look for comments and make necessary changes in platform. This Action Plan   project process is meant to be implemented   in three other units (units 6,7, and 8 )   So steps one to nine will be also carried on in  each unit separately giving each unit an average of nine to ten days  to complete the 9 steps process.	Norma Hernandez Nava, students and an assistant form the computer system department. Norma Hernandez Nava

Adapted from the World View Action Plan (University of North Carolina)

Social Service_ Planning My Project

A needs  analysis in the Semi -presential  English Course at my receiving Institution

An overview on the characteristic of  the course chosen for the  development of my social service project.

The Semi-presential  English courses was  created to provide a modality that would  somehow suit  the needs of Saturday´s students at my receiving institution. Most students work during the week  and attend school on Saturdays from 8:am to 8:pm. This  4 levels  courses  on-line modality has been running  for more than a year and  it has been pretending to use  the same syllabus the presential courses use. Students of the semi presetial modality have to take 5 hours of learning activities a week, 2 hours  of presential class on Saturdays and 3 hours of on-line work during the weekdays.  The outstanding difference in this course is the use of  the Moodle  learning platform  which is used as a mean to cover a minimum of  3 hours that can evidence the semi-presential  students participation.   Skype is also used for speaking practice.

Start point

 Issues have arose with regards  the  management  and  the content of the platform, along with teachers´ and students’  poor  training on Moodle and  difficulties accessing  communication technologies like Skype. While some students have success acquiring language skills thought the use of communication technologies on line, others haven´t. In any of the cases, students have troubles efficiently attending  their online  activities.  

Carrying out the needs of analysis

After some reading on  autonomous learning, integrating technology into the classroom and  needs analysis, the carrying out of analysis  was done.  Interviews and observations were  made  on teachers and students mainly about their views and attitudes  about the content and use of the Moodle platform. Observations   made during last semester semi-presential courses were also taken into account  as part of the collected  data. Population was also interviewed about their opinion about using Skype session for their oral practice.

Data was put together, analyzed and discussed among three of the semi-presentia  courses  teachers and the Coordinator. It was decided that the improvement of the platform content was a priority, and  a specific action plan is being developed.

Findings  

Strengths

The content on videos appears to be  enjoyable and  useful  to learn vocabulary and to practice pronunciation.

Students  are gaining  communication skills.

Students  like  the freedom they have  to manage the day an time to access and work in the platform.

Teachers take advantage of the platform to review content, apply quizzes.

The platform facilitates students and teachers the access and modification , in the case of teachers,  of   content.

Platform facilitates feedback not only from the teacher but also from peers.

Skype  has constant participation from students.

The online activities, in general  are building some efficient communicative skills in shy student  through the entire course.

The on-line work appears to be a good way of developing  communicative skills in shy students.

Issues

Training in teachers is not enough.

The Interface seems to be not friendly enough for students to work in it.

Instructions are unclear in many cases.

Content seems disorganized.

The data transferring is slow.

Some students have problems accessing  the platform.

Some students cannot find the assigned task after entering to the platform.

Many students have constant technical problems when using Skype.

Needs

Redesign content in the platform; improve organization of content, clarity in instructions, and make sure that,  after redesigning, content meets programme.

Supervise and reorganize schedules for the Skype oral sessions to accommodate students’ needs as much as possible.

Constant development or improvement of  students’  autonomous and independent learning skills.

It is necessary to work along with the department in charge of  Moodle administration in the institutions to help making the interface design friendlier.