This document outlines an online communications course for English language learners. The 12-day course was offered through Vancouver Community College for engineers and technologists. It focused on listening and speaking skills for professional settings. The course goals were to teach students technical skills for online communication tools, how to organize their time to complete tasks asynchronously and interact socially online. What worked well was having clear instructions, student-generated content, and Elluminate sessions. Not all students consistently participated fully or in the Voicethread activity. The instructor felt planning was more stressful than running the course and saw more online participation than usual for an in-person class.

1. Effective Communications Applied Project eTeaching Certificate Program February 2010

2. Outline Background Course Proposal Context content Goals Technical Social organizational What Worked What Didn’t Work Comments

3. Background Target Group English as a Second Language - Internationally Trained Professionals Advanced English Level Engineers and Technologists Variety of ethnicities Up to 10 students

4. Course Proposal Context Offered to students attending Communication for Engineers and Technologists (CET) at Vancouver Community College CET on hiatus during Olympic period-no f2f contact during on-line course Course ran for 12 days Met students to present course and get recruits 8 students enrolled

5. Course Proposal Content Communications focus in a professional setting – listening and speaking More on listening than speaking Listening strategies Listening practice

6. Goals Technical to post in a discussion forum, reply, or edit a post to add an image, emoticons, a link to upload a written document to upload an audio file (MP3) to add an entry in a class glossary (Vocabulary Sharing) to use Voice Thread (to create a voice message, to “Tell me About Yourself”) to participate in ‘Elluminate’ on-line sessions to complete a variety of quizzes (multiple choice, matching, True/False)

7. Goals Organizational Content presented on a daily basis – not all at once Students managed their time to complete a variety of tasks: complete short listening items and quizzes create written and spoken instructions to teach others create a voice message share listening resources share new or discovered vocabulary (minimum of 9 entries per student) evaluate a voice message and a classmate’s oral response complete a vocabulary quiz based on Vocabulary Sharing create a minimum of 24 ‘quality’ posts or interactions (each post must respond to established criteria)

8. Goals Social Asynchronous communication with the instructor on a daily basis Asynchronous communication with other participants on a daily basis synchronously in Elluminate Communicate for a variety of reasons - to teach others, ask questions, comment, respond to feedback, share vocabulary, state opinions

9. What Worked Few technical problems Students easily navigated the course Instructions were clear Students enjoyed communicating on-line Communicated with instructor and with each other Communicated to ask questions, share, give feedback, state opinions and to problem solve Student generated material Shared resources Shared images Created an activity not planned by the instructor (Song Sharing) Vocabulary sharing

10. What Worked Elluminate Sessions added cohesiveness to course Posts Generally thoughtful ‘quality’ posts Vocabulary Sharing Fun – useful phrases shared “pain in the ass” Students reflected on listening strategies through Random listening glossary Quizzes Videos and feedback on videos Feedback from instructor Feedback Instructor able to give effective written and oral feedback to students about their speaking/pronunciation

11. What Didn’t Work Participation a student dropped out at start (work commitments) Another disappeared half way through One only participated in the Elluminate sessions Posts Some students participated more than others Some students directed their posts more to the instructor than to each other Only a few managed to post 2x/day

12. What Didn’t Work Voicethread Took a lot of time for instructor to learn and adapt to course Few students did this activity Vocabulary Sharing Not all students consistently contributed to Vocabulary sharing

13. Comments Assessment Students not formally assessed by instructor No ‘marks’ given except for quiz results and anecdotal feedback Lack of formal assessment may have affected participation Workload Most students reported they spent 2 hours a day in the course

14. Comments Instructor Response planning the course more stressful than running and moderating the course Sense of wonder when students started participating in planned activities (It’s working!!) Felt like there was more participation from students on-line than in the classroom Wonder how it would be to manage same course with 20 students as we do with f2f.