Module 3-Final Reflection
At the beginning of the course which was Italian Steps with bbc.co.uk the main objective was conversational italian.
- Completion time: 4 hours of course
- course duration: however long it takes you to complete the steps
ADMINISTRATION:
There was no contact person to help with any admin as it was entirely online. This course did not require any extra support materials however if you wished to contact them this was not offered as the course progressed.
TECHNOLOGY:
The technology at first was a little confusing to navigate but became easier the more times you repeated these steps. The format stayed the same which became quite tedious and repetitive. The actual use of the technology was not a problem but the course structure was a little haphazard and left a lot to the student on how to get around. The visuals were a little outdated and could have been modernised and even brought in some virtual stuff.
VIRTUAL CLASSROOM:
The components that existed in this virtual classroom were audio, visual and some interactivity. They were needed to work through the course. They were not of any great standard but very basic. The interactivity was of the listen and repeat nature with no feedback at all. The hypothetical situations were good as they would be what you would encounter if visiting. However the graphics were dated.
INTERACTIVITY:
There were some basic interactive situations in the course.Iit depends on what type of learner that you are, if you are a visual then this required far more graphics and games to keep focused. Myself I found that to go through the first couple of steps was fine but to follow the same format everytime I lost interest in the course.Being of a hands on nature the structure did not allow for this to happen.
FEEDBACK:
As any good educator will tell you that one of the most important things students require is feedback. With this the student can gauge the standard that they are up to and move forward and improve. This course only had feedback when there was written work or ‘drag n’ drop’ situations. There was no way of checking pronunciation of accent at all. I found that this was very poor.
COURSE CONTENT:
This course consisted of ten steps and within those steps there were other sub headings. Each sub heading was a scenario with the most common used language that a person visiting Italy would require.
The steps began with:
- listening and watching a video clip then click buttons for either Italian or English written of the conversation.
- Guess the words came with what would come next in a conversation.
- Building sentences were then marked by a tick or cross
- Conversations then came with the video clip saying something and you had to speak then write what could come next.
This was the format for the entire steps.
It was good when you started as your ‘motivation’ was at a peak but as the session went on the interest waned.
There was an initial test to see what your level was up to but this was mainly through writing skills.
The student has a choice of doing the 12 weeks by email course this is also free. I did not go with this option.
NAVIGATION:
The navigation of the course sessions was OK. However the navigation of the course itself was by user choice. There were no ‘breadcrumbs’ so it was a case of scooting all over. Each time that you entered the site it was starting from the home page so there was no start off where you left off option.
CONCLUSION:
I found with this course that it gave a basic understanding of the language. This would need to be practised with other people to get the pronunciation correct and feedback( if they understood you)
I picked up key words so would have a vague idea what people were talking about. If I needed to learn more I would have to go to classes to learn.
There is only so much that in 4 hours of learning a language that you learn and retain. The retention of full sentences was difficult.
For a free online introductory course to speaking Italian I would give this course 6 out of 10.
