3. SUCCESS INDICATORS

Key indicators of success in motivating students and promoting learning include 1) improved engagement; 2) increased student satisfaction with the learning process, 3) transferability of innovations, and 4) staff uptake of labs

1. Improved engagement - Retention and performance rates in both Irish and French have improved significantly since the introduction of multimedia language teaching. Teachers comment on improved attendance and increased engagement in class. The implementation of WebCT for most language modules in Irish and French has been favourably received, with students requesting more material to be made available in that medium.
2. Student satisfaction – With few exceptions, students report positively about multimedia language teaching in the innovation evaluations and also via the University “Teaching Questionnaires”, all of which provide documentary evidence of student satisfaction. Quotations from students given below illustrate that they recognise the pedagogical benefits of the approach, which is in keeping with current educational thinking on key components of successful learning:
   Active Learning
   I really enjoyed the crossword-making class. This is where I spoke the most Irish.
   The way we got to practice the methods on the computer straight after the lecturer was finished explaining it, was very beneficial
   Autonomous learning
   When you are shown what to do you can practise by yourself and use the computer to learn, there is more time for you to pick up things instead of waiting for the rest of the class.
   Personalised Learning
   …helpful because it gives you a chance to work as a class, or one to one with your lecturer.
   …very useful and gave me an idea of how well I understood the topics.
   …encouraged you to do better the next time
   Dynamic Learning environment
   …quick access to documents and one can go back and do one’s work again
   …the ability to check … and to correct and therefore I was constantly learning from my mistakes which were identified quickly.
3. Transferability of innovations - Collectively the innovations are having considerable impact as they involve a number of staff on different campuses, and together target students of French, German, Spanish and Irish in a number of different modules. Trials in one language are transferred to the teaching of another language, as in, for example:
   • a translation model devised for French which has been successfully adopted in Irish
   • grammar materials prepared for first year students based on the Coleraine campus which are now shared across different year groups and courses, as well as with students on the Magee campus
   • the online platform developed for the Year abroad / Diploma in Area Studies which has been extended to support staff and students in French, Spanish and German
   • pedagogy which will be shared with staff using the new lab in Belfast
4. Uptake by Staff - There has been a considerable increase in the use of the multimedia language labs by staff in Languages and Media and interest has been shown by staff in other disciplines as well.

Colleagues have been invited to propose their own projects for development (e.g. Interactive Interpreting), helping us to facilitate further development of pedagogy to enhance student learning.

In addition, the success of the initiative is also evident from the wider recognition afforded the Centre through the positive reports from external evaluators and through acknowledgement from the academic community via papers, presentations and workshops given by CEMLL staff.

Validation - Multimedia language teaching has been written into the course specification documents for Modern Languages and Irish and received the endorsement of recent revalidation exercises in 2005 and 2008 in Modern Languages and Irish respectively. External examiners praise the integration of IT into learning and assessment and the successful deployment of resources by the students.

Contributions to HE Sector - Papers and presentations given on the teaching innovations have been positively received at various external events. CEMLL staff have also organised three Symposia to share good practice (held in London, March 2007, Nottingham, June 2008, and Belfast, September 2009), all of which were well attended and positively reviewed. CEMLL team members have been specifically invited to participate in a number of conferences: EUROCALL regional workshops, LLAS conferences, a LLAS/CETLs workshop and to provide workshops at a number of HE institutions on the setting up, maintenance and pedagogical use of multimedia language labs.

Project activity has also formed the basis for contributions to pedagogical research, including:

Barr, D. (2008). Computer-enhanced grammar teaching. In F. Zhang and B. Barber (eds) Handbook of Research on Computer-Enhanced Language Acquisition and Learning (New York: Information Science Reference, 2008), pp. 101 – 113

Barr, D. (2007). joint editor of the Handbook of Research on Computer Enhanced Language Acquisition and Learning (Canberra: 2007).

Barr, D. (2006). Guest editor of the journal Computer assisted language learning: UCALL 2005, 19 (4-5) (London: 2006)

Barr, D., Leakey, J., & Ranchoux, A. (2005). TOLD like it is! An Evaluation of an Integrated Oral Development Project. Language Learning & Technology [online journal], Volume 9, Number 3, pp.55-78.

Leakey, J. (2006). Evaluation of a one-year trial of Auralog's TellMeMore Education (version 7) software package in a higher education context. CALL-EJ [online journal], Vol. 8, No.1.

Leakey, J., & Ranchoux, A. (2006). BLINGUA - A blended language learning approach for CALL. Computer Assisted Language Learning Vol. 19, Nos. 4 & 5, October 2006, pp. 357 – 372

Toner, G., Barr, D., Carvalho Martins, S., Wright, V. (2008). Multimedia Language Learning in UK HIgher Education (Coleraine: 2008).

Other involvement in research / publications may be found on the CEMLL website http://www.cemll.ulster.ac.uk/site/centre%20research/Evaluation

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5