Month: July 2020

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Peer Review

This is a peer review for EDCI pod 1 on their Interactive Learning Resource (ILR). Overall, the assessments have linked to the learning outcomes. They are well designed to offer opportunities to interact with the learning resources; however, not all the outcomes are fully supported through the provided learning material.

The pod 1’s ILR was trying to provide a foundation for K12 students to English language education, including vocabulary, pronounciation&conversation, grammar, and reading&writing. The material is mostly distributed through videos, but there are also grammar games as well in the grammar module. The inquiry-based learning approach allows students to interact with each other, providing opportunities for students to explore the learning resources and share experiences and ideas, which is great for learning a language.

The website has set up a sign-up sheet for students to form groups for the discussions after each module. This is a pretty cool feature, as it offers a chance for students to practice with other students instead of friends they already knew, developing their social connections.

The meeting itself, though, may need technical support as well. Since the course is offering to students worldwide, it is suggested that the instructor could create communication channels officially, such as Discord or chat group, to reduce the difficulties for students getting in touch with each other.

The assessment designed for the Pronunciation and Conversation module is great. However, there is one example only to guide students; plus, it seems to me that the video is a bit too simple to K12 students.

It seems that the task could be a bit more challenging; more examples should be provided as well. I notice that the web page has suggested picture books as an alternative source rather than the video. I would recommend adding a booklist that meets the goal of the task. Otherwise, the student who could not access the video through internet will not be able to find the picture book.

Regarding the grammar unit, the grammar games are effective interactive resources since all the rules (i.e. grammar) and material (i.e. tasks) are already included within the games. Student’s learning motivation could be increased when learning while entertaining.

By the way, I could not assess the second and third grammar games when I visited the website. There may be a technical issue with the links.

Final thoughts

The modules are a bit difficult to find when first using the website. It is suggested to create a separate tab for the learning modules in the menus. Bibliography and additional learning resources should be provided as well for students who are more proficient in English.

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[PROMPT] Interaction

One of the videos that our group will use in the Interactive Learning Design is a video from engVid that introduced Parallelism. The video perfectly aligned with our subject. It not only presents and explains the concept but also demonstrates examples of how to notify the parallelism in a sentence, which serves as an excellent example of our designed course activities.

 

Activity

The course activity will provide a learner-generated interaction to student. After watching the video, the students will have to write a post from a given topic on the course’s blog threat with at least one parallel structure. Then each student will be required to comment to posts from 2 different peers, highlighting the usage of parallelism and providing feedback or commends.

 

Feedback

Since the parallel structure is a fundamental grammar in the English language, the users rarely have chances to review how and where they use parallelism in their writing. This activity provides the opportunity for self-reflection, also, feedbacks and examples from peers.

As a result, a personal WordPress blog will be used as a tool for the activity. Since the course will be entirely online, access to the internet is required as well.

 

Work for the instructor

To avoid misconceptions, it is possible that the instructor can participate in the activity to provide feedback and comments as well. However, the instructor’s role is more likely a “knowledgeable peer” rather than an “instructor.” The primary responsibility of the instructor is to avoid incorrect/misconception commends, clarifying confusion for students. Still, this is a learner-generated interaction. The work for the instructor will be less than other interactions. Nevertheless, this is important, though, to the student, as we cannot guarantee the quality of the feedback. Having the instructor to participate as a knowledgeable peer is both manageable and worthwhile.

 

Potential barriers

Because the student will be writing a post that bases upon a given topic, some student may find difficult on a specific topic as the students may not have required experience or culture background. In this case, either the writer or the readers will have difficulties in writing or understanding the post. Although they may still be able to finish the task, they will be less motivated to the activity and even the rest of the course. The instructor will have to select a topic based on the background of the group of students currently teaching, or provide a common ground for the student, such as feedback of an article, to prevent potential barriers.