e-Learning Systems EFL Classroom Support with On-line Discussion Forums Don Hinkelman Sapporo Gakuin University 第２０回 JALT 北海道学会

Accelerated Learning Why do students learn fast abroad? Frequent Feedback Meaningful Communication Task or Purpose that is compelling Why not the same accelerated learning here in our classrooms?

Do you want to…? Announce school and class activities Publicize events, send to a whole class Automatically grade quizzes and tests Keep student-teacher journals Share files and photos Run a discussion board or chat Collect a semester of assignments and marks on one screen for final grading Create a sense of ‘community’ in your class Then you need a CMS!

What is a “CMS”? Class Management System Course Management System Or generically called a…. Content Management System Or sometimes called an… e-Learning System

Today We will look at four points. 1. What is Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) 2. How to Make a Blended Learning Environment 3. Why an open source software. 4. How to make our own CMS

1. Computer Mediated Communication One-Way Communication Announcements, Text, Images Two-Way Communication Discussion Board (BBS) Chat Survey Ratings, Comments, Assessments Quizzes, Tests

Community = Shared Database Public comments Posted files, reports, presentations Common images, photos Growing, evolving

2. Case Study of Computer-mediated Communication Four year private university in northern Japan, 5500 students, co-ed Four classes completed first semester 1st year, general English, psyche majors 2nd year, general English, commerce majors, 3rd year, ICC seminar, English majors, 14 4th year, ICC seminar, English majors, 9 Four classes in-progress 1st year, general English, psyche majors, 32 2nd year, general English, commerce majors, 25 3rd year, ICC seminar, English majors, 14 3rd year, ICC lecture, English majors, 70

2. Blended Learning Environment Face-to-Face: Classroom 60% Online: Home, Computer Lab 25% Fieldwork: Home, Community, International Exchange, Internships 15%

Classroom Activities Structured conversation, pair Free conversation, pair Lecture, explanations Group role play, interviews Textbook reading, quizzes, exercises Presentations to classmates, teacher Games and simulations

Online Activities Quiz Forum Journal (web log) Chat Journal Group Project

3. Why Open Source? Low cost start up Individual teachers can begin without school-wide adoption Flexible, adaptable Community of teachers sharing new extensions and improvements

Why not open source? Some schools ready to commit to a Commercial CMS Blackboard $295 per course per year WebCT site license starting from 800,000 yen eCollege Microsoft

My history of development

Ultimate Bulletin Board Discovered discussion boards Bought UBB - Ultimate Bulletin Board One year adapting it to a multi-lingual version. Too expensive for multiple copies

phpBB Free bulletin board Japanese version Beautiful interface Added tri-lingual capability with Unicode version Needed more activities besides discussion

Other Tools Web logs: Great for publishing But how to connect to phpBB Chat: fun, natural conversation But how to connect to phpBB Portals: calendars, news, discussions all connected. But better for hobby communities… Classes needed scheduled tasks, assessments.

Classroom-focused Tools 1. Claroline Open Classroom Integrated phpBB with classroom tools News, Assignments, Texts, Photos could all be posted Multi-lingual But…

Classroom-focused Tools 2. Blackboard Easy to install Good support But…

Classroom Focused Tools 3. Courseforum Lower cost. $80 multi-courses Very flexible, very responsive developer Easy for students to post Not obvious, not fun for me to design No quiz module, too little structure

Classroom-focused Tools 4. Moodle “Modular object oriented distributed learning environment” Easy to install Excellent, enthusiastic support Large community of educators Array of activities, strong quiz module Easy to design a class Free

But… Blocks to setting an e-Learning system I don’t have a web server. I don’t know how to program. I have never made a web page. I have no computer budget. I don’t teach in a computer room.

Where to make a website School (free but no control, no personal stuff, no interactive boards) Personal Office (no limits) Provider ( yen per month) NetMondo.com (2500 yen/year) Yahoo Groups (free but ads, set template).Mac (12,000 per year, no interactive tools -- no cgi, php)

To host yourself, do you have? PC with Windows, Linux or Mac OS X 24 hour internet service with IP address Domain Name Apache, PHP, MySQL installed* *go to hotscripts.com, find a one-step installer

What is the best provider? Go to a provider rating site i.e. My recommendation: netmondo.com Cost: $22/year paid by credit card Features: 500mb space, free domain name, 100 addresses, 20 mailing lists, 20 MySQL databases My Experience: 2 hour service response time (I expect 24 hour response)

Thank You!

OS X Example Next six slides

Why I Chose OS X? Apache preinstalled (integrated webserver) Multi-tasking (background operation) Protected memory (no crashing) Multi-user (secure operation) (Windows, Linux also easy to install)

Steps to Make a Web Server on OS X Make new user (account) Turn web service on Log on to new user Replace default index.html in “Sites” with your new homepage file (must be labeled index.html) Takes 3-4 minutes

Your New Web Address in Apache Long name Short name Main web site can also be here or short name as Final slashes are important in short names.

Steps to Make a File Server Make new user (account) Log on to new user Delete all files in “Sites” Drop files you want to share in “Sites” (must be no file called “index.html”) Takes 2 minutes

FAQ Will my computer slow down? Can I work on other things? Will people be snooping around my computer?

Tips 10.2 is faster than 10.1 Turn off energy saving (system or hard disk sleep will turn off webserving)

Enjoy Unlimited Webserving Unlimited number of different sites No capacity limit except your hard disk Flexible to your design