Faced with reduced numbers choosing to study foreign languages (as in England and Wales), strategies to create and maintain student interest need to be explored. One such strategy is to create 'taster' courses in languages, for potential university applicants. The findings presented arise from exploratory research, undertaken to inform the design of a selection of web-based taster courses for less widely taught languages. 687 school students, aged 14-18, were asked to identify a web site that they liked and to state their main reason for liking it. They were invited to include recreational sites and told that their answers could help with web design for the taster courses. To explore the reasons, two focus groups were conducted and student feedback on the developing taster course site was collected. Students nominated search engines and academic sites, sites dedicated to hobbies, enthusiasms, youth culture and shopping. They liked them for their visual attributes, usability, interactivity, support for schoolwork and for their cultural and heritage associations, as well as their content and functionality. They emerged as sensitive readers of web content, visually aware and with clear views on how text should be presented. These findings informed design of the taster course site. They are broadly in line with existing design guidelines but add to our knowledge about school students' use of the web and about designing web-based learning materials. They may also be relevant to web design at other levels, for example for undergraduates.
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. The VDML Project shows how the Information Environment can enhance the work of staff and students in small foreign languages departments. It aims to combat teacher isolation, develop better learning materials and increase the variety of learning activities for students. The project has developed a pilot virtual department, linking Danish students and teachers in three UK universities. For the past year, teachers have used this to share the development of new learning tasks that have been used by students. The project is therefore concerned both with content development and re-use, and with changing working practices for teachers and students.
T his case study describes how the problem of the isolation of teachers of Russian in supplementary (Saturday) schools in London was addressed by organising collaboration between them and teachers in a mainstream secondary school and a university. The aim was for them to share resources and pedagogical approaches. The project began with a meeting for identification of common needs and goals. A space in a Virtual Learning Environment (Moodle) was set up and subsequent activity was via an online discussion forum for exchanging ideas and a resource bank for sharing materials. Early on, the supplementary teachers visited the mainstream school to observe lessons. The ensuing resource bank was substantial; four short films of lessons in each sector, twenty items of teaching materials, two PowerPoints by teachers for classroom use and seven by their students on study topics. In their first venture into on-line Open Educational Resources, the team found the development of a culture of sharing among teachers faces many obstacles: differences in the context of the production and use of the created materials and in styles of pedagogy, the problem of non-take-up of resources and the psycho-sociological factors inherent in sharing with strangers. Yet, on the positive side, everyone recognised the benefits of sharing.
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