Leonardo projectEnglish

Progress Report 16th April 2012

What has been achieved since the last meeting

• Level 3: Completed (except the 3 units which had to be reassigned due to developer illness)

• Level 4: Planned, assigned to developers and partly completed

• Level 5: 20 units completed, 20 in planning

• Trained a team of 10 developers, with 3 more starting this month

• Feedback from 20 pilot units incorporated into level 3

Challenges that have arisen• Many existing units did not have a coherent skills theme.

• Grammar and vocabulary was not being tested and recycled throughout whole unit.

• The material in each level does not cover an adequate range of business skills.

• Material content and style of presentation is not sufficiently engaging for learners

• Language is not suitably graded for the level.

• Developers and uploaders don’t stick to deadlines!

Challenges we have overcome

• Unit cohesion addressed (skills theme and grammar)

• Quality, style and presentation of material improved.

• Strong team of developers

• The team of developers was constantly reviewed, and new developers sought (some are still in training)

Unit cohesion• Existing activities were assessed on an individual basis, and any usable activities were re-arranged by skills theme.

• Clear instructions were then given to developers for the content for each activity where a new activity had to be written.

• Each unit theme was given a skills tag. New units were developed to cover skills which had been inadequately covered.

• Developers were instructed to use the grammar and vocabulary throughout the unit. Where existing activities are used, these are modified to include the target language of the unit.

• This also made group speaking classes much easier to write for the units, as the grammar and vocabulary could be more easily practices as was ready-themed.

Example of old ISUS units

Example of new ISUS units

Quality, style and presentation of material

We overcame this challenge by giving Instructions to developers to make material of a more consistent quality and more engaging:

• Guidelines for what each type of activity should and could include were updated.

• Developers were asked add introductions to each activity explaining the relevance to the learner of the material.

• Developers were asked to write in less ‘dry’ language ('chattier' style).

• Developers were asked to add self-study tips, in particular to the vocabulary and listening activities.

• The use of photos and images has been encouraged, e.g. as discussion starters in speaking activities, or as the basis of self-study exercises.

Example of new ISUS activity

Example of new ISUS activity

Which challenges are left to deal with?

• Unit theme: Due to work flow issues, it was not always possible to know the unit theme before e.g. the grammar activities were completed

• The language used in the learning objectives and activities titles needs to be standardised and agreed upon.

• Terminology used in the grammar activities needs to be agreed by everyone (grammar wiki)

• Developers need to be made more aware of the importance of deadlines

What’s next: looking ahead

• Getting feedback on level 3 units and incorporating this into levels 4 and 5

• Making suggested modifications to level 3 units, proofing them and having them signed off

•Planning levels 6 and 7

Summary• Significant improvement in quality in terms of skills and language theme throughout unit and a more engaging style.

• Clear improvement in range of skills covered at levels 3 and 4.

• Need to plan ahead further in order that the unit themes be decided before any work needs to be done on the grammar activities.