MASTER IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE AUTONOMOUS LEARNING

ENVIRONMENTS

2012

SETTING AND OPTIMIZING LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTRES

The architecture of your VLRC

Patricia Alvarez

The best of your learning process

During this first week you have…

worked collaboratively by means of the FAQs forum

visited VLRCs and familiarized with their characteristics

conceptualized a VLRC

given the preliminary steps for the design of a VLRC

Posted your contributions timely

• Do not forget to peer evaluate your rationale… use the instrument provided

• Identify only ONE particular linguistic and or affective need you want to address by means of your VLRC

•Select a group of learners you know well. You may have identified already their linguistic and / or affective needs.

During this course you are to develop the preliminary steps of what can become an institutional, regional or even a national project

MODULE I PART 2 COMPETENCE

• Demonstrate abilities to analyze and select the best structure for a VLRC according to the needs of a group of students.

• Reflect on and discuss the features and challenges of using a given open source content management system to host a VLRC

VLRC Concept• In 2002, Paquette characterized a VLRC

as a learning scenario which “rests on the networking of actors and resources, aims to provide access to learners, synchronously or asynchronously, to different resources: instructors and tutors, subject-matter experts, training managers and professors acting as designers”.

Paquette, G (2002). Handbook on information technologies for education and training: Designing virtual learning centers. Berlin: Springer Verlag. Online available: http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/19/06/67/PDF/Paquette-Gilbert-Chap16-2001.pdf

The arquitecture of a VLRC

The use of sections(tabs) makes it easy for users to jump straight to the information they need.

RationaleThis section includes a brief reference to the VLRC and the educational significance it represents for the educational community in which it is to be implemented. The main purposes of the centre and also the users’ profile are also included in this section.

HomeHere users are welcomed and guided to a more effective acquaintance with the different sections of the centre. A separate section where other users such as parents, other teachers or stake holders can also be devised, this section will facilitate the involvement of other members of the educational community.

Collaborative project Here users are

invited to take part of a project related

to the a topic of their interest in

which the foreign language serves as

a means of communication.

Additionally, users find a general

overview of the project, its

objectives and the learning objects that

will give them the input they need for

the successful completion of the

project.

Resources This section is based on the principle that

“a learning system supports the learning

process through various seamlessly

integrated resources, tools and

documents within a coherent set of

objectives, tools and methods”. The

resources will have to be chosen according to the learner needs

and the production required from the

learners in the collaborative project.

Help Desk Resources like a Shoutbox (where

users are to leave and answer

queries),a FAQ section, and

the tutor and peer contact details are

available in this section for users to post any questions

they may have related to the

collaborative project and the VLRC.

Forums & Chatrooms The communication

tools provided in this section facilitate

synchronous and asynchronous

communication among the users of

the centre. Their primary function is to enact different forms

of collaboration or cooperation between

learners for team work, group

discussion and collaborative problem solving, etc that lead

to the development of their collaborative

project. .

Visit some local VLRCs…

LOCAL VLRCs

Content management systems

• Some CMS/ open resources to host your VLRCs

– www.wordpress.com – www.socialgo.com – www.webs.com – www.wix.com – www.blogger.com

Post your Qs to the FAQs forumsin our course