Course Title: Dentro l’Italiano 4.0 Corso Elementare
Course Provider: RAI International and Didael
Stated course objectives or outcomes:
- Understand the principal points of a conversation… that are to do with the familiar topics inherent to work, school and free time etc.
- Disentangle the majority of a situation found when travelling in regions where Italian is spoken.
- To express oneself in a simple and coherent way on familiar topics.
Achievement of outcomes:
Outcomes were achieved. No certificate of acknowledgement was given.
Stated course duration: 4 hours
Actual course duration: 4 hours 10 minutes

Administration:
Were you provided with any support contact details?
No, this was the only help I was given. http://www4.didael.it/dit4/dit4_italica_07/en/common/help/Help_Inglese.pdf
There were no contact details supplied, but after searching through the website I found this:
RAI INTERNATIONAL - ITALICA
REDAZIONE INTERNET
VIA TEULADA, 66
C.A.P. 00195 ROMA E MAIL: italica@rai.it
FAX: 39-6-33170973
Did you need to contact admin support? No

Materials:
Were you supplied with any support materials? Yes – A glossary, Gramma cards (grammatical index), phonetics, automatic dictionary, visual dictionary and phrase dictionary.

Technology:
Did you have any issues with any of the technology used by this course?No. It was simple. It did however not allow me to use my usual language character shortcuts on the keyboard.
Were you issued with a certificate?
No. That would’ve been nice.

Virtual Classroom:
Which components did the course offer?Grassroots videos, Audio clips, and Answer and response interactive technology framework.

Interactivity:
Rate the degree of interactivity:
Some

Feedback:
Was there any feedback during the course?
Yes. It was all computer generated
Rate the quality of feedback:
Poor. All right or wrong answers.

Content:
Did the content cater to differing learning styles?
No. As I said earlier, it didn’t cater to me, the visual learner, at all.
Was the content logically sequenced and organised?
Yes very. It went from one page to the next with an arrow.
Were there options for different levels of expertise?
I was doing an advanced course, but within that there were no differences in difficulty of exercises.
Were there any exercises that allowed you to practice skills?
No only writing and listening practice. No speaking or reading.
Was the content in plain English or jargon?
The content was in formal Italian only. No English. English was only used in the beginning introduction.
Was there a “real” facilitator?
Not at all. No.
How could you make contact with the facilitator if you chose to?
You could contact the authors of the program. But there were no contact details only a link. http://www.didael.it/

Navigation:
Was the navigation of the course content logical?
Yes
Were there “breadcrumbs”?
Yes
Definition of Breadcrumbs from Webopedia:
A Web site navigation technique. Bread crumbs typically appear horizontally near the top of a Web page, providing links back to each previous page that the user navigates through in order to get to the current page. Basically, they provide a trail for the user to follow back to the starting/entry point of a Web site and may look something like this:
Was it simple to navigate to the last point where you had left the course?
No. if you left, you would have to resume from the start of the lesson. So you could potentially loose more than half of a course hour session if your internet connection cut out.
Did the site have FAQs?
No, there were no frequently asked questions.

Additional Comments:
I liked the background colour because it was simple and plain. Graphics drew attention away from the content but it was easy for the learner to follow through the content from one page to the next. There was nothing distracting in the margins of the page and no advertisements to draw attention away from the content.

The structure of the course was always the same. This was good as navigation was easy, but there could have been a little deviation to include a longer grassroots video, or an exercise that perhaps involved reading and responding to a text.

In terms of learning styles, the course isn’t really for visual learners. Exercises involve text and examples and then space for repetition and practice. Role-play situations are heard but the visual accompanying image does not assist the learner in understanding the meaning. These are the only visuals used during the main role-play situation in each topic:

Interest
I am starting to lose interest. There is a lot of repetition and I am requited to type a lot. I type and repeat of the example and substitute a word or two. Knowledge of prepositions is assumed and it seems to be that I am making mistakes with prepositions rather than mistaking the more difficult grammatical point that is being taught in the lesson.

The varied types of exercises:
  

The good feedback with answers:

Presentation of situations and audio/visual material:

What is Not So Good…

Some of the instructions are not clear:

I was unsure of what the question was asking me to do. Word order mattered but in real life situation, the word order that I chose to use was still correct

Also another problem was that corrections were made without considering that accents are difficult to produce on some keyboards. The shorcut on my keyboard didn’t work on that website (Ctrl+`+a):

Content that I am covering:
An example of what I am learning…
Saying the distance from one city to another.
Parliamo di lavoro – lets talk about work - asking people what their job is
asking holiday related questions such as:
- How long are you staying in Venice?
- When are you coming back from England?
- How long will you spend in Germany?
- When will you get back from Pisa?

Searching for an apartment - looking at adds in the paper.

Podcast

A recording of my voice - podcast

What I expect the learning experience to be like:
I am expecting that the Italian language course will use a combination of audio and written stimulus to teach grammatical rules and new vocabulary and elements of spoken pronunciation. The course, I expect will be highly interactive and will give me some indication of my progress by providing me with the answers after I have completed the exercises.

What I hope to achieve:
I am not expecting that I will be able to improve my Italian that much after only four hours, but I am hopeful that I will be able to correct myself on small grammatical mistakes and I also hope that I will be able to add a few new words to my vocabulary.

My expectations for support in the course:
I expect that there will be adequate instructions for me and clearly labelled navigational tabs. There should also be a help button and explanations given after mistakes are made.

What influence will your prefered learning style have on your e-learning style have on your e-learning experience?
I don’t know what I am like as an e-learner. I know that I will be visually engaged, which is a favourable characteristic of e-learning. As a language learner I know that the Gramma translation method works best for me. I like seeing how Italian is written and then comparing that to English to see the differences. I like to see words so that I can use my visual learning preference to memorise the spelling of new vocabulary. I don’t really enjoy having learning centred on a theme or topic. I am going to also miss the social aspect of learning in a classroom with other students.

READING:

Preparing E-learners for online success:
According to Watkins (2005) e-learning requires a different set of study skills. Learners often face obstacles when developing their study skills as they are only used to having study skills that work for them when they are in a low-tech instructor-led classroom. Learners are good at asking questions, communicating face-to-face with an instructor and having immediate feedback. Online learners on the other hand are left to struggle with course material when an instructor is not present.

The VARK Questionnaire Results

The VARK questionnaire provides four scores and the various combinations of those scores are huge in number. This means that each individual has a very specialized profile not something generalized by an off the shelf report. Every attempt is made to personalize the report so that it addresses the meanings from your learning preferences in a unique way. This is not a predictive service so you will be involved in its interpretation.

My scores were:
Visual: 11
Aural: 3
Read/Write: 1
Kinesthetic: 6

I have a strong Visual learning preference.

Recommendations from the VARK Questionnaire:

Written Italian also may be difficult to teach over the internet as no personalisation of content can occur. Learners may be left with gaps in their knowledge, as mistakes may not be corrected in a way that allows learners to fully understand what they did incorrectly.

Pronunciation will also go uncorrected and learners may also be at risk of skipping over questions or topics that they find too difficult.

The course also may get a little tedious after two hours or more as most of the format of lessons will be the same and learners may get bored if the level is too easy or frustrated if the level is too hard. Starting at an advanced level without an indication of what the expectations of an advanced students’ knowledge makes it difficult for learners to form expectations that are positive.