Teaching Language Online

A Guide for Designing, Developing, and Delivering Online, Blended, and Flipped Language Courses

Victoria Russell, Kathryn Murphy-Judy

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780429761102
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Practical and accessible, this book comprehensively covers everything you need to know to design, develop, and deliver successful online, blended, and flipped language courses. Grounded in the principles of instructional design and communicative language teaching, this book serves as a compendium of best practices, research, and strategies for creating learner-centered online language instruction that builds students' proficiency within meaningful cultural contexts. This book addresses important topics such as finding and optimizing online resources and materials, learner engagement, teacher and student satisfaction and connectedness, professional development, and online language assessment.

Teaching Language Online features:

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• A step-by-step guide aligned with the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for Languages: Learning, Teaching and Assessment, and the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) standards

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• Research-based best practices and tools to implement effective communicative language teaching (CLT) online

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• Strategies and practices that apply equally to world languages and ESL/EFL contexts

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• Key takeaway summaries, discussion questions, and suggestions for further reading in every chapter

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• Free, downloadable eResources with further readings and more materials available at www.routledge.com/ 9781138387003

As the demand for language courses in online or blended formats grows, K-16 instructors urgently need resources to effectively transition their teaching online. Designed to help world language instructors, professors, and K-12 language educators regardless of their level of experience with online learning, this book walks through the steps to move from the traditional classroom format to effective, successful online teaching environments.

Chapter 1

What Are the Basics of Online Course Design?

Introduction

What do you need to know to design a quality online language course? Before accepting the challenge to create an online language program, course, or module, the educators who initiate and shepherd the project should ask themselves, “Why are we doing this?” The answer should be, “To increase learner proficiency in language and intercultural communication and to include the 21^st century skills of digital literacy and autonomous learning.” Those are key elements that should be included in the resulting statement of purpose. For content courses (e.g., literature, civilization, language for business, etc.), one includes the appropriate knowledge and skills as goals. Armed with a clear vision of what students will be able to do by the end of the program, course, or module, the project team gathers models, tools, materials, and resources to realize its goals. This chapter focuses on what a project team or designer should consider for completely online courses as well as for the online modules of blended and flipped courses. Often, language faculty with little to no formal training in instructional design and even less in instructional design for online teaching and learning are called upon to create online language courses and programs, according to data from the Basic Online Language Design and Delivery Collaboratory (BOLDD) Survey of Online Language Education (Murphy-Judy & Johnshoy, 2017). This chapter offers theories and research and models in instructional design, distance and online instructional design, and computer-assisted language learning (CALL). It also culls from the effective practices of veteran online language educators. The authors primarily address secondary and postsecondary educational settings and adult and young adult learners; yet, corporate, military, and government educators may also benefit from this content. While the design principles covered in this chapter apply to secondary education, they do not specifically address state or district standards, parental oversight, privacy issues for minors, and the like. Such issues should arise during the analysis phase of the design process by K-12 design teams. Still, good instructional design, standards-based programs, and proficiency-based communicative teaching and learning are foundational across settings, languages, levels of instruction, and modes of delivery in world languages. See Chapter 3 for a deeper explanation of the importance of professional standards and proficiency-based courses and programs.

Not all online educators design their own online programs, courses, or modules, so some readers may opt to skim this chapter, but knowledge of how online programs are built from the ground up may prove useful. This chapter will help those facing the daunting task of designing or redesigning an online second- or foreign-language program or course. The chapter begins with an explanation of the Analysis-Design-Development-Integration-Evaluation (ADDIE) process of instructional design, since this is the foundation of good design. Next, the analysis (A) and design (D) phases of ADDIE are described in further detail and with particular regard to the field of online language education. The design model used is that of backward design, which shifts the emphasis from content coverage as the objective to what learners will be able to do as a result of instruction (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). Finally, given the centrality of evaluation (E) in the ADDIE model, both the analysis and design sections of this chapter each end with a checklist, which will ensure that designers have planned for and included all of the relevant elements.

The ADDIE Model

ADDIE is an industry standard for the instructional design process (Clark, 2015; Dick & Carey, 2014; Gustafson & Branch, 2002; Magliaro & Shambaugh, 2006). In this chapter and the next, it serves as an organizing principle. A visual representation of this model is presented in Figure 1.1. Each step of the ADDIE process is defined in line with Figure 1.1. After the short definitions, there is an in-depth discussion of the analysis and design phases.

Figure 1.1 An ADDIE model for online language design, development, and delivery, graphic created by Kathryn Murphy-Judy.

CC BY SA 4.0.

In Chapter 1, the authors focus on the analysis and design aspects of ADDIE. Chapter 2 covers the development phase of ADDIE, and the authors show examples of how technology tools and applications are used to develop an online language class. In Chapter 3, the authors focus on different aspects of integration (teaching) and how to teach online communicatively, while Chapter 4 provides information on online professional development and open educational resources for online language educators. Chapter 5 examines the research on online language teaching and learning and the authors provide examples of how to incorporate research and best practices into online language courses. The evaluation piece of ADDIE is interwoven through all of the chapters.

Instructional design is a systematic and systemic approach to creating effective, efficient, and engaging instructional experiences. It follows methodical and logical progression, such that its various elements interact in dynamic and interdependent ways, leading to the creation of entirely online, blended, flipped, or traditional, brick-and-mortar instruction (Hromalik, 2016). ADDIE stems from a cognitive or behavioral instructional theory of learning (Skinner, 1974/2017), where learning is assumed to progress through a step-by-step process. Later learning theories, like constructivism, (Vygotsky, 1980) constructionism (Harel & Papert, 1991), and connectivism (Downes, 2005; Siemens, 2005) recognize that learning is much “messier” and thus, offer options for more student-centered and differentiated teaching and learning. The ADDIE approach offers a systematic process to help designers organize and execute an effective workflow, regardless of the theory of learning.

The “A” in the ADDIE model stands for careful, comprehensive analysis. This step serves to explore key questions: who is initiating, supporting, and driving the project and what are the broader institutional parameters (learning management system and technology infrastructure, administrative mandates and policies, instructional staffing); which technologies and media will drive and support the design, development, integration, and evaluation of the program; who are the learners in relation to the targeted instruction; and, what are learning goals, philosophies, approaches, and strategies for realizing the desired learning outcomes.

Analysis is followed by Design. Design provides a coherent structure and framework from which units, modules, tasks, assignments, and assessments, as well as support documents, resources, and support mechanisms eventually emerge. To engage in effective action, whether in life or instruction, according to Stephen Covey (1989) one should always “begin with the end in mind” (p. 98). It is the design mantra for this chapter.

For the Development phase, or the second D in ADDIE, the designer must begin with the learning goals that are based on professional standards, which are then broken down into unit or module objectives. The developer will then create the summative assessments, which will match up with the overall learning goals and objectives and lesson or module formative assessments that are tied to the course objectives (this is known as backward design). By starting with the creation of the summative assessments, all of the lesson materials, tasks, activities, and formative assessments will follow; however, they must be sequenced logically. This process is the foundation of a sound design framework that is based on clear learning goals, objectives, and professional standards. In the ADDIE process, the course creators revisit each of the previous stages as needed. For example, during development, they may revisit the analysis and design phases.

After doing a trial run of a new course with colleagues (alpha testing) or a small set of students (beta testing), the real work begins. The rubber hits the road with Integration. Although discussed briefly in this chapter, it is the stuff of Chapter 3, which shows readers how to deliver online language instruction communicatively.

And, finally the “E” of Evaluation, which has already been discussed in the Introduction, explores processes of evaluation that are integral to each of the ADDIE phases. It is not the end of the road, but rather a feedback mechanism to inform and improve the entire project continuously. It ensures the maintenance of the quality and sustainability of the program. The ADDIE model, as clearly visualized in Figure 1.1, emphasizes the centrality of evaluation, such that, at every juncture in its creation, development, and deployment, there is reflection, critique, and possibly revision. Since evaluation charts progress toward the “end in mind” of each step as well as that of the entire project, it is addressed at the end of each step in the design process. When one begins with the end in mind, evaluation can and should take place at the end of each stage of the process.

Analysis

This section is intended for faculty tasked with designing an online language program or course but who have little or no access to instructional design support staff and are not sure where to start. In most institutions, the curricular goals—what students should be able to do, know, and understand as a result of a program or course—are usually pre-defined. Still, an in-depth analysis may well lead to revising, refining, or improving the targeted outcomes as they evolve within the online context. A wide-scale analysis stage may be less important for the design of modules in hybrid and flipped courses, where faculty have a different rapport with their students as well as having recourse to face-to-face sessions.

Analysis is critical to the creation of effective online learning environments. According to Shearer (2003), analysis must include, “the audience characteristics, geographic dispersion of the audience, the technologies available to the audience, the goals of the learners, the goals and missions of the learning organization, the costs that must be recovered, the costs of delivery, the political environment at the time for the learning organization, the faculty compensation, and the market competition” (p. 275). Analysis, then, includes the obvious and even the political and financial reasons for launching an online language initiative. It explores and appraises the institutional setting as well as the human element, such as instructional designers (if there are any), faculty, students, and staff. Moreover, other institutionally specific factors must be recognized...