Online Courses in Foreign Languages. . .

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Clarissa

March 27, 2014

. . . and literature DO NOT WORK.

I created a great online course in Spanish literature, but at this point in the semester, I have to conclude that the course has been an absolute and complete failure. Students obviously need to be inside an actual classroom with actual classmates and work in the physical presence of an actual professor for foreign language and literature courses to work.

I’m not sorry I conducted this experiment because negative experience is as valuable as positive experience. From now on, if the administration tries to push us towards offering more online courses, I have data demonstrating why this is a horrible idea. I’ve been teaching a very successful online course in English, so we know that my way of conducting online courses is not the problem here. If anybody needs my data for their own fight against digitalization of our field, I’m willing to provide it.

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5 responses to “Online Courses in Foreign Languages. . .”

good enough professor

March 28, 2014

You saw this, right? http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-uc-prexy-napolitano-20140326,0,2067391.story#axzz2xGaSHRHc

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Shakti

March 28, 2014

When you say, “complete and utter failure” how did it fail?
Did students just blow off the readings? (I think online courses requires a higher level of motivation and self direction.)
Is there body language stuff they use to learn foreign languages with their context, or the lack of an easily accessible foreign language keyboard?

Is there something about not being level 5 level fluent that impedes being able to learn a new language?

I guess I’m trying to figure out if the class consisted of Skype sessions whether it would have changed the result. Of course Skype sessions would necessitate much smaller classes.

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1. Shakti
  
  March 28, 2014
  
  level 5 level fluent = Level 5 state department fluent; equivalent to an educated native speaker.
  
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2. Clarissa
  
  March 28, 2014
  
  No, it’s not the language. I always have the same students in my courses, and everything is fine. Besides, the course doesn’t function for native speakers just as much as for non-native speakers.
  
  I have 13 students in the class, out of which 3 are still kind of participating. 2 have disappeared altogether and the rest keep telling me that they are just about to start participating and submitting assignments. We are almost in April, so this means that 10 students out of 13 will fail. I call that abject failure.
  
  And they don’t need a special keyboard for Spanish. If they did, this course would be dead from the start.
  
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  1. Shakti
    
    March 29, 2014
    
    So there’s something about the social pressure (for lack of a better term) that motivates people to learn or do the work?
    It sounds like your class was an upper level class beyond the distribution requirements for languages. I assume nobody was taking it on audit or for free.
    
    I haven’t done my Rosetta Stone in about three months. But I 1)have had super bad allergies (and Rosetta requires speaking) and 2)I’ve been absolutely slammed at work. Then again I’m not taking this for any sort of credit and I’m accountable to myself.
    
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