[ARCHIVED] Online Foreign Language Course Ideas

[DeletedUser]

I am an instructional designer creating a fully online French 1 course at a state college. This course will not have any face to face meetings. I am looking for interactive and creative ways for students to learn speaking, listening, reading and writing French. The professor is recording the lectures and other informational videos speaking French.

I already thought to incorporate:

• Conferences so that students can have conversations with each other and practice their speaking/audio comprehension skills for points or for studying
  • Using Groups assigned by the teacher or self-sign up student groups for studying
• Discussions that post a video/audio and a separate writing discussion
• Video/audio assignment submissions with teacher feedback with audio/video

What are some other interactive ideas to incorporate in this course or any other foreign language course?

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 @twright8 ‌

[cmoon]

Hi Nicole.

Have you looked into Voicethread?

We use it for French and Spanish online and it has been very popular with the students.

There are many ways Voicethread can be used for foreign languages especially to practice communicative skills.

Cristina

[DeletedUser]

Thanks for the idea. We do not have the opportunity to purchase any products, but we have a lot of software at our disposal that is similar to VoiceThread like Canvas Conferences or Kaltura. The teacher is going to use a MindTap integration, so hopefully, that will help as well.

[penny_christens]

Nicole,

Will you have synchronous opportunities for video conferencing?

I agree with VoiceThread, VT offers a foreign language workshop for using their tool, check it out!

Consider FlipGrid as well.

 @wes_vonier ‌ may have more to share as he is doing something similar right now.

Best of Luck,

Penny

[DeletedUser]

Yes, I believe the professor is going to use video conferencing, at minimum for students practicing their speaking together for credit. Flipgrid looks interesting, I'll have to check it out.

[gpitzman]

I have used Flipgrid in my blended classes and my students really seem to like it creating the videos. You can also sign up for gridpals around the country and world. I do teach high school though, but my older students like it too. When I look at the users around the world, many are at the college level. It's very easy to use, it integrates with Canvas, and it's free. 

[gasawayk]

Does Flipgrid work like Google hangouts for two people to in two locations?  Can they accomplish a video discussion and then upload it to canvas to be graded?

[nschutz]

Thanks for the great ideas of making FL courses interactive. Our question is how do your schools handle tests in a FL language course? For example, if a question require video recording, do you have students use canvas recorder or video upload, or does the teacher meet with the students in a conference?

[ericwhitmer]

My Spanish instructor does both, he has them meet in a conference (mainly for quizzes and exams) and also video uploads for presentations.