Using Learning Objects to Design
Self-Paced Online Language
Courses
Delphine Renié
Canadian Foreign Service Institute
MERLOT 2006 - Ottawa, Canada
Language Training at CFSI
Main language training programs involve
full-time and part-time, short-term and
long-term classroom teaching
Computer-based products are used but
mostly offered as self-learning tools
Teachers are not sure how to use and
integrate them in their teaching
MERLOT 2006 - Ottawa, Canada
Online Language Training at CFSI
Still a marginal program, but expanding
8,000 potential learners
Over 500 registrations per year
50 online courses in 10 languages
Mostly for intermediate to advanced levels
Asynchronous, insctructor-led
Built with a CMS developed internally 6
years ago
MERLOT 2006 - Ottawa, Canada
Blended Learning
 Government employees encouraged to be in
charge of their learning. Autonomy.
 Employees are busy travelling or attending
meetings. Flexibility.
 Growing demand for blended learning as well as
completely web-based learning (from employees
as well as management)
 Classroom part-time courses for absolute
beginners to be replaced with online introductory
courses
MERLOT 2006 - Ottawa, Canada
Open Learning
 Classroom and online learning activities to
enrich and complement each other
 Student-teacher and student-student interaction
will continue outside of classroom via use of a
forum and other collaborative tools
 Teachers will monitor learning thanks to LMS
like Moodle
 Ultimately, division in training programs will
disappear
MERLOT 2006 - Ottawa, Canada
The Course Development Process
Our objective has been to establish a
common development process for 7
online beginner courses
Courses focus on daily communication
Topics are universal: Greetings,
Introducing myself and my family,
Shopping, Ordering a meal, Asking for
directions, Making a phone call
MERLOT 2006 - Ottawa, Canada
A Generic Template
Generic template was sent to the
teachers, who all work remotely
Teachers were also asked to browse
through existing online courses (found
using MERLOT but also Google)
This triggered questions on their parts
about the length, depth and interactivity of
the courses
MERLOT 2006 - Ottawa, Canada
Good and Bad Surprises
Adding audio and video components is
easier and faster than ever
Even though Moodle is web-based, we
cannot expect our teachers to build a
course from scratch unless we train them
The main question has been to decide
which document format to use, since
Moodle allows virtually everything.
MERLOT 2006 - Ottawa, Canada
Our First Moodle Courses:
Introductions to German / Japanese / Mandarin
 7 modules, each about a different topic:
Dialogue
Vocabulary / Glossary
Grammar
Learning Activities
 Matching sentences. Fill-in-the-blanks. Etc.
 1 review module
 Downloads:
 All audio and video files grouped here for learner to save
MERLOT 2006 - Ottawa, Canada
PDF Files as Learning Objects
 PDF files are convenient for learners who like to
print learning content.
 PDF files produce elegant Chinese characters
 They are easy to create, save and send.
 They can have embedded sound files in a
variety of formats.
 Audio recording of student classroom
performance can be embedded in PDF file and
used in e-portfolio.
MERLOT 2006 - Ottawa, Canada
What about re-usability?
Why did we not re-use existing beginner
courses instead of building new ones?
We aligned our template with existing course
plans developed internally
Having teachers design online material triggers
their interest for online teaching
We can use a same resource with different
purposes
MERLOT 2006 - Ottawa, Canada
From Moodle to my video iPod
 Video segments in Moodle can be downloaded on
the teacher’s video iPod and re-used in a
classroom setting with a new purpose
 In this example, the video can have different
functions online and offline:
Online, it adds a human touch and triggers curiosity
Offline, the teacher can use it to work on phonetics,
vocabulary comprehension, sociolinguistic aspects, etc.
MERLOT 2006 - Ottawa, Canada
Thank You.
delphine.renie@international.gc.ca
MERLOT 2006 - Ottawa, Canada