Excellence Gateway
Published: 19 May 2008
This case study was produced by JISC RSC (Regional Support Centres) Northern on behalf of the Excellence Gateway.
Sector relevance: Adult and community learning
Keywords:Improving teaching and learning, improving responsiveness to learners, improving institutional effectiveness, curriculum development, curriculum good practice, collaborative projects, peer review, learner support, languages, literature and culture
Middlesbrough Adult Educational Service (MAES) has developed an innovative language project where learners can interact directly with native French, Greek or Spanish speakers through their virtual learning environment (VLE). MAES has set this project up with funding from the 2007-2009 Grundtvig Programme Apprendre Virtuellement in Europe.
Grundtvig is a passport to partnerships and training opportunities for adult education organisations, teachers and learners. The programme is part of the European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme and aims to strengthen the European dimension in adult education and lifelong learning across Europe.
MAES offers a wide range of courses in over 100 venues including youth centres, hospitals, schools, libraries, training establishments, businesses, sport centres. Many courses lead to certificates accredited through several exam boards, including OCR, Pitman, City & Guilds and TROCN.
MAES manages a VLE, known as “TeesLearn”, on behalf of the consortium of all Teesvalley Adult Community Learning Providers and Durham Education in the Community.
The challenge was to develop a variety of teaching approaches to accommodate different learning styles and to share learning materials between partners for the promotion of language learning.
The language project was set-up by Peter Samson, language tutor at MAES. He initially started with a blog called Bourges/Boro, which is written in both French and English. Following its success, Peter and his partners: Redcar and Cleveland Adult Learning Service, Interacting (Spain), Institute of Municipal Education Permanent (France) and the Directorate of Primary Education of the Pella Prefecture (Greece), applied for funding from Grundtvig, to set-up a communal virtual learning programme. They used the TeesLearn Moodle and a Wiki to develop the actual plan and write the bid.
The project involves a number of different activities. Learners can have conversations through MSN messenger and webcams with native speakers in French, Greek or Spanish. Videos and animations made with Moviemaker are also available to download together with a wealth of other learning materials. MAES offers their students an iPod Touch on loan so they can access their language videos at any time.
By using the interactive language programme, students can learn at their own pace, and the interaction with native speakers makes the learning experience more authentic and enjoyable. The retention of learners has increased by 22% and students are enthusiastic; the videos and other learning materials on the Teeslearn Moodle are often used outside classroom hours.
Although Peter already had European partners through contacts, the Grundtvig website is also very useful for finding other participants. It is recommended to take the time to write your bid and make sure you find the right partner who is interested in the same projects as you are.
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You can find this page and download any referenced resources from the Excellence Gateway at http://excellence.org.uk/159430.
