ORIENTATION TO CALL ONLINE
Spring  2015 (DEMO site)

Welcome to GSL520/GED565: Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL), part of the MATESOL Campus + Online strand of the MATESOL Program at Saint Michael's College!  Please read carefully!

Location of the course/ Logging on

The course is delivered through a web course management system called Canvas and resides at the Saint Michael's College Online Portal at the web address: http://my.smcvt.edu. (Use your SMC log-on information to access SMC resources. Please bookmark it by putting it into your Favorites, or better, putting the link onto your Favorite Links bar!!!). The Canvas site can now be accessed via mobile technology (smart phone, tablet). Download the app to your mobile device or use the browser on your mobile device to access the site.

Important notes:
 A. Logging on: 1st time access to the Canvas site: Use your Saint Michael's College username as the Canvas username and your Saint Michael's College student ID as the password

B. Access to Saint Michael's College email and resources

Resources: Since you are officially a Saint Michael's College (SMC) student, you have access to all of the College's activities and resources. You can find important information on the SMC Web site at http://www.smcvt.edu.

    1. SMC email: You have access to SMC mail via our web server at http://smcmail.smcvt.edu. Please see the instructions at Accounts and Email. Your password is .....
       Password: ..... Please see Password Reset and Rules for more information.
    2. To access the library resources, see Off-campus and Mobile Access. Use your Mikenet username and password to authenticate (log in). Now you can look up all your library needs from your smartphone. Use the link to the Mobile Site or scan the code to connect to Durick when you’re on the move.

Course Overview

GSL520/GED565: Computer-Assisted Language Learning is a course that takes a hands-on approach to technology. You will learn about the uses of computer technology by actually trying it out. I think the best way to find out about the capabilities and limitations of technology is by experiencing them first-hand. Thus, the goal of this course is NOT to learn technology for technology sake but to learn how technology can assist you as a teacher in delivering your classes more successfully. That is why you will find a rather heavy emphasis on lesson planning and actual teaching, in addition to getting a lot of how-to's (instructions, tips, workshops) for using the technology.

Important note: At the end of this page, I will ask you to send me an e-mail message, stating that you have read and understood the information and accept the terms and conditions specified.

Course Schedule

The course follows the Saint Michael's College schedule for Graduate Programs. Since it is a Saint Michael's College course offered by the Master of Teaching English as a Second Language Program, all participants are bound by the policies and procedures for such courses, including schedule, length of time, grading, deadlines, etc.

Once we get started, the course is 15 weeks in length, starting the week of January 12 and ending on May 4, when your course project is due. I will email information before January 12 and expect the course, including assignments, to begin on that day.  Each week starts on Monday and ends on Sunday at midnight, except in cases of SMC holidays, as noted on the course schedule.  Weeks open up on Saturday the week before. This means that instead of meeting at a regular time and place, you will have one week to complete all the "class" work, fulfill the required assignments, and submit any projects that are due. Due dates/times for projects are Sundays/midnight, unless otherwise noted.Please note: There will be THREE holidays in between, with no scheduled online meetings and no assignments due during that time--Monday, February 9, Spring Recess (March 14-22) and April 3-6 (Easter recess). In addition, please note that I will be away at the TESOL Convention, giving presentations, and helping with the organization of the Electronic Village of the CALL Interest Section of TESOL, March 25-29. The course will proceed as usual during this time.

The beauty of an online course is also that you get to do your work at your own pace and when it works into your schedule. Of course, the downside to that is that you will be working individually, for the most part, and therefore you will probably miss the verbal and face-to-face interaction that you are used to. Nevertheless, I have built in many ways for us to communicate and stay in touch (more below)!

Course Work:

The course work corresponds to the 37.5-hour requirement for 3-credit graduate courses at SMC in that I have scheduled 15 weeks worth of "Tasks" and "Assignments." According to the Academic Policies in the Graduate Catalog, 2014-2015, General Academic Requirements, "students spend approximately two to three hours in preparation for each hour of class time." The "Tasks" I have estimated to require about 3 hours of intensive on-task work plus roughly two to three times that amount for "Assignments," including readings, hands-on preparation and regular weekly assignments (3+6 or 9 = 9 or 12 hours total per week). Please note:Students with low computer skills will require more time-on-task than the average estimate above. Many tasks are optional or extra credit, and although many students choose to complete them because they are interesting, these should not be counted into the number of hours spent on task.  Please note:  When you upload your assignments, they receive a date stamp, so it is easy to see if an assignment is late or not. In case of an emergency or extenuating circumstances for not being able to complete the weekly tasks, please send me an e-mail message.

Prerequisite computer skills, books, hardware, software

Prerequisite computer skills:

  1. Typing: A good amount of typing will be required, mainly for the threaded discussions in Canvas but also for projects. To improve your typing skills, please check out and work with PowerTyping (Links to an external site.)<http://www.powertyping.com/ (Links to an external site.)>

  2. Facility with the Operating System (OS) of your computer: Windows 8 (or 7) or Safari, and Word 2010 or higher for file management (saving, storing, moving), spell/grammar-checking
    Understanding the resources on your computer, how to access them, and where/how to save information is critical to the CALL course, especially since I won't be able to show them to you!  If you don't feel comfortable with your computer's resources or functions yet, I would advise you to get some outside help or work through     the handouts to build your familiarity with and competence

  3. Drive/File management: You should be able to navigate through the different drives (hard drive, flash drive/USB port, CD-ROM drive), folders, and files on your computer. You should be able to manage your files by moving, copying, and pasting them from one location (folder or drive) to another without any problems

  4. Software: You should also be familiar with e-mail, MS-Word for word processing, and MS-Explorer (or other browser) or Safari (MAC) for using the Internet. See the Safari Support Page if necessary.

  5. Internet: Facility with searching, browsing, copying/pasting hyperlinks into other documents is expected.

  6. Facility with Canvas: threaded discussions, file uploading/downloading.

  7. Basic knowledge of cloud-based computing (Google Drive): You must have a Gmail account. If you do not, please click to Set up a Google account. We will be using Google Drive extensively for sharing documents.

For help with Google Drive, please see these Tutorials for Google Drive:

       Video tutorials: 

How to Create and Share a Google Doc (3:49 min)

 

Google Docs How to Tutorial 2012 (15 min: excellent tutorial/overview)

 (Links to an external site.

  1. Facility with Skype: Set up a Skype account (and download Skype if needed). We will use it for individual chats and as a back-up to Conferences in Canvas for class chats.

Books: We will not be using a book. However, you will be asked to download one or more free electronic books for reading assignments. In addition, if you would like to purchase one or more of the recommended books, please check the Syllabus and buy/order them.

Hardware: You will need

  • a headset to hear communication and sound files
  • an external microphone with headset to record sound (Note: Built-in mics will not work as they create an echo in a two-way chat; if you are on campus, you may borrow/check-out a headset from the Language Learning Resource Center.)
  • a storage device/place for storing and sharing large files, e.g. Google Drive, DropBox (www.dropbox.com), or other provider. Check out other freeware sites (see the resource list on the Freeware (Links to an external site.) page in my 7,000+ Links compendium.

Software: For your computer, you will need the following software

  • Microsoft Word (2007 or later) -- can be downloaded/purchased at a student discount from the SMC Campus Store. 
  • Microsoft PowerPoint (2007 or later) -- can be downloaded/purchased at a student discount from the SMC Campus Store. Please see alternatives below.

Alternatives: You may also download open source software from OpenOffice at http://www.openoffice.org/ (for wordprocessing, download “Writer”; for presentations, download “Impress”), but there may be missing features/functions and incompatibility issues when we use the Insert Comments and Track Changes features. Instead of PowerPoint, you may use Prezi (http://prezi.com), Zoho Show-Presentation, or one of these 40 apps for creating presentations.

How/where can you get help if you have a problem or a question?

Course content question/problem: If you have a question/problem regarding the course itself, contact me by e-mail at cbauer-ramazani at smcvt.edu, by phone (during the day, U.S. Eastern time) at XXXXX or (before 8:30 am and after 7 pm), at home (posted in the course and will be emailed to you), by fax at XXXXX. Please see also the link on the course home page for "Contacting the instructor." Important note:Don't hesitate to call me at home, but please do not give this number out.  My home phone number is for your use only, but I'd rather have you call me at home than go through frustrations. Often the frustrations can be solved very easily and quickly.

Tech support: For our first year of Canvas, we have purchased Premium Tier 1 support. This support is available 24/7/365 until June 30, 2015. The best way to get support is to go to the Help menu in Canvas. The Chat with Canvas Support has yielded excellent and fast results for me. The direct phone line for Saint Michael's College is also available from the Help menu in your Canvas course (855-534-5882).

How is the course/web site organized--the Course Navigation Tools?

All course navigation tools are on the left. The course will always open up on the Home page. Then you should check the Announcements. All course components, i.e. the course structure, is under Modules. You will see the Course Home module, including Syllabus, Getting Started/Orientation, Moderator Assignments, Tegrity, Semester Schedule, and Resources--all very important components of the course. The course is divided into weekly modules, each with the same components--Week X Moderators, Tasks & Assignments, Reading Discussion, Sharing What You Learned Discussion, The Professor's Office, and Virtual Cafe for Students. These links contain the class dates, topics, readings, assignments, projects, due dates, as well as topics for class discussion. The Professor's Office is the place where you can post questions for me. It will be the first place I check when I log in and will post answers as soon as I have them. The Virtual Cafe for Students is mainly for "taking a virtual (coffee) break" and discussing items of your choice with your classmates. No course-related assignments should be posted there! 
Additional Additional navigation tools we will use include Collaborations (Google Docs), and Conferences. In addition, I will post individual grades in the Gradebook for your review. Grades can only be viewed for each individual user.

 How will you interact with other course participants and me?
 We will use three or four modes of interaction with each other: the course web site in Canvas (for announcements, postings, file uploads/downloads, and links), e-mail, Tegrity, Skype, and Conferences for 2-way audio + text chat. There may be issues with firewalls for these venues, so be sure to try them out early! With technology, it's never a good idea to wait till the last minute, as there are likely to be unpleasant surprises. For 2-way audio chats you will need an external microphone with headset. A built-in microphone will NOT work as it creates a bad echo. Important notes: I will be on campus most of the time and can meet with you by appointment--just send me an email request. Since the course is online, it is available ANYWHERE/ANYTIME but interaction and project completion must continue according to the specifications and deadlines posted.

  1. Interaction on the course web site: We will start the course by introducing ourselves--online, via responses sent through our discussion forums called Reading Discussion Forum and Sharing what you learned. Each week has several interaction assignments that relate to the readings, links, and special topics. Your success in this course and the success of the course itself depends on this type of interaction. The information submitted by you and your classmates remains on the course web site AND IS NOT SENT TO YOU, so it is strongly recommended that you log into the course DAILY in order to avoid being overwhelmed by the number of new postings contributed each day by course participants. I will respond to the interaction usually once several postings have been made to a thread. It is expected that you read each other's posts as well as those by the instructor. You will see notifications in Canvas that there are new discussions, grades, announcements, etc. The threaded discussions can be sorted by UNREAD.
  2. E-mail: You can send e-mail to the entire class (including me) or to selected members through the Email button across the top toolbar. This is especially important for announcements, questions, problems, etc., so it is absolutely necessary that you check your e-mail DAILY.

    An important note on e-mail etiquette: If you have a question about the course, an assignment, etc., please be sure to send me an e-mail message and put in the subject line "URGENT QUESTION" or "CLARIFICATION NEEDED" and the assignment it pertains to, in order to attract my immediate attention. DO NOT send e-mail messages with assignments. And don't forget--always write the topic of your message in the subject line.

  3. Professor's Office: Please use this forum to post questions for me. Don't forget to check back for answers!4. Tegrity: This tool will allow for recording and viewing of recordings. The instructor may use this tool to make recordings of content available.
  4. In person or Office Hour Chat with me: : I will be on campus most of the time. This means that if you have a question or need help with an application, please stop by my office! If you are not on campus, I can be available for office hour chats through Skype. Please send me an email that you wish to schedule a Skype session. It is much easier, faster, and less frustrating to solve problems as they arise, so please avail yourselves of the offer. My Skype ID is XXXXXXXX.

How will the course progress?

Once the course has begun, you should always check the Announcements when you enter the course. This is where you will find important updates. Next, under each week, click on the Tasks and Readings to find out what you need to complete for the week. Each week has tutorials for projects in the Tasks. Following those will be critical for completing the weekly projects. The readings for each week are divided into different topics, all related to the theme of the week. You will be asked to choose your readings according to your interests, then discuss them in the Reading Discussion Forum. Tasks (Hands-on tasks) and links (hands-on links) as well as your thoughts about those will be discussed in the Sharing What You Learned Discussion Forum as directed.

The assignments consist of three parts:

  1. Readings and Interaction to be completed this week
  2. Sharing what you learned: links and interaction to be completed this week, and
  3. Projects to be completed this week.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

  • The Reading Discussion forum is dedicated to the discussion of assigned readings, application of readings to classroom teaching, and personal insights. Your responses remain on the course site. They are not sent out as e-mail messages.
  • The Reading Discussion Forum and Sharing What You Learned Discussion Forum ALWAYS contain several topics or threads that you will be asked to respond to. Click the drop-down arrow to find the next discussion area.

    Students should expect to spend time completing the readings, the task-based work/hands-on assignments, and the projects. Much of this time you will spend writing reactions to readings, as well as interacting with classmates regarding their postings and projects. Your course participation will consist of keeping me and your classmates informed as to what you are doing, what you are learning, what new things you found, etc. We will mentor each other along the way!

  • How will I check your attendance, and what policies and Procedures will I use in the course? In order to complete the course successfully and to enjoy the contributions of the course participants, it is absolutely necessary that you stay in step with the course schedule and complete the assignments during the weeks that they are assigned. This includes readings, hands-on assignments, posting reactions, and uploading projects. Participating regularly in the interaction is particularly important. I will discuss the details next in the Syllabus. Important note:The points/grade for each delinquent assignment will be reduced by 10% for each week late.

Other information--very important hints:

  1. Always use the same, strong password (with letters, numbers, and characters). This avoids confusion and reduces the possibility forgetting many different ones.

  2. Save your password for the Canvas course and the various subscriptions by sending yourself an e-mail message that you can then store. 

  3. Save all messages you receive from subscription services . It is recommended that for this purpose you set up folders in your email system.  Add a folder for the CALL course. I would suggest adding another folder called "Subscriptions" and dragging e-mail messages containing subscription information to this folder.  There will be information you want to save, so create more folders for different categories as you go. Success in online learning has a lot to do with the ability to keep information organized! 

TERMS OF AGREEMENT

Please indicate that you have read and understood the information on this page and accept the terms and conditions specified. Copy and paste the information into an email and send it to me.

Your Name: _______________________
Yes, I agree to the terms and conditions specified in the Getting Started/Orientation document.  

Ready to get started?

Next, watch the recordings below. Use the pause/play button as needed, especially in video 2.

  1. Goals of CALL Online

.

  1. CALL Computer Assisted Language Learning

 (Links to an external site.)

Links to an ext    3. C.A.L.L Computer assisted Language Learning ((xman Edit)

 

Next, /span>read about me in information about the instructor. Then click and read the Syllabus.

© Christine Bauer-Ramazani  
 Date of last update: February 7, 2015