Instructional Design Portfolio

Faculty member
Carol Hosenfeld

Continued collaboration in the development of student submitted authentic language resources for language learning students.
Professor Hosenfeld has also utilized the student collaboration tools within the UBLearns Blackboard environment.

Launch site

Professor Carol Hosenfeld wanted to incorporate the use of the Internet into her course "Autonomous Learning in Second Language." She wanted to offer her students the ability to use multimedia web sites from around the world to provide her students examples of other languages in an authentic context.

The Internet enabled her students to communicate with people from around the world who are proficient in the language they would like to learn. Students also subscribed to a listserv about autonomous learning so that they could read an ongoing discussion by scholars and teachers from around the world.

Webster was designed for use by her students containing a Search Tutorial and a Browser Tune-up especially designed for Professor Hosenfeld's students who also use their personal computers at home for the course. There is an extensive links page which helps direct the students to information on the Internet in and/or about their language of study. The page is designed to be editable by the students so that they could add more links or modify the information already on the links page.

Speaking skills are very important within autonomous learning. The only way to self-correct is by listening to a recording of yourself. The problem of using cumbersome recorders was solved by allowing the students to use the computers to record their own voice.

Professor Hosenfeld has found that students are excited and motivated when they use the computer lab. Without the Internet, the students would not be able to find their own proficiency level and focus on specific skills. The use of the Internet breaks the boundaries between instructor and student and creates a more giving, helping, and authentic environment.