Language Teaching Application
This is an application used by instructors and students of high school and college level foreign language courses. Instructors use this app to set up their courses, assign homework and assessments, grade work and keep track of student progress. It also allows them to create their own assignments inside the system, and upload resources from outside. This program provides students with a place to see what their assignments are, complete those assignments, interact with students and instructors in their courses, gauge their progress and access games and tools to help them learn material and practice what they know.
This system was already up and running when I started work on it. My contribution was to help the application be more intuitive, helpful and enjoyable to its users.
Just a simple login screen
After a chapter review assignment has been graded by both the system and the instructor, the student can see a quick overview of his/her results. The blue information box that precedes the actual corrections provides a final grade, a breakdown of the score and the ability to quickly scan for problem areas and get immediate access to focused review, help and practice. By clicking on a lesson number, the corresponding v-text pages of the lesson will appear for additional review, allowing the student to find all helpful materials in one place.
This is the instructor screen for grading assignments. This instructor has chosen to grade student by student. As each student's assignment is graded a check mark appears in his box and a new student's name and work appear. (student names appear on hover, unless the instructor has chosen to hide student identities). the instructor can also choose to grade question by question. Here, each question appears in sequence, indicated by the side tabs on the left. When the instructor grades the questions inline, an accent bar appears above the inline area. When writing general comments, the accent bar appears over the comments area. The teacher also has the option to leave audio comments, as indicated by the audio tab on the comments box. In this screen the question has been autocorrected by the system, but the instructor is leaving a comment for the student.
This window appears when a student is about to take an exam. It informs the student when the test deadline is, how long it will take, what he will need (ie. headphones), and what will be taken into account (ie. accent marks). This assessment requires a proctor to check the student's identification, after which the proctor enters a password and the test can begin.
This pop-up timer counts down the minutes to the end of the examination. If the student finds it distracting, he can minimize the timer using the grabbers in the top left corner. When two minutes are left in the exam, the timer turns red and flashes for a couple seconds to create a warning (popping back up if previously minimized). The timer presence can be reduced again if desired.
When embarking on setting up a course, the instructor can choose between pre-existing learning track templates. Above and below are two ways this could look, depending on how the tracks are organized.
This system has various communication mechanisms, one of which is a chat function that students can use to interact with others in their course. Using the buttons at the bottom of the chat window, users can choose between written, audio and video chat modes.
The application provides students with an array of activities to allow them to learn and study. This vocabulary study area provides students with the option of flashcards, multiple choice identification and write-in cards. Each mini activity is timed. As the timer runs down, the number of points the student can earn for each question drops as well. Throughout the activity, the student can gauge how many points he has accrued and how many terms have been correctly identified, giving the game the feel of a score-based video game. The application keeps track of which terms the student has mastered using an algorithm, and uses this information to compile progress diagnostics.
