Catherine Ortiz

Online Spanish: Just a Few Grams of Grammar, Please!

Slides
Catherine Ortiz, MA
Coordinator - Lower Level Spanish Program Department of Modern Languages, UT Arlington
[email protected]

Catherine Ortiz lived in Spain for 24 years where she taught EFL and also worked as a writer and senior project editor for foreign language textbooks. She currently directs the Lower Level Spanish program in the Department of Modern Languages and teaches both campus and online classes. In 2010, she was responsible for creating the first Spanish online classes at UTA for beginner and intermediate students, and received the Outstanding Teacher Award in Distance Education from the College of Liberal Arts in 2015. Even with an abundance of online resources from textbook publishers, learning a foreign language online is quite challenging. This project explores the benefits of providing short video clips on key grammar topics, as well as tips for test-taking, in order to help students learn more efficiently and confidently.

 

  • Alex Hunnicutt

    Well Catherine,
    I cannot speak for how effective your videos are in your class room, but I learned from even these tiny tidbits you included. Based on what you have described in our meetings and in this presentation, I am going to incorporate some of these little explanatory items as well. I’ve tried it and it got a good response.
    Do you plan to continue this, expand upon it for other settings? Face to face as well as online?

    • Hi Alex,
      Thanks for commenting! I definitely plan to continue making these videos due to the positive response. Initially, they were to help out my online students, but I have posted them on Blackboard for my campus students, and they like them as well. There is definitely something to be said for the personal touch, and the fact that my explanations of things seem to work better for them than some of the ‘canned’ grammar videos that are already incorporated in the text material. That said, I honestly think it has as much to do with it just being me as it does with the content, but that’s another question I will be asking them for sure!

      • nakiaspope

        I think the personal touch can’t be overstated. It’s really important for online courses, but having that additional point of contact and reinforcement is helpful for the face to face ones as well. I am glad it’s worked out so well for you and your students.

        • Thanks for your reply, Nakia. I agree 100% with you. It’s funny how, in spite of all the technology we offer them, they still respond the best when they get personalized study materials. Of course, the proof is in the pudding. At this point, I do not see necessarily a significant improvement in test grades, but anything at all is encouraging. 🙂

  • Kim Breuer

    It would be interesting to track student performance as they go on to the next level of Spanish and to compare with previous cohorts. The results you have thus far are promising.

    • Hi Kim,
      Thanks for your response. That is a very good suggestion about tracking their performance through the various levels. It is a bit complicated due to the fact that there are so many sections of Level 2 Spanish available, so I would have to send a list of these students to all Level 2 teachers in either Summer 2016 or Fall 2016, but it is definitely do-able. It will also be interesting to see how many of these students continue in online courses and how many of them switch back to campus classes.

  • Kiva Harper

    I love the interactive syllabus. Did you find that it reduced the amount of questions asked later in the term?

    • Hi Kiva,
      Thanks for your comments. In general terms, the syllabus definitely resolves questions on how to navigate the course. Unfortunately, many of them do need a reminder when they email me with questions: “That is actually explained in your syllabus with screen captures…” LOL. The pictures and the Course FAQs help a lot, but I do need to send them nudges through BB announcements about what is available to them and to take advantage of resources they have. 🙂