FINAL PROJECT - Step 1, Describing My Class

This semester I teach a subject called Study Skills in Advanced Certificate in Management Course which basically includes most of the skills students need to master in Higher Education like Presentation skills, note taking skills, reading and writing skills, referencing skills etc. The students are between the ages of 20 to 35 and vary in their skills. The minimum entry criteria for this course is three London G.C.E.O'/Level passes. Students for this course come from different islands and lives in different parts of the country. There are about 80 students in the course registered in four centres.

The course runs in blended mode. Students are provided with study guides and a study plan with all necessary dates, face-to-face BLOCK mode tutorials and access to an online learning management system (GEM) where all the information for the subject including unit outlines, assignments, necessary dates, study guides and weekly readings are available. Also, announcements are made online and there is weekly chat sessions and forums where students and lecturers have synchronous and asynchronous discussions. Although the assignments are handed through the learning management system, we conduct face-to-face examinations and oral presentations as well.

Although there are 80 students registered in the course, I would select my tutorial students (20)for this project. There are 11 male and 9 female students. Most of them have desktops at home and those who do not have also manage to use a friends or cyber station for the asynchronous and synchronous discussions and other online work. The problem students face at the moment is the internet connection being slow especially in the islands.

When I analyze my students’ needs, some of them have poor communication skills. While some are very confident to speak up and express their views on different issues but most of them are not. One reason is that they have not got enough opportunities to practice speaking in English; especially the shy students do not use the chances they get to practice the language. Another reason is students are poor in their writing skills. We already do presentations and different types of writing in the class and in online forums/chat sessions. Hence, I believe in order to develop these skills students motivation and enthusiasm have be improved.

So, my overall project goal is to improve students’ communication skills through conversation/interaction and writing by embedding a different technology related tool in the lesson.


Roza