Group B Task Eight Final Report

By Amanda Jane Franklin, John Byrne, Fari Greenaway, Natalija

Cameron
1. www.reallyenglish.com
* How simple / complex is the VLE?
The VLE provides learners the opportunity to focus on a variety of systems
and skills. Learners are at first asked to complete a diagnostic test and the
VLE would then provide a syllabus of a course relevant to learner needs.
As they progress through the course learners would be given progress
tests, the results of which would feed into the VLE and could be used to
structure the learners course further. This type of a more complex
platform attempts to replace the roles traditionally assigned to teachers
such as diagnostic testing, needs analysis, course development and
progress check.
The VLE also provides a lot of support to ensure learners dont feel
isolated or abandoned or become another drop-out. Coaching, tutoring,
and a place where learners are encouraged to interact with other students
would make them feel more in touch with real people. The site also
introduces learners to the staff (albeit the management rather than the
teachers) and provides their photos, so humanising it even more, and
realising how big (and therefore hopefully well-structured) the company is.

The VLE gives us a detailed description of the course content, the

requirements to pass and the level required at each course level. The
students have a full picture of what is expected of them, thus avoiding the
nasty surprises some companies might spring on you, making you think it
was deliberate in order to get your money, and they didnt care if you
completed or enjoyed the course or not.
* How easy / difficult is it to navigate?
A demo lesson is available with examples of the types of exercises and
activities, which is essential and probably a good selling point i.e. how
many of us would choose a coursebook merely based on the written
description and not opening the book? Navigating between sections in the
demo unit is easy enough with arrows to move back and forth. The
systematic layout of the lessons means that learners will become familiar

with navigating the site quite quickly so they can focus on learning. Each
unit presents learners with key languages in the lesson and provides a
clear learning focus for learners.
* Which features did you particularly like?
The website is visually appealing, with lots of diagrams to illustrate the
learning process. It is not too wordy and so doesnt overwhelm you. The
higher than average pass rate is extremely impactful, and catches our
attention. The designers underline their experience in this field and thus
establish a feeling of trust and sense of welcoming. It is very user-friendly
overall.
* Were there any features you disliked?
There is a great deal of focus on advertising the achievements of the
company, testimonials, their clients etc. that at times it seemed as if there
was a lot of material to wade through before engaging with the course
content.
2. www.netlanguages.com
* How simple / complex is the VLE?
The VLE offers both tutored and untutored courses designed for self-study.
The tutored courses offer a variety of courses such as General English,
English for Work, English for Doctors, IELTS preparation, FCE exam
practice and methodology for teacher. The VLE also provides synchronous
time for the learners with their own personal tutor online via chat so that
learners can practice speaking and pronunciation. Focusing on a variety of
skills caters to a variety of learners needs. Courses are aligned to CEF
levels. Course tutors are introduced with a photo and a brief bio.
The untutored section offers variety of content for learners such as focus
on listening, pronunciation, writing, vocabulary, grammar, IELTS
preparation, English for kids as well as teens. This section also includes
Spanish courses. A sample untutored lesson is available which shows the
clear layout of lessons.
This VLE mentions a learner management system custom developed by
net languages so it does seem to be a more complex platform.
* How easy / difficult is it to navigate?
From experience, learners generally find it quite easy to navigate between
different lessons, with a systematic pattern and clear layout of the pages.

* Which features did you particularly like?

There is a great deal of content available for learners of different ages and
a variety of English and Spanish courses.
* Were there any features you disliked?
It doesnt explain what they mean about tutored and non-tutored
individual courses i.e. what does a tutor do, how many hours are you
entitled to work with the tutor, etc. It describes this in slightly more detail
for the Corporate courses, but still not how much contact you are allowed
with your tutor.
It is wordy, with so many things to read that some of us find it extremely
off-putting, bit of a cacophony for the eyes. Also it does not seem very
user-friendly as there are so many different things happening on the same
page, somewhat distracting and unhelpful, including log-in, buy-now,
save the children and ads, that you need to search around the page
before finding what you need. Some of us thought it is commercial and
intent on selling a product rather than focusing on language learning.
Even the website doesnt seem professionally made and doesnt instil
trust.
3. www.learningenglish.org.uk
* How simple / complex is the VLE?
This VLE offers an attractive first page with video, along with bite-sized
chunks of learning, with a wide range of exercise types and activities. The
site also offers activities which cover British culture as well as a separate
section for teens, thus providing adults and teens with a completely
different approach as well as material and topics. There is also an element
of fun here with vocabulary games for example.
There is provision for asynchronous communication as learners can
register for free and join the online community to post questions,
comments and engage in discussions and a member of their team
responds regularly. Though this seems more basic on the whole, largely
because it is less interactive in the sense of having tutors at the other
end. It is a fairly simple VLE as there is no provision for learners to upload
their work and have it commented on.
* How easy / difficult is it to navigate?
We agreed that the VLE is colourful, well presented and fairly intuitive,
practical and easy to use and navigate your way around; the layout is

clear. The tabs at the top of the page make this VLE easy for learners to
navigate. The headings on the tabs are also clear and would be familiar to
students who are actively studying e.g. grammar, vocabulary, IELTS
preparation, listening, etc.
* Which features did you particularly like?
This website links to their site for teachers
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/ which we have used before although
learners would possibly find this feature distracting. We find this a great
site for supplementary material which the teacher and/or student can use.
* Were there any features you disliked?
If a students intention was to find a complete on-line course, this would
probably not be the one as they are not presented with a specific study
path, but rather with a pool of activities the students can do and so they
need to fix their own objectives and create for themselves a structured
approach in order to get the best out of what is being offered.
The articles for teachers are on the one hand very digestible as they are
quite short and concise, but on the other, they are probably more suitable
for less experienced teachers as they cover the basics in a rather
superficial way.
4. www.thedistancedelta.com
* How simple / complex is the VLE?
The VLE contains:

Course materials (see below in resources for some examples of

these materials)
Reading lists
Chatroom for synchronous discussion
Discussion forums
Profiles of course participants and tutors
A notebook
Course contents
Feedback section

As it is both asynchronous and synchronous with different types of

feedback we would describe it as a complex VLE. This is a blended
learning site where a lot of what is required cannot be completed online
(Module 2) although the rest of the course would be complex with online

resources, forums and tutor monitoring although they do require you have
access to appropriate library facilities.
* How easy / difficult is it to navigate?
At first glance the website seems very straightforward and easy to
navigate, and it doesnt have any unnecessary information on the site
which could distract you from the reason you're there. The webpage is laid
out in a way that all Internet users are familiar with, with a home page
introducing and tabs across the top leading us to different pages and
elements. One feature which makes it particularly easy to navigate is the
fact that the homepage has a Take the website tour button. Throughout
the tour speech bubble-type windows pop up explaining different features,
what they do and how to access them, comparable to having a tutor with
you explaining all the features but with the added practicality of being
able to take the tour whenever it suits you. The user controls the pace of
the tour, so if you already know the majority you can skim through it
quickly or if, on the other hand you are unfamiliar with the format of the
VLE you can go through as slowly as you need to re-accessing it as
necessary. As a result of the tour the VLE is easy to navigate and anything
that a user is unclear about is quickly explained.
* Which features did you particularly like?
In addition to the very helpful website tour, as a course participant the
resources section is invaluable. Many of the resources can be downloaded
so you can access them in your own time with or without internet access.
Within the resources section there is also a notepad tab where the
participant can take notes, one of the most useful elements of this feature
being that the participant can then search keyword or words within those
notes. There are also tips from previous course participants allowing us to
benefit from the experience of others.
The layout is simple yet effective. A lot of pertinent information which can
easily be ignored if they do not interest you. The section with information
on the tutors brings a human touch to the online classroom.
* Were there any features you disliked?
From experience, Fari remembers the forums as frustrating at times;
participants did not know each other well and the level of participation
varied greatly. At times the forum work required wading through a lot of
irrelevant material (posts) in order to arrive at useful information or
conclusions. John is sceptical of the websites testimonials and would put
more faith in personal recommendations.