Toward the end of 2008, I sent out an email to the year 7s at our College to gauge whether there would be any interest among students in participating in a online year 8 class in 2009 of Indonesian language. The rationale was simple. All students studied 2 Languages Other Than English (LOTEs) in yr 7 (for a semester each), then had to choose one LOTE to continue with in year 8. The timetable precluded them from continuing with two LOTEs in classes in yr 8. This would provide the means for interested students to keep a second language going through year 8 (and, if they wanted to, beyond year 8, since the timetable structure at higher year levels was less restrictive, so students could potentially be able to study two LOTEs to the end of their secondary schooling)

A few individuals expressed interest, enough to give me some encouragement to put some time and effort into setting up a course online – well, on our College intranet at least. This can be accessed by authorised students through the internet from home or from anywhere else. In theory, if it was set-up directly on the internet, then students from anywhere could access and participate in the course but that option, at this stage, remains something for the future. Initially, I wanted to walk before I ran and set-up something that was small and manageable.

So, one semester later, how do I think it has gone? Well, when it came to the crunch, and students had to commit to the course, buy the same textbooks as those other Indonesian language students who were studying the language in timetabled classes, catch up face to face once a fortnight during a lunchtime, and be prepared to follow the online course timeline and submit work, the initial expressions of interest shrank a little to leave three keen students.

To their great credit, they have completed a semester of an online course that is over and above the normal full timetabled class load that they are still expected to cope with. In addition to the homework that they, like other students, are expected to complete for other subjects, they also have had to cope with extra study associated with this online course -and they have completed it admirably. For 13 year olds, I believe that that is quite an achievement.

I’ve had a go at setting up the course in such a way that students could ’self-manage’ – the scope and focus of course modules is outlined, an online course calendar provides them with the information of what needs to be done and by when, there are podcasts that I’ve created to augment the texts and associated audio files that they have purchased, I’ve created some online games, quizzes and tests, and a discussion board. They have created some online language games of their own which they have shared. They seem to have enjoyed the course and been able to improve their Indonesian competency without finding it too onerous.

Things that haven’t worked so well? Initially we scheduled face-to-face meetings during a lunchtime every fortnight: just enough to ensure that all was progressing well, and enough to provide opportunities to show them how to do some of the technical things like use certain sorts of software for creating language games, making sure they all were able to upload their work to the online site, etc. One of the great frustrations was that there would often be other events scheduled ‘at the 11th hour’ that would trump our scheduled face-to-face meetings. Once it was a one-off extra choir practice session, another time one pastoral care group organised a pizza lunch, another time one of the boys concerned was given a lunchtime detention by one of his teachers, and so on: all very disruptive to a program where there were only a very number of face-to-face sessions scheduled in the first place.

But all four (students and teacher) of us continue to learn and are keen to persevere.

Special thanks go to Dianna Walker who has worked tirelessly with me to structure the online components and to work with the students to ensure they were confident and competent with the various technical skills required to participate fully in the course.