Asynchronous Assignment
FLED 532
Kyunghee Cho
August 5, 2002

An Asynchronous Tool - E CollegeI evaluated E College with two other group members, Marie-Catherine and MinhTam -a tool to explore for my asynchronous project. We explored this tool on our own and - with each other using e-mail and discussion boards in the E College courses which we set up. After our exploration, I am convinced that E College is an effective and convenient tool which can support or supplement traditional ESL courses in administration and communication. 

E College can be used as a teaching tool to build an on-line course to enhance on-campus courses, distance-learning curriculum, or any combination thereof. E College offers three applications to meet ton-line learning needs; (i) eToolkit provides introductory tools for in-class teaching, (ii) eCompanion enhances classroom-based instruction with internal on-line assignments, group collaboration, practice tests, and web link, and (iii) eCourse extends online programs beyond the classroom to students who might not otherwise have access. 

Among a variety of products and services of E College, I selected eCompanion to investigate because I thought my teaching would benefit from supplementing of on-campus classes when I teach a traditional EFL class in my country. In addition, one of my professors, Dr. Zimmerman  used Blackboard for classes to support her on-campus classes. I signed up for free trial of E College to set up my course (http://elearning.ecollege.com, Class code: ECLG-99-CPNEEF, Class title: EFL99, User name: kkk, Pass word: my children). I also registered for t a class that was set up by Marie-Catherine to experience the tool as a student (http://elearning.ecollege.com, Class code: eclg-FLED532-CQLHGR Class title: Technology in the second Language Classroom). 

eCompanion is designed for teachers who want to create interactive and robust course. Through eCompanion, I placed my syllabus, enrolled students, and used an online calendar. ECompanion has various features such as emailing students, posting grades, discussion board, and web link. Also, I could make lecture notes, conduct online practice tests, guide students to other Internet resources, share documents, and continue class discussion outside of classroom. 

It was exciting to set up my own course although I struggled and my learning process with this tool took a long time. First, I set up a course syllabus for my class, EFL99. “Help” key on the page was useful because it offered a good sample of information of instructor, course description, grading policy as well as the procedure of making syllabus. I uploaded and posted my picture from the FLED 532 class roster and I was very pleased to see my own syllabus. 

On the other hand, there were some mistakes. I accidentally skipped a process, “Enrollment Option” for student self-enrollment and the page did not generate my class ID. Thus, our group members could not register to my EFL 99 class. Also, I had difficulties in setting-up discussion board of lessons, because I did not find the tiny key “Add new topic” in the bottom of the page. If the page had presented the process in a linear way, I would have set up my course faster. 

Various course administration functions of this tool seemed to be very useful. Grading function could be helpful for effective class administration. Aside from calculating students current grades and progress in the course, instructors could post comments for each group, grant students additional time for taking an exam, create links to course content that students might need to review, and view students activity in the course. 

Also, course calendar allowed me to store dates, times, and other information for various types of events: school events (e.g., sporting event), course events (e.g., assignment due dates, exam date), and personal events. The calendar was a valuable tool to remind students important dates and upcoming events. They could also add their own personal events on the site as well. 

Ecompanion has several significant strengths for language learning class. The thread discussion function is a good way to assure balanced student involvement. Also, if teachers divide their online class into discussion groups using the “creating groups” function, each student could become a facilitator of communication: post a message and respond to each of the group members. Just like a physical classroom, online groups can be useful for holding private team discussions, having specialized assignment and group emails, and using other tools to complete final team projects or papers interactively. Additionally, a private chat room will be automatically created for each group. These features promote students interaction and opportunities to use English for authentic tasks. 

My group members and I agreed that it was relatively easy to set up and register to a course. I referred to the Tutorial function whenever I needed help. The Quick Start Wizard of Tutorial provides a step-by-step guide to constructing a course. This tutorial gave an overview of the tools available as well as how to begin adding content to a course. 

Sometimes I could not get access to Marin-Catherine’s class as a student. Marie-Catherine commented that it might be a problem with my computer or my version of the Netscape, not a problem of the tool itself. I found that my computer did not have enough memory. Retrospectively speaking, easy access should be the first thing to be cleared for students and teachers to benefit from using this tool in classroom settings.  

Through this exploration of Ecollege, I am convinced that it could be used in most levels of ESL classrooms to provide students with a resource of syllabus, class information, and web links. Instructors could post needed course materials for each session and students could access them at any time. Most of all, thread discussion and student grouping functions promote students’ active and mindful communication outside of the classroom. Each student group could also have synchronous discussion using a chat room and e-mail. Instructors could assign group projects or tasks to promote their collaboration and interaction. Also, external web link function (Web Field trip) would offer additional opportunities to introduce authentic materials and audiences. 

Our group did not find significant limitation this tool might have in ESL classes. As instructors and students become more familiar with this tool, they can also become increasingly creative using this tool. 

In summary, Ecollege is a useful tool for language class. Students are encouraged to perform authentic tasks and produce creative language if instructors utilize this tool to support student interaction and autonomy. I expect to use this tool to supplement my future ESL classes.  For that reason alone, exploration of this tool was a learning experience for me as a teacher.