This is my upload for Assignment 3 of the Learning to Teach Online course with Coursera.

1. The Arabic Blog
بلوق اللغة
By: C. S.
تحسين نشاط تعلم
Redesigning a Learning Activity

2. Disclaimer:
I am not a Teacher
I do not currently teach.
In Assignment 2 I reviewed a recent
activity from my time as a student:
A blogging activity used in one of
my Arabic courses.
.
Assignment three follows this work by
outlining how I would improve and
redesign this online activity.

3. Snapshot of the Course
Context
•Set within an intensive Arabic course within a Masters program in the UK.
•One-year course with 20-25 hours of class time a week, much of it immersive,
with additional coursework completed outside of class time.
•Two separate teachers delivered the course ‘George’ and ‘Qasim’).
•George led the core teaching modules. Qasim led the corresponding
workshops
•Workshops:
•Where students participated in varied activities to further apply what they
had learned in modules.
•These often involved further readings and translations, role-plays,
debates, discussions of films or current events, etc.

4. Snapshot of the Course
Delivery
•Classes and workshops were delivered face-to-face.
•The foundation of the classroom learning was that lessons were flipped.
•Technology entering the classroom mainly in the form of online content such
as Arabic news broadcasts or clips of Arab films and music.
•PowerPoint presentations were also utilized for presentation assessments.
•One NEW piece of learning technology was also introduced:
•A blog to be used for specific out of class coursework.

5. Snapshot of the Course
Students
•Only 12 students
•Due to the high level of attention each student required.
•Incredibly international
•6 nationalities
•7 languages spoken fluently
•Range of ages (20 – 35). The only unifying factors were:
• High level and standard of education
•Interests in the Middle East.
•Range of technical ability
• Most were ‘digital natives’ with a small number whose use of technology
was limited to writing reports or data entry at work.

6. What IS the Arabic Blog?
First of all…What is a blog?
•The BBC defines blogs simply as ‘online journals where stories or subjects can
be shared with readers over weeks, months or years’ (1)
•Blogs can be used for any purpose, but its prevalence in language learning
has increased steadily over the past decade (2)

7. What IS the Arabic Blog?
How would students use the blog in their
learning?
•This blog would be used by students on a regular basis
•Students would be able to write about any topic they wished but would be
required to
•Write a varying amount of words each week
•Post a varying amount of news stories or culture items each week
•Comment on and/or review the works of other students
•Students could interact with other bloggers and sites that interested them
•The purpose of the blog would eventually be for the students to have created
an online portfolio of their work and interests in Arabic
•This would then be used in assessment, where they could curate their
entries and submit a final portfolio for grading (making up a large part of
their workshop and classroom participation grade)

8. What IS the Arabic Blog?
How would ‘Qasim’ use the blog in his
teaching?
•Qasim would provide regular and prompt online feedback to students in
informal ways that could be reinforced with targeted activities or discussions
face-to-face
•Qasim would integrate the blog to both classroom and workshop activities
•i.e. Discussions, topics and vocabulary seen in the blogs could be
discussed in face-to-face settings
•Class presentations, which are video recorded could be uploaded to spark
discussion
•Qasim would also serve as an observer curator – viewing all of the work his
students are posting while drawing out the most relevant work or repeating
issues to address in his workshops

9. What IS the Arabic Blog?
What did I redesign?
•The Arabic blog is not something I am suggested be created for this course – when I was a
student with Qasim the blog was already up and running
•But NOT in the way I just outlined
•It was a glorified written submission site – students had a specific topic they had to write
about and each week’s topic varied allowing no cohesive student voice or interests to
emerge through their writing
•Instead of simply commenting on others’ submissions we were asked to critique and edit
each others’ grammar, word choices, spelling etc.
•The blog itself was not assessed, students received credit making up only 5% of their
grade simply for posting anything
•There was minimal engagement with the blog as it was not being used as blogs are actually
used in real life, and the potential benefits of blogging were never explained to students
•My redesign adds value by adding more freedom for students in what they write and how they
interact, and by constructively aligning the activity with other learning components

10. WHY an Arabic Blog?
If there was low engagement with the activity…
why not just give the activity up?
•I believe the low engagement was due to:
•Not explaining the benefits of blogging for language learning
•Not utilizing the blogging technology in a realistic or usual manner
•Not integrating the blog into other course activities or assessments
•Blogging for language learning, however, is an incredibly useful tool that allows
students to engage in written discussions with people from all over the world on
their own time, and is shown to naturally improve grammar and vocabulary
retention (2)
•The following slides go into more details of the evidence behind redesigning a
blog for language learning

11. WHY an Arabic Blog?
Relevant Use of Language
•George, the other instructor on the course, always emphasized the importance
of only teaching language students what they were actually going to use
•For example, he only ever spoke to us in spoken Arabic dialects, and
would never attempt to speak in what is 90% of the time written Arabic
•None of the students on this course actually lived in the Middle East, so it
would be reasonable to think that most students would have a high level of
online interaction with the Arab world after graduation
•This makes practice in an online environment in Arabic highly relevant to
students future use of their learning

12. WHY an Arabic Blog?
Efficient Use of Time
•Nelson (3) Notes that while online language teaching is becoming more
popular, face-to-face still has many benefits including:
•Clarity of sound
•The ability to speak about different physical spaces as you move through
them
•The introduction of complex interactions between groups of students while
still maintaining supervision of the discussions taking place
•Practicing writing skills largely outside of class may be a better use of time
than writing inside lessons – when it would be better to take advantage of the
face-to-face speaking opportunity.
•It is worth noting that, with written work, Qasim would still be able to
comment as quickly on the blog as in class, and that writing at home does
not preclude the discussion of written work in class

13. WHY an Arabic Blog?
Constructive Alignment
•We have already mentioned some examples of how this redesigned blog is better
constructively aligned with the course outcomes as a whole:
•The blog should be incorporated into classroom discussions and vice versa
•The blog makes effective use of speaking time
•However, it is worth stating the learning outcome for the course as a whole:
“Acquire a very high standard of spoken and written Arabic which will serve as an
important means of communication and as a valuable research tool”.
•Additional ways this constructively aligns with important course components include:
•Communication and Research
•The blog before amounted only to a check of grammatical understanding
•It could be, however, an effective communication tool, applying what is learned
in a creative and personalized way while researching and writing about topics
that are of interest to students
•Module 4 (4) mentions how blogging is useful for journaling and discussions
•Assessment
•Good practice for the exams which require writing about a specified topic

14. Final Considerations
What must Qasim take into account if he were
to implement this redesign?
•Cost:
•There is little to no cost is required for blogging as many platforms are free
•Access to technology:
•University computers and laptops would be freely available to anyone who did not
have their own personal laptops or video equipment
•Skills required:
•Blogging is not a natural skill and some considerable guidance is required in the
first few weeks – from functionality to explanation of blogging’s potential
•This can, however, be easily introduced in the face-to-face sessions if Qasim
demos the technology in a useful learning activity (i.e. when learning the alphabet
each student must post a picture of their assigned letter to the blog)
•Support Available:
•The university has a strong IT support centre for staff and students alike

15. Final Considerations
Motivating and Engaging Students
•Keeping students engaged with blogging requires a mix of hard and soft incentives
•Hard:
•Ensuring the blog itself is assessed and that it is weighted appropriately
•Incorporating regular discussion of the blog into activities and presentations
•Introducing some group blog initiatives to enhance collaborative pressures
•Soft:
•Allowing students to write about any topics they wish and to interact with
anyone they wish, creating their own space
•For students who are shy, a non-group setting can provide more open
communication (2)
•Receiving faster feedback from peers and teachers

16. Learning Outcomes
Short Term Outcomes
•While learning outcomes were never expressly outlined by Qasim, the following
were verbally communicated:
•To use our language creatively, outside of predetermined exercises
•To feel comfortable interacting with Arabic in an online environment
•To communicate quickly, critically and constructively in written Arabic (i.e. not just
letters or answer responses)
•I believe these to be excellent learning outcomes and would only add:
•To create a multi media portfolio of entries demonstration proficiency in basic
Arabic
•As this course is only one year long and this but part of a larger curriculum I do not
believe long term learning outcomes apply to this activity

17. Works Cited
1. BBC. About social networks and blogs. (2013, July 6). Web. 12 Sep. 2014.
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/0/22717886>
2. Sun, Y. "VOICE BLOG: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF LANGUAGE LEARNING."
Language, Learning and Technology 13.2 (2009): 88-103.
3. Nelson, J. "Online Vs. In-Person Language Learning: Who Wins?" Online Vs. In-
Person Language Learning: Who Wins? Omniglot, n.d. Web. 23 Aug.
2014.<http://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/onlinevinpersonlearning.htm>
4. Module 4: Online Learning Activites (n.d.). Retrieved 10 Sep. 2014 from the Learning
to Teach Online MOOC: https://class.coursera.org/ltto-001/wiki/module4
5. Module 8: Evaluation Strategies (n.d.). Retrieved 10 Sep. 2014 from the Learning to
Teach Online MOOC: https://class.coursera.org/ltto-001/wiki/module8