“Working with Business” 11th April 2018
Dr Nicola Galloway, Ruby Rennie, Sihan Zhou
1
University/Industry collaboration:
Digital Game-Based Language Learning for
Young Learners in China
Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP). Innovate UK
Outline of presentation
1. Starting a KTP project
2. Overview of our project
3. Academic partners – organization and benefits
4. Issues to overcome
4. Lessons learned
2
HEIs operating in a changing
environment - encouraging
business/industry engagement
Call for increased uptake of KTPs
Industrial Strategy
•new incentives to collaborate and
engage with business/industry KE
Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT)
(Galloway, 2011, 2013, 2017; Galloway and
Rose, 2015; Rose and Galloway, 2018).
•English Medium Instruction (Galloway et al,
2017)
•encourage a publisher to dare to be
different?” (McGrath, 2013, p. 198).
Work with industry, not academics
Increase research income
Opportunities to enhance the student
experience
Research dissemination
• evidence that research has
demonstrable impact
• Commericial products
• Publications
• Conferences
Knowledge
Exchange
4
7
Academic expertise and input
Tornado Curriculum: Curriculum design perspective
•Needs Analysis/Goals/Objectives/Syllabus/Methodology/Assessment/Evaluation
•Recent trends & developments, importance of goals & objectives based on needs analysis…
• Tornado games: Digital education; Game-based learning
• Informing company of usefulness of task-based approach, learner autonomy/learner agency
• Understanding methodology and progress in language learning (not only grammar and
vocabulary)
• Creating accessible learning by design - Cognitive theory of multimedia learning (Mayer, 2001)
Tornado bilingual animation: Global Englishes
•Informing company of recent trends -multilingualism/movement away from 'native' speaker
model/Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT)
Research Methods
•Enabling the company to conduct effective needs analysis, pilot study and product testing.
•6 primary schools in Harbin, China
- English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education in China (Ministry of Education, 2001)
- Cambridge English young learners-Handbook for teachers (Cambridge English Language
Assessment, 2016)
- Longman welcome to English (Dallas & Pelham, 2009)
8
◆ 3rd largest B2B education resource supplier
◆ Team:
- Shanghai: Base, marketing team (10)
- Hangzhou: Tech team (24)
- Nanchang: Curriculum development (7)
◆ Online Teachers: 100+
Early Birds
New opportunities
Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) –
About us
• Nosebleed Interactive
• Top 50 creative companies by Creative
England.
• PlayStation Mobile Pioneers
• Newcastle Business Awards - best small to
medium business.
• Support from UK Games Fund.
• Jon Karlsen – China
• Sihan Zhour - KTP Associate
• Writing (8) & Animation team
Company
•Nicola & Ruby (MSc Teaching English to
Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) – largest
in The UK, Chinese cohort, East Asia,
Curriculum Coordination)
•Global Englishes (Galloway and Rose, 2015;
Galloway, 2017a, Rose and Galloway, 2018)
•Stakeholders' attitudes (Learners, teachers,
parents) (Galloway, 2013, Galloway, 2017a)
•Materials (Galloway, 2017b)
•Curriculum Innovation (Rose and Galloway,
2018)
•English Medium Instruction (Galloway et al,
2017)
•Digital Education (University of Edinburgh
Centre for Digital Research).
University
Possible new partner Company –
Early Bird
• courses/online platform/summer camp
• Chinese team – 24 technicians, 7 research
staff
• 10 marketing/sales
• Online teachers – 60+
上海海旭
博
教育科技有限公司
Shanghai Xu Bo EducationTechnology Ltd.Co
b
11
Initial Project Timeline
Stage 1
• Dec'16 - Jan'17
• Needs analysis & Lit review
Stage 2
• Feb' 17-May'17
• Initial design & needs analysis
Stage 3
• Jun'17-Sep'17
• Revision of product
design
Stage 4
• Oct'17-Feb'18
• 2nd pilot
• Dissemination
Stage 5
• Mar'18-May'18
• Product commercialisation
• Dissemination & Review
Prior to start:
• Extensive planning (with support from KE)
• Job advert; interview; appointment of Associate
• Innovate UK procedures and training
As academics in
ELT/TESOL – global industry
Globalisation of English
•Growing literature on the need for change (Alsagoff et al (Ed),
2012; Bowles and Cogo, 2015; Brown and McKay, 2016;
Dogancay-Aktuna and Hardman (Eds.), 2008; Galloway,
2017b;Galloway and Rose, 2015; McKay, 2002; Matsuda (Ed.),
2012, 2017; Rose and Galloway, 2018; Sharifian, 2009)
•“For many teachers the course book is the curriculum”
(Macalister, 2016, p. 41).
•Barrier to Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT) (
Galloway, 2011, 20117; Galloway and Rose, 2015; Rose and
Galloway, 2015)
Digital game-based learning
• Understanding integration in the
language learning process.
• Commercial views of how languages are
learned
• Rise in “gaming” as learning
• Possibility of making learning more
accessible
Young learners in China
• Commercial potential
• Uneven distribution of English resources (Zhang,
2012)
• Policy support for digital education (Ren & Zhao,
2010)
• Competitor analysis
12
Academic contribution
13
KTP dissertation projects & assignment case studies aim to “embed graduate attributes
and employability” in curricula and prepare students to compete globally (Strategic Plan
2012-16).
Innovative course development and enhanced quality of teaching - embedded case study
and encouraging external engagement.
Responds to College’s aim to provide students with ways to enhance their ‘development
through learning in partnership with both peers and experts’ and ‘develop ways of linking
Knowledge Exchange and learning/Teaching”.
(http://www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk/dgbl-yl)
Teaching & enhancing the
student experience
15
Issues
Theory / content /
curriculum / learning
goals
Research interests
Quick results for
business
development
Academic interests Business interests
Need to test market
immediately
Products: conference
presentations,
awards, publications
Products: market,
future development
19
References
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language teaching and research publishing company.
Alsagoff, L., Mckay, S. L., Hu, G., & Renandya, W. A. (2012). Principles and practices for teaching English as
an international language. London: Routledge.
Bowles, H. and Cogo, A (eds.) (2015). International Perspectives on English as a Lingua Franca:
pedagogical insights. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters.
Byram, M., Gribkova, B., & Starkey, H. (2003). Developing the intercultural dimension in language
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Cambridge English Language Assessment. (2016). Cambridge English young learners-Handbook for
teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from
http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/153612-yle-handbook-for-teachers.pdf
Chik, A. (2014). Digital gaming and language learning: Autonomy and community. Language Learning &
Technology 18(2), 85–100.
Chinese Ministry of Education. (2011). English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education in China.
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approx.)
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education-growing-demand-english-investigation-english-medium
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Editor's Notes
Nicola introduction 2 minutes
Introduce title; people on the project
Nicola
Introduction – Nicola 2 minutes
Starting a KTP project - Explanation of the KTP project and how KTP works in general – Nicola 3 minutes
Outline/overview of our particular project – Sihan 5 minutes
Benefits to academic partners – Ruby 5 minutes
Some issues we had to overcome – Ruby 2 minutes
‘lessons learned’ or surprises encountered in working with a business - anything you didn’t anticipate – Nicola 3 minutes
Nicola – section 1
3 minutes
Nicola
UK HEIs are operating in a changing environment, one in which increasing engagement with business/industry is a priority.
There is a lot of encouragement at present to collaborate and form partnerships with business/industry, across disciplines, schools and colleges in Scotland, the UK and internationally. And to do this there are many new strategies being developed.
The aim is to create a new culture of engagement with business/industry, generate research income and create new opportunities to enhance the student experience.
I was approached by ERI to apply for a KTP (the first in CHSS) to respond to a request from a software developer keen to develop an online educational platform to host video and games to teach children English in China.
A KTP aims to facilitate the transfer of knowledge, technology and skills to which the company has no access – funded by Innovate UK - Government-funded programme which encourages business in the UK and academics to work together - the College’s RKE Action Plan (2.4.3) called for increased uptake of KTPs
was attractive to me for a number of reasons:
it gave me an opportunity to share my expertise to develop something outside of academia. Also a lot of focus on KE at present and the need to work with different stakeholders has also been something central to my research, which focuses on the need to change TESOL to reflect ELF use – materials have been identified as a major barrier.
Provided a chance to evidence that my research has demonstrable impact. The KTP provided the opportunity to inform and ‘encourage a publisher to dare ……’
It also provided a means for research dissemination through not only publications and conferences but also through commercial products, which was quite exciting
I was also interested in having the chance to work with others, get a little bit money, and I also saw benefits for my students, which Ruby will talk about later…..
Sihan
5 minutes
Sihan
2min
The KTP starts with the quest for building an innovative story and game-based English teaching platform for young learners. This quest is in concordance with the trend of development of language teaching from a synthetic and grammar-lexical based approach towards a more analytical, process-oriented and situated approach. If we look at the evolution of language teaching from the start of 20th century till today, we can easily notice the shift from a behaviorist paradigm towards a more communicative model and particularly, the perspective of global Englishes that emphasise English use in authentic situations. So in line with this trend in language teaching, our project hopes to develop a narrative-based platform, consisting of bilingual animation and digital games, that make learning happens in a natural way.
3 min
The design of Tornado English is in general informed by curriculum design research and starts with the needs analysis of digital teaching platforms in China and on the business side, the market analysis— so basically, what are possible distribution channels for the product. Based on the initial analysis, the team decided to work through a government collaboration and to market the product to public schools in China. This marketing strategy has greatly affected the design of curriculum and syllabus Tornado English, primarily in concordance to English curriculum Standards for compulsory education in China (Ministry of Education, 2001), and brought in other popular curriculum in China.
Bilingual animation and digital games are the main methodology for delivering the teaching objectives and goals. We synthesised linguistic knowledge as well as other objectives such as communicative strategies and intercultural awareness aspects for each teaching session and tried to present them in a series of animation episodes first. Our animation is in large based on research on bilingualism and global Englishes, where a Chinese boy Dodo, a British girl Millie and a multilingual Italian rabbit Oliver engage in a series of fun adventures. Characters need to use diverse communicative strategies and translanguaging strategies for getting their meaning cross.
The design of the digital games hopes to strengthen the linguistic knowledge already presented in animation by engaging learners in fun and compulsive games, while also fostering learner autonomy. The design is based on research on game-based learning and multimedia cognitive model which also considers the accessibility of learning.
In May 2017, we carried out a pilot on the Beta version of Tornado English platform in 6 primary schools in Harbin, China. This pilot was in collaboration with the MSc TESOL programme and 8 student researchers obtained data from the pilot for their dissertation projects. The data were also used to revise the platform.
In Nov 2017, Tornado English was introduced to Early Birds, held by Xubo Edu-Tech Ltd in Shanghai, the 3rd largest B2B online English education supplier in China. Now we are co-developing a new curriculum that integrates the animation and games with the extant Early Birds curriculum, and will be delivered in a form of blended learning to 200 institutions by October this year.
Sihan
As part of the KTP, we hired an Associate. The job was advertised and we interviewed… Sihan is a graduate….. She is based in the company, but we supervise every 2 weeks and she organizes monthly project meetings.
Recently, the company have also been in negotiations with……
Early Bird –- use of Tornado English products, Picture book lessons, Topic-based online teaching lessons, Task-based online teaching output lessons
The academic team includes myself and Ruby…..
Ruby section 3
5 minutes
Ruby
We were given 18 months to work on the project and the project will end in May 2018.
Before starting we spent several months detailing the plans, working out the academic contribution, and also advertising and then interviewing for an Associate.
Before the beginning of the project, we developed an extensive time plan, which began with a detailed needs analysis, competitor analysis, lists of topic areas for the Associate to read
We attended meetings with various staff from KE office and the Company; also did training with Innovate UK – discovered that many of the projects are either engineering/science or medicine and “language learning” was very different
The company plan changed shortly after the start of the project and some aspects of the project were initiated much quicker than expected.
We (the academic partners) aimed to provide the company with ‘expertise’ in a number of different areas, topics that were discussed in our initial meetings with the company and also in our KTP application.
Ruby
English is the world’s global language – the world’s lingua franca. No matter where you travel, English is often heard in daily use – become part of the daily lives of many people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds – also true in countries where it is not an official language.
Learning this global language brings a number of benefits to speakers around the world. As Jay Walker sums up…. We have an English mania… he notes 2 billion speakers learning English today - figures are hard to estimate,
ELT is a multi-billion pound industry The company were keen to capitalise on this, particularly since the majority of learners in China. Their competitor analysis showed that…they also found an unequal distribution of resources ( all on eastern coast - keen to provide to mid-west China) and were also attracted to the large numbers of young learners in China using online English language learning apps
For me, this was an opportunity to help instigate the paradigm shift away from the focus on NATIVE English – something that has been rapidly gathering momentum in the literature.
Types of online English teaching platforms in China (IResearch,2017)
• Online tutoring
• Online classes
• Content-based platforms
With a collection of resources from external providers
With original content
• digital English education is not something new – the first distance-learning course started in 1996; online learning often created by business not taking into account what we know about how people learn languages
• a growing market and huge potential with increasing use of Internet and digital devices e.g. mobile phones, computers and tablets
Potential for mobile learning – short, flexible
Potential for more accessibility options
• three types of platforms – the third one being most central to digital education: digital education is not to digitalise the classroom teaching, but to consider various types of digital presentation forms and then design the most appropriate content accordingly. Ultimate goal: to make learning interactive and engaging.
Ruby
KTP dissertation projects & assignment case studies aim to “embed graduate attributes and employability” in curricula and prepare students to compete globally (Strategic Plan 2012-16)).
Lead the development, application & maintenance of academic standards through innovative course development to ensure the MSc TESOL reflects developments on comparative programmes and meets the needs of those preparing to teach in multilingual contexts. Led on the introduction of the Global Englishes for language Teaching course, English Medium Instruction (EMI) real-life case studies, presentation assessment rubrics, & formative feedback poster conferences. Collaborated with R.Rennie to design Knowledge Transfer partnership (KTP) group dissertation projects, & lead on embedding case studies in course assignments. Enhanced the quality of teaching through developing materials for Research Methods courses,
responds to the College’s aim to provide students with ways to enhance their ‘development through learning in partnership with both peers and experts’ and ‘develop ways of linking Knowledge Exchange and learning/Teaching”. Embedding the KTP into the programme enhances graduate attributes by encouraging external engagement.
Courses brought to life and made cutting-edge with real-life assignment case studies (KTP project).
Ruby
2 minutes
Ruby
We had to work through different kinds of emphasis, and the Associate (Sihan) had to work with both sides to maintain dialogue and progress the project.
On the academic side, we wanted to take time to consider
The ways the learning pathways and content areas tied into ultimate goals and learning outcomes – explore the theory and previous research before moving into the development
How the development of the project added to our knowledge and research interests (Nicola – Global Englishes; Ruby – digital learning, young learners, accessibility)
What we wanted to achieve by the end of the project (or shortly afterwards) – in the academic world working to a deadline
On the business side,
the goals and outcomes were often more short-term, and results had to be seen quicker
Whereas we would have liked to have taken time to develop ideas, the business had to find out if the market would take the product (hence the need to have the Harbin pilot earlier than we had anticipated – the company had to take the opportunity when it came up)
Paradoxically, the long-term goals of the business are tied into future business developments and don’t have a “submission deadline”
Nicola
2 minutes
Nicola
Dates in diary sooner rather than later, but need to be flexible as business organisation can change
Set up suitable method for communication (university systems often only work well within the university)
Before the project starts get administrative support sorted fully (including how often funds flow to academics)
Time allocated for the project not really enough to be able to do the academic further development side e.g. publications done outside allocate KTP time (but in research time) – not an issue but has to be recognised
Conclusion
- As an academic, generating new knowledge is key, but industry collaboration allows for this to be turned into new products and services
- but transferring the results of research into commercial products is a complex process involving many actors.
- need to ensure that researchers and industry work closely together - something I have argued for in the field of Global Englishes – this will help maximise the social and economic benefits of new ideas.
In addition to complexities above, working with industry has highlighted the consequences of industry collaboration, how it influences knowledge sharing and ‘barriers’ to reaching sharing of ideas – can only inform so far?