Blended Learning Courses
In the fall term, most beginner's level (111/112) and some intermediate level language courses (211/212) will be offered in a blended learning format: Arabic, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Ukrainian.
You may want to know that this Fall term we continue with our introduction of the “blended-learning” model into our language learning and instruction. This model is a combination of in-class, face-to-face instruction and interaction, and online self-paced, individual learning.
In previous years, in our 100- and some 200-level language classes, we would normally meet five hours per week. The new model allows for more flexibility with your schedules by reducing the face-to-face time to three hours per week (just like most other classes), and the remaining two hours consisting of online self-paced work.
Following the university’s announcement that the majority of classes in Fall 2020 will be delivered remotely and online, our face-to-face classes will take place remotely, but in real time, or synchronously (on Bear Tracks, these times are listed as your regular class times). That is, during these classes you will meet and communicate with your instructor and interact with your classmates via video conferencing (Zoom, Google Meet, etc.). You will complete the online lessons independently, on your own time (on Bear Tracks, these are listed under Labs). Your instructors will guide you through these online lessons and will advise on when these need to be completed.
You will receive more specific details about how your class will divide live-lessons and self-paced work shortly before the term starts or on the first day of class.
We had much success with our pilot implementation of the blended-learning model with several of our language classes and we are extremely excited to introduce this learner-friendly model into our curriculum.
We hope that you will find our innovative teaching methods productive, interesting, stimulating and fun. We wish you much success in your language-learning journey.
“I feel like my expectations were exceeded. In a short time period I feel like I’ve got a good foundation for the XXX language.”
“I feel like the blended-learning has allowed me to learn a lot in a short period of time. I am very satisfied.”
“I’ve learned many new things coming to this class and feel more confident in my ability.”
“[I would continue with the blended-learning] because it is really fun to learn this way.”
“[because of the blended-learning model] I became even more passionate for my heritage and even more motivated to continue learning the language.”
Spanish
German
Arabic
Italian
Norwegian
Russian
Swedish
Ukrainian
For more information on Blended Learning (i.e. what it is; how to be successful), see the following video
Blended Learning Introduction