Well, I created the survey and ran the initial go-through with 25 responses. Essentially as I suspected, students are primarily coming to the lab to print, email, and go on Facebook.
Now I face the challenge of figuring out how to make the lab a place where learning English is the focus. This session, we are aiming to get more students in orientation and I have created an orientation video and placed it on the website. I am hoping that disseminating the information about what is available in a wider forum will reduce some of these issues.
Now....what else can I do to ensure that students are using the SALC the way it was meant to be used, and not just as a computer lab?? Something to consider.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Learner Surveys?
In keeping with the idea of self access and learning how to learn, I believe the first step toward making this a reality in the ELI SALC will be to create a student survey. I need to understand several things:
1) How are students currently using the lab?
2) What software and equipment are they already aware of and using?
3) What programs and/or software would they like to have available in the lab?
4) How do they learn and are they aware of differences in learning styles?
5) Open questions about how the lab could be improved
I would like to make this survey primarily available online and linked from the SALC homepage, but I'm afraid students will breeze right by it as they tend to open the internet and go straight to Facebook or email. I'm considering making it available in both paper and electronic form.
1) How are students currently using the lab?
2) What software and equipment are they already aware of and using?
3) What programs and/or software would they like to have available in the lab?
4) How do they learn and are they aware of differences in learning styles?
5) Open questions about how the lab could be improved
I would like to make this survey primarily available online and linked from the SALC homepage, but I'm afraid students will breeze right by it as they tend to open the internet and go straight to Facebook or email. I'm considering making it available in both paper and electronic form.
Monday, October 11, 2010
What is Self Access Learning?
When I first began working at the Alison SALC in early January of 2010, I wasn't even sure what SALC stood for. I thought it meant Student Access Learning Center - after all, students were coming there to use the lab, right?
After a few corrections, I managed to remember that the S in SALC stands for Self. That means students are supposed to use the tools in the lab to learn on their own. But how does a student learn on their own if they aren't sure what they need to study or where their weak points are? Don't they need a teacher to tell them what to do? Shouldn't there be grades or attendance involved? What's the motivation?
These are hard questions to answer, but ones that I hope to explore and address through the use of this blog. We'll look at programs that are available in the lab, talk to students who have used the programs, and see what a learner needs in order to be able to really assess what they need to learn.
After a few corrections, I managed to remember that the S in SALC stands for Self. That means students are supposed to use the tools in the lab to learn on their own. But how does a student learn on their own if they aren't sure what they need to study or where their weak points are? Don't they need a teacher to tell them what to do? Shouldn't there be grades or attendance involved? What's the motivation?
These are hard questions to answer, but ones that I hope to explore and address through the use of this blog. We'll look at programs that are available in the lab, talk to students who have used the programs, and see what a learner needs in order to be able to really assess what they need to learn.
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