Engaging Our Community

As part of the blended learning initiative, the Tech Center is working with a language technology company, Yabla, and with government agencies, DLNSEO & ADL. The value of this collaboration lies not just in exploring the potential of technology tools but also in learning how the Tech Center can facilitate similar collaborations.

Yabla Pilot

Project Lead: Mr. Stephen Tschudi

Yabla is an online content provider that has created a platform for language learning. The Tech Center is piloting the use of Yabla as a tool to implement blended learning in a two-phase approach. The first phase started in the Fall 2016. Chinese Flagship students at UH-Mānoa have been using Yabla in an open protocol: the only stipulation is that they have to earn a set number of points in the site as part of their participation grade. We will examine traces of student activity to detect patterns of choice: do learners choose videos that correspond to their level, or do they browse widely? What is their topic selection, and does it correspond to topics in the curriculum? Are other patterns of choice detectable? Gathered data will help guide the formulation of specific questions in a usability study in the Spring 2017 semester.

The second phase will focus on usability and creating recommendations for the vendor to implement. Chinese Flagship students at UH-Mānoa and other Chinese Flagship institutions will use Yabla in a structured protocol that includes usability and preference questionnaires. Gathered data will form the basis for feedback to the vendor with suggestions for improvement. It is anticipated that these suggestions, if implemented, may improve the usability of the software from a pedagogical angle, resulting in improved connections between the targeted construct (listening) and the method of assessment (currently, written cloze test requiring exact orthography).

If your Chinese Flagship program is interested in exploring uses of Yabla for Flagship students, please contact us.