Following the L120 Mobile project in 2009, the aim of the IOA project is to investigate the suitability of using Talkback (Learnosity’s Voice response system) for use in formative and summative assessment.
In October 2010, 60 students who had just completed our French Beginners module and 15 students who had just completed our level 1 English for Academic Purposes module took part in a two-strand 6-week free pilot module.
Students on the pilot module practised their listening and speaking skills via Learnosity Talkback on their mobile, landline phone, Skype or through an iPhone App (OU Voice - see below) and completed two TMAs for which they received marks and feedback. They were asked to report on their experience via weekly short online questionnaires. Interviews with selected participants were held in March 2011 and the research outputs will be available shortly.
The IOA project was sponsored by the Faculty of Education and Language Studies (FELS), the Learning Innovation Office (LIO), Personalised Integrated Learning Support (PILS) CETL.
For a further overview of the project, you may like to look at the webcast below, captured as part of the OU eLearning Community activities:
You may also like to look at this short demonstration of the iOS application 'OU Voice' created by the OU and Learnosity in partnership, to enhance the ways of interacting - alongside mobile and landline phone and Skype (voice response).
There is a further example of the OU Voice app used in a tutor-marked scenario available on the case study for further information.
Valérie Demouy, Prithvi Shestha, Annie Eardley, Agnes Kukulska-Hulme