From APEC HRDWG Wiki

Overview

The Open Language Learning Initiative (OLLI) is an effort to create an international community of language learners of all ages to explore and acquire second language skills through a wide variety of digital media channels that both create an immersive electronic learning experience and complement local informal and formal instruction.

History and Background

With initial funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation as part of its Open Educational Resources (OER) Initiative, Coastline Community College is developing the first English-language learning experience for middle school students in China — The Forgotten World: Zuka Awakens.

The instructional and creative design teams at Coastline have been working with leading experts in language acquisition, linguistics, pedagogy, technology, interactive media and learning game design, and culture to develop its first offering, which will launch in late 2009.In collaboration with the China Ministry of Education and the U.S. Department of Education, the Coastline team will coordinate a comprehensive assessment of teacher usage and student performance beginning in September 2009.

By creating an open-ended narrative and imagined world, the Coastline team sees tremendous opportunity to support learning of a variety of different languages as learners from a variety of different cultures and languages come together to learn and inhabit The Forgotten World, creating new story elements and driving technical expansion through global collaboration. A combination of story, games, and online activities and exercises has been developed to support different aspects of language learning, including listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Ancillary materials for teachers to use in the classroom include a Teacher Guide, Learning Matrix, Student Worksheets, and Comic panel PDFs by episode.

The instructional design for this first installment has been developed to complement formal English-language curriculum from low- to high-novice in Chinese middle and secondary schools. Beginning with simple learning objectives such as performing routine courtesy acts, recognizing letter names, identifying objects in context, responding to directions, being able to communicate likes and dislikes and advancing through lessons that enable learners to handle basic needs, report on simple routines, and make simple plans and invitations, The Forgotten World covers roughly two-years of formal classroom

A goal of this first installment is to explore and evaluate the best contexts — narrative, pedagogical, and technical — for large-scale open language learning tools. The Coastline team in collaboration with Learning Games Network is creating a flexible and extensible platform and narrative.