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Project: Online Russian Video Course | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| DavidW Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6524 days ago 318 posts - 458 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Italian, Persian, Malay Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese, German, Urdu | Message 1 of 5 18 May 2012 at 3:16pm | IP Logged |
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I've been studying at the Minsk State Linguistic University (MSLU) for about ten months
now. There is a trend amongst universities of making their courses available online in video format for distance students (see for example oyc.yale.edu , nptel.iitm.ac.in or see.stanford.edu ), although not so much has been done in the area of language teaching. The Russian courses for foreigners are excellent at the MSLU, they teach students of all levels, right up to the highest levels. I put the idea to the administration a couple of times that they should try producing online courses, and offered to help with the technical details. My suggestion wasn't met with much enthusiasm, but perhaps they will eventually come around. The idea really seems to me to have merit, and so I'm thinking of starting the project outside of the university administration, but engaging it's teachers during their free time. The plan is to produce a pilot of five teaching hours and see how it works. At the moment I'm not able to fund this myself, so I'm thinking of setting up a 'Kickstarter' project to 'crowdfund' it. It may seem an ambitious project, but all the components are present. Good teachers, good materials, technical know-how etc. Below is the text for the Kickstarter page. Feedback, comments and suggestions welcome! For those interested, my previous project, 'The Little Prince' ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0956721591 ) has been on sale for about eight months so far, and is in the top ten books for learning French on Amazon.co.uk. I think this project can be called a success now, and I'll be putting more time into doing some more. ---- **Background** 'Distance education'/self-study has numerous benefits over traditional classroom-based language instruction. While subject to certain limitations, it allows the student to study at their own pace, according to their own schedule, and at a lower cost, relative to traditional classroom-based instruction. The content of self-study courses has traditionally revolved around the limitations of the media and costs of distribution, typically being limited to a few hours of audio. The advent of high-speed internet, and Blue-Ray discs (that can store more than 100 hours of DVD-quality video) have definitively put an end to these limitations. Despite this, the format of recent self-study courses remains mostly unchanged. **The Course** The course will include hundreds of hours of video/audio recordings. A range of teaching methods will be used. The course materials will based around a number of sources: -The Defense Language Institute Russian Program, which is presumed, according to available information, to be in the public domain. This course, and it's exercises/drills will form the grammatical 'backbone' of the course. -Conversation and discussions to provide substantial additional exposure to the language and additional vocabulary. -The teachers' own existing teaching material. -Possibly make use of the Princeton Russian Course (need to contact the author). -Coursebooks from publishers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Minsk State Linguistic University (lots of fun awaits trying to get permissions.. ;-). **Further Features** -The course should be available in both 'low' and 'high tech' formats: printed books with MP3 audio/DVD video (initially), and a computer/tablet application with additional features, such as audio keyed to the text, pop-up dictionaries etc. -Care will be taken to ensure the material is useable on mobile devices/'audio only' where feasible. -Low cost (approximately $1-2 per teaching hour). -Useable as a stand-alone course, or as a supplement to classroom teaching/university programs. **This Kickstarter Project, and How You Can Help.** This Kickstarter project will fund a pilot program to produce approximately five hours of video at the lower-intermediate level. Approximately $1200 USD is needed to make this happen. The funds will be used as such: -A contribution of approximately $400 towards the purchase of a video camera, high quality audio recording equipment and a studio lamp. -Compensation for two experienced teachers for approximately 20 hours of their time each for teaching and planning. -Compensation for an assistant for approximately 20 hours of coordination work, and obtaining permissions. For a contribution of $50 USD, you'll get: -Full access to all teaching materials produced for a period of 12 months. -Access to forums where issues and suggestions are discussed. -Recognition as a supporter of the project. When it's clear that there is sufficient interest in the project, and all issues have resolved, production will commence at high-speed, with several concurrent recording sessions. **People** -Expert Russian teachers from the Minsk State Linguistic University. Some of the best language teachers anywhere. -Myself, David Wilkinson. An experienced self-study language student, with previous experience in teaching, publishing, graphic design, sound engineering, programming and web development. -You. Your contribution, feedback and suggestions will be central to the successful realization of the project. Edited by DavidW on 18 May 2012 at 3:23pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| DavidW Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6524 days ago 318 posts - 458 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Italian, Persian, Malay Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese, German, Urdu | Message 2 of 5 20 May 2012 at 2:14pm | IP Logged |
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What do you think? A worthwhile project?
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hobbitofny Senior Member United States Joined 6231 days ago 280 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 5 20 May 2012 at 8:13pm | IP Logged |
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If you are going for a project like this I would recommend doing it with Russia produced courses. Говорите правильно! Курс русской разговорной речи. Учебник и CD Speak right! = Survival Russian! A course of conversational Russian for the English speaking students Publisher: Russky yazyk--Kursy Author: N B Karavanova or Дорога в Россию Road to Russian Author: Антонова, В. / Antonova, V. Publisher: Zlatoust. I would not use a USA produced book.
The Russian government set up Russkiy Mir Foundation for the promotion of Russian language. They offer two free software programs for learning Russian. If you sell them on your idea. It would open a doors for funding or make it easier to get rights to use a Russia produced text book. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DavidW Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6524 days ago 318 posts - 458 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Italian, Persian, Malay Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese, German, Urdu | Message 4 of 5 21 May 2012 at 1:56am | IP Logged |
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That's a really good contact, I'll send them an email with a link to this forum topic.
Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5853 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 5 of 5 21 May 2012 at 5:04pm | IP Logged |
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Hi, I wonder if you will carrying on the project with Belorussian and Ukrainian after The
Russian project is completed? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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