ONLINE COURSE DESIGN: BASIC ARABIC LANGUAGE

Online Course Design: Basic Arabic Language

Luay Askar
David Cunha
Lisa Emanuelson
Kalsoom Sand Shah
October 31, 2017

October 31, 2017

IST 525 Instructional Technology
Dr. Sarah Tourtellotte
Course Title: Basic Arabic Language
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Course Topic/Focus: Learning basic Arabic language to perform basic survival tasks such as how to
order in a restaurant, and how to ask for directions.

LMS-Learning Management System: Our LMS platform will be Moodle, which is based on a plugin
system which are like Lego blocks, that provides a customized end product. There are several plugins for
different content and collaborative activities that we intend to use.

Blended or Online: Our basic Arabic language course will be a blended course with online lectures,
activities, audios, videos, online readings and recordings for two receptive skills: listening & reading. For
productive skills (writing & speaking) we will have face to face meeting sessions with our learners. A
blended course is preferable so that non-class time is spent on reading and working through worksheets
on word definitions and sentence structure. In-class time is necessary for the speaking parts of the lessons
to understand pronunciation, mimic native speakers, and on the spot corrections.

Visual Design: How will the course be designed?

We will choose a Moodle template that will evoke the culture of Arabic countries, the border will be
surrounded by Arabic script in the layout.

What Learning Theory and Instructional Design theory/models will be the foundation?
We will use the ADDIE model, and incorporate two learning theories: Behaviorism and Constructivism.
Behaviorism will guide design in the preliminary stages followed by Constructivist theory as the learner
builds up language tools to use autonomously to produce language appropriate for communication.

Will it be asynchronous or include synchronous elements?

The course will be both synchronous and asynchronous.

How will rich media be used?

Rich media will be used to introduce the learner to authentic audio, video, and images to understand the
different cultural aspects of the language.

What are the intentional learning outcomes? Intentional learning is thepersistent, continual process to
acquire, understand, and use a variety of strategies to improve ones ability to attain and apply
knowledge (American Accounting Association, 1995). According to Bereiter & Scardamella (1989),
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intentional learning refers to cognitive process that have learning as a goal rather than an incidental
outcome.

In this course the learners will be able to perform their basic assigned tasks using their newly learned
Arabic language.

Triangulated Alignment: How will learning activities, assessments and objectives be aligned?
In our course we will design our learning activities in such a way to assist the learners to achieve their
assigned objectives. For example, one learning objective is to provide learners with the language skills
that will allow them to comfortably order, in Arabic at a restaurant. The activities associated with this
objective will include restaurant menus that will provide learners with authentic learning objects designed
to enhance learner retention and objective attainment.

How will the content and readings be organized?

This basic Arabic language course structure will include a week overview, resources (videos, reading,
images, and audios), weekly forum discussion posts, submission portal, quiz, grading and feedback.

Assignments: What are the assignments/milestones? How do they build on each other for a final
assignment or learning experience?

Assignments will integrate four skills of language learning: reading, listening, speaking and writing. Each
step in the lesson utilizes skills learned from the preceding lesson.
1. Introduction of letters: Students will identify letters in an authentic text.
2. Pronunciation: Students will record their voices to check the pronunciation using Audacity or
GarageBand, etc.
3. Writing Arabic letters: Students will write letters on a worksheet that will be handed in during a
face to face meeting.
4. Joining Arabic letters: Students will join letters on a worksheet after viewing a video that shows
handwritten letters. A worksheet will be handed in during a face to face meeting.
5. Word formation: Students will write words on a worksheet after viewing a video that shows
hands writing words. A worksheet will be handed in during a face to face meeting.
6. Using Arabic vocabulary in context: Students will write and have a conversation with other
students during Zoom and face to face sessions.

Authentic Tasks:
How will authentic tasks be created based on the setting?
We will provide copyright free (authentic) reading and listening materials to our learners , so they will be
able to perform the authentic tasks related to the material like answering a phone, reserving a table,
reading packaging, directions, etc.
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Discussion Forums:
Discussion forums will be a weekly assignment based on different topics related to course work. The
students will post what they learned that week and will respond to a peers post as well.

How will Social Learning Technologies and Purposeful Learning Activities be utilized?
In our basic Arabic language course, we will provide classroom activities on Moodle, and the learners
will use their laptops, computers or mobile phones to do these activities. We will design purposeful
activities which will be relevant to our learners, because that way they will take interest and perform well.
The more self-directive is the learner the more e-learning will be successful.

How will technology and or social media be incorporated and utilized?

In our course, the learners will use Audacity, YouTube, GarageBand and other resources to complete
assignments.

What is the Functional Architecture of the course?

Students will use various technologies as part of this course. Students will: communicate online as part of
the discussion forum with other students, use online technology to record their own voice speaking
vocabulary words in Arabic, be assigned to post to social media in Arabic and respond to comments in
Arabic, and participate in Zoom video conferencing .

What technics would be included?

Our beginning Arabic language course will utilize synchronous Zoom video conferences, reference
websites, discussion forums, and the Moodle.

How will it be designed for intentional and unintentional learning?

We will design our activities where intentional and unintentional learning will occur side by side. We will
provide learners with authentic material to help achieve intentional and unintentional learning objectives
through collaborative activities, and online research into the the language and culture.

How will assessments and feedback be implemented?

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For receptive skills (reading & listening), assessment will be provided through the Moodle, where the
teacher will grade the students assignments and provide feedback. For the productive skills (speaking &
writing), the teacher will provide feedback to the learners during face to face in-class sessions and
through listening to Audacity recordings of students.

References
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Intentional learning - eLearning snippets. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2017, from

https://sites.google.com/site/elearningsnippets/a-wiki-page/intentional-learning

Moodle Learning Management System. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2017, from

https://moodle.com/moodle-lms/