ORION  Meeting Crete 13^th-16^th September 2003

Crete Centre, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (former IMBC)

Progress Meeting

Present: M. Eleftheriou, Coordinator, S.Goulala, HCMR Athens, E.Papathanassiou, HCMR, A.Eleftheriou, Scientific responsible, HCMR, G.Mouzakitis, University of Cork, A.Norstrom, University of Stockholm. J.Norberg, University of Stockholm, C.Hough, FEAP, , C.Hapsiades (TEREUS SA).

The meeting was opened by Prof. Eleftheriou who tendered apologies from Professor Davenport, University of Cork who was unable to be present due to pressure of work caused by his appointment as Director of the new Institute of Marine Environmental Sciences in Cork.

The present meeting had rather complex arrangements as quite a number of different developments in the ORION website had to be examined and evaluated, as well as conducting a serious training session in the use of the ORION tool for most of the partners. In addition, work on the glossary had to be finalised, and work on the next stage of the grammar modules had to be planned.

As there was so much work to be done, the meeting immediately divided into two sections, with the Steering group (M. Eleftheriou, S.Goulala, A.Eleftheriou, C.Hough) whose meeting is reported separately. The Steering Group was to draw up plans for internal and external evaluations and dissemination.

Glossary work parallel session

Throughout the meeting, the final harmonisation of the glossary items took place on a continuous basis, parallel to the more formal agenda-driven meeting. The final choice of 836 AQUALEX English and Greek items had been made, use of which is covered under the licence agreement with AMC Ltd, and these items were already being translated into Portuguese and Swedish. The new terms, numbering 284, were once again checked, the wording simplified and refined and new generic numbers were given in order to proceed as fast as possible with the programming of the relational database.

Plenary session

At 11 am, the two groups reunited under the chairmanship of Mrs M.Eleftheriou. The minutes of the ORION meeting in Cork in November 2002 had previously been circulated and were adopted as an accurate account of those proceedings. Mrs Eleftheriou reported on the Evaluation which had been carried out on JUNE 13 by a representative of Deloitte & Touche (Mr P.Carpenter) on behalf of the LDV Programme. The feedback had been very promising and a number of relevant points had been made in respect of ODL language learning.

Prof. Eleftheriou reported back on the discussion and decisions of the SG. An enormous amount of progress had been made since the last meeting 10 months earlier. The Distributed Network shell was up and in working order by the end of February, when it was already host to two of the adapted modules, the Age Determination module from Cork and the Introduction to the Marine Environment in both English and Greek. By April, some of the Portuguese modules were already online and able to be used. A major part of the present Workshop was to be devoted to a hands-on session led by Mr Hapsiades as a tutorial in the use of the ORION software tool for the insertion of new modules and the updating of those already online.

The capability of the software to cope with different language fonts was impressive, as was its ability to produce databases that could be interrogated and updated easily. The progress of the Bibliography and the Meristics Reference work was noted. The internal evaluation of the language modules, the course materials, would continue throughout the present meeting. Each partner was to undertake a careful reading of all online language units and submit all corrections by the end of the meeting.

A list of external evaluators had been drawn up (Steele, ex-Woods Hole, McIntyre & Priede, Aberdeen University, Ackefors,Stockholm University, Rosenthal, University of Kiel, Paterson (Swedish) ,Fernandes(Portuguese) and the UCC partner was to handle that aspect.

Discussion centred around the adaptations to the design that had been advocated during and since the last Progress meeting, 10 months earlier. There was lively discussion as to the nature and the purpose of the Library Resources Section. The view of the Librarian that the former title (Reference Resource Centre) should remain, was rejected on design grounds (too long horizontally). Mention was made of a new Russian search engine which would materially assist in the search function. However, this was not recommended on the grounds of cost. The new online items (Basic Language Modules Level 1, Online Meristics Reference in English and Greek) were displayed and tried out ready for the continuing evaluation. The full group unanimously decided that the Library Resources Section would remain as redesigned, the Russian Search engine was not suitable and that the new format of the website worked well. It seemed that it could achieve the desired end result of hosting a Virtual Marine Science Department.

Self-tuition language modules

Seven of the Basic Language lessons were online for this meeting, and Mrs Eleftheriou demonstrated how it had been possible to design and programme the visually based material so that it was possible to move directly from any screen text to any of the other project languages. This instant screen translation was an essential part of the language learning methodology being employed in the project. Total beginners were able to SEE immediately what they needed in the target language, without the need for tutor intervention. This gave the learner independence, at the very moment when most language learners feel most impotent and vulnerable because of their complete ignorance of the language, its vocabulary, its syntax and its grammar.This is a very important element in distance learning.

Mrs Eleftheriou then gave a detailed explanation of the rationale and methodology underpinning the structure of the language modules before the ongoing internal evaluations. The setup for this Section is now TEXT, GRAMMAR, HOMEWORK, ASSESSMENT. This menu is the same for all languages but each button appears in the target language. The ASSESSMENT button leads at the moment to the free assessments given by the DIALANG project. It is not one of the stated aims of ORION to assess the level of users. In addition, since the pages are freely available, it would clearly be impossible to do so.

Mrs Eleftheriou explained the reasons for electing to have Level 1 done as graphic pages (so that all users could access all languages without font difficulties). In addition, since these basic modules were targeted towards those who had absolutely no knowledge at all of the new language, these first few modules were based almost entirely on visual stimuli which were understood immediately without words. Therefore, language acquisition was more easily and more readily achieved. However, this was obviously enormously time-consuming in design and programming time, especially since it had also been decided that every page of the TEXT section should be instantly accessible in each of the other three languages, in order to facilitate language transfer. Since the words in each language were not uniform in size, this meant that the designer had to make many small changes to each page so that each language appeared to fade naturally into the target language and that there would be no sudden jerk as the new language page appeared. She also explained that at the moment, each user had to go through each of the TEXT pages before being allowed access to the Grammar or the Homework. This derived from her previous long experience in providing Private Study Modules in Scotland. Where shortcuts were possible, they were used. An additional reason was the part played in language acquisition of repetition of course material and consolidation of learning. It was also agreed that the GRAMMAR sections could not be identical, for obvious reasons, and that there would have to be a lot of variation, especially in the case of Greek which was much more complicated than the other three languages.

Level 2 texts have already been written in English. It was agreed that these texts could be designed as simpler html pages (Linux) and that the many illustrations would also be redrawn in each of the languages.

Tuition in ORION course insertion software (ORION tool)

Mr Hapsiades took all partners through the User Manual at a full partner session, then each partner received individual tuition in the niceties of the software, enabling new courses to be inserted, the use of different kinds of resources, the insertions of tests, quizzes, discussion for a and surveys. All remarked on how user-friendly the software had proved to be. However, each partner had to have an individual session with the programmer to ensure that all aspects were fully understood, that all procedures were clear, that no new bugs were uncovered, and that new capabilities were discovered and used (ie., tests, quizzes, etc).

Internal evaluations

Ms. Goulala, Dr. Dinis, Mrs Eleftheriou, Mr Norstrom continued to scrutinise the Basic Level texts for mistakes and inconsistencies. Notes were taken of all findings, which were to be corrected by 15th October. Notes were also taken of particular grammar differences between languages. It was noted that certain words and phrases could not be translated directly from English, ie., that in Portuguese there is no equivalent of "There is". It was agreed that it would defeat the purpose of the basic language modules if there could not be an instant transformation of the screen into the desired language. Therefore these discrepancies would be explained by means of popup boxes with explanations. Mrs Eleftheriou stated that Mr Carpenter (Deloitte & Touche evaluator) had suggested that these popup notes would be essential. He had also said that it would be a good idea to insert the alphabet in all 4 languages, and that it would also be a good idea to record at least some of the texts.

Dissemination

Mr Hough led off the dissemination discussion by asking the questions: whom should ORION target and why? All lecturers all over Europe? Marine science lecturers? Certainly we should not target students. Partners should be prepared to spread the word in journals, in newspapers, in conferences and workshops. A Tom Sawyer approach might work well- who wants to join this project?

We should also use mail rather than email, and probably prepare small CDs which could be sent out in ordinary envelopes in mail shots. Mrs Eleftheriou made the point that it is better to wait until the project is nearer completion before carrying out this type of blanket dissemination. Successful dissemination would result in the target audience asking to join - how could this be done until the tool, the glossary, the language lessons as well as the course materials were ready to be used.

Copyright issues had to be resolved before a business plan was drawn up and this also was essential if ORION was to have a future beyond the project level.

• Press releases should be prepared - Mr Hough would do these.
• Specialised journals should be approached (Med. Journal, Fish Farming International, Fish Farming, as well as relevant newspapers in each partner country.
• Targeted conferences, presentations at AQUATNET, BARCELONA EAS, VERONA, etc.
• power point presentations should be prepared
• posters and pamphlets should be prepared, perhaps also a small CD
• newsletters, ORION, AQUAMEDIA, AQUATT should be regularly informed.

ORION Newsletters 2 and 3 were online as part of the AQUAMEDIA website, with a potential of 2000 readers.

• there should also be a print-friendly utility for those parts of the website that were not dynamic.

Short-Term Action Plan

1. To learn how to use the software to enable use and re-use of course materials
2. To evaluate present state of ORION language learning materials
3. To discuss how to plan next stage of grammar modules
4. To plan the way forward, including evaluation and dissemination