Just read a New York Times article regarding the increase of music lessons on webcam's, decided I'd blog a little about my own website mockorals.ie
There's no doubt that e-learning is really gearing up to become a big part of education, not just in schools but at home too. MockOrals.ie provided me with the opportunity to try and develop something students themselves would actually use whilst also focusing in on a niche aspect of the Junior and Leaving Cert (meaning I could maintain a clear focus and not get bogged down by attempting something on too big a scale.)
People often make this mistake, don't get me wrong thinking big is the only way to think. However sometimes to bridge the opportunity with the vision, you have to scale your idea down and use that as your tester. This is not only a great way to study and learn everything about your market but it's also great for really nailing down your concept and flagging down major potential problems early.
After doing some market research and conducting trial practice exams with real teachers and students on Skype, I realized that this could work. I also had some strong results from a questionnaire I distributed to 100 leaving cert students from 4 different Dublin schools, 68% said they would use and pay for the service.
The website
offers oral exams online in Irish, French, German and Spanish and at all
competency levels (Higher, Ordinary and Foundation). The webcam sessions themselves are delivered on the popular online
communicational tool Skype. This as we all know is a
free service that can be downloaded and used on any computer. The added benefit here is that the youth of today (I'm old now) have a Skype account or know how to use it. I'm also looking to add GoogleTalk to the mix.
So why the Oral examination?
Well do you remember yours? Mine was a disaster! I remember the night before reading and writing out notes trying to embed the various conversational topics and picture sequences in my head, like literally sear them in my brain. I knew I wanted to create something to do with e-learning and webcam's- so I just sat down and thought what element of secondary school could be improved with webcam's and an experienced teacher on the other end of the feed.
I mean when you think about it- why isn't all learning geared up to the Oral examinations practical based? The oral examination is essentially a very easy exam to prepare for. You know the standard conversational topics coming up, you know the role plays and the picture sequences - so why did the majority of us (and don't lie) come out of our orals pale faced. Replying "it went well" to your parents and friends, when really randomly saying "GO TOBAINN" and Is maith liom ag dul go dti sa scannan" just didn't quite cut it.
OR, maybe you did study, you worked hard, organized your notes, prepared your self on good conversational topics and had all the role plays and picture sequences down to a tee. And what happened? you froze, or you got shook in the first 5 minutes blind-sighted by a curve ball....
Smoking ban??ASK ME ABOUT MY HOBBIES.
My point here is and what the oral exam is also a lot about is confidence. You need confidence not just with what you know and what you've learned but also in communicating that effectively. It's as simple as that, and that's what I wanted this website to offer: practical experience, instilling confidence in the student and great feedback and tips after to correct and improve. Now there's a winning combination that gives real value to a student.
I've learned though from talking to students and doing one or two focus groups as well that the website can do even more than that. The oral exam itself accounts for a very large percentage of
a student’s final grade, a total of 25% for that language subject. Meaning a good performance can add serious points to the overall CAO effort. Funny thing about that is- most leaving cert students don't appreciate or truly grasp the concept of continuous assessment, they look to the final exam, its all JUNE JUNE JUNE. It wasn't until after my second year in college that I truly appreciated the massive impact a strong continuous assessment has on your final grade (serious eureka moment).
So again I felt Mockorals.ie was adding another benefit- it put the focus on the oral exam. It doesn't just shine the spotlight though it shows the oral for what it really is- an absolutely nailable exam that can add serious points to your final grade!
I've done all the research and I'm currently looking for teachers to partner with the website to offer time slots that students can purchase and book through the site. I've got a lot going on at the moment with college and Study Buddy so I'm looking to tweak the website a bit and roll out the service November 2012 for the run up to the Mocks and Oral exams in April 2013! Yeah it's cyclical but like I said, sometimes you've got to scale your vision down and use that as your tester. All in all I've enjoyed setting it up and bringing it from the Idea phase to near commercialization.
MockOrals.ie Mission: “Committed to preparing students for their Oral Exam, ensuring they achieve their potential by providing a team of outstanding teachers who impart tuition and examination of the highest quality on our website”
New York Times Article: (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/us/music-lessons-on-webcams-grow-in-popularity.html)
No comments:
Post a Comment