‘Transforming Traditions’ – Integrating H5P interactive videos to learn Spanish grammar

In the brief interview below, Dr. Ospina shares details pertaining to the Open Access Learning Resource Fund she received as the lead member in 2020.

TC: Can you tell us briefly what your Open Education Project is about? 

LO: Since spring 2019, the Spanish section has been implementing a curricular transformation. We have adopted the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) in an effort to better engage southern Alberta students and produce better results for them, that is, greater communicative skills. This decision has required the use of a different perspective in language teaching and learning. One of the main implications of this change is the emphasis now placed on developing communicative competence in our students. But to achieve this goal the students still need to learn grammar and use it adequately in meaningful contexts. In fact, as adult learners, they demand it.

Teaching and learning grammar has always been difficult, because whether you prepare prescriptive classes or use a purely communicative approach, to achieve any kind of success students need to acquire the structures of the target language and degrees of grammatical accuracy in order to communicate effectively (at whatever level they may be). We recognize this need and the concomitant necessity of creating new didactic materials to engage the students in the learning process. Thus, as experienced instructors of Spanish, we recognize the imminent need of transforming/changing some of our traditional tools to teach grammar. This is what this project is about: the creation of Open Access materials to learn grammar in the beginners’ level. Two instructors from the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics are involved: Dr. Luz Janeth Ospina and Dr. Raquel Trillia.

TC: Why does Open Education matter to you? 

LO: Open Education matters to us because we consider it´s crucial for our language students to have access to materials that have been developed by their own instructors considering the student´s context, expectations and their reality as learners. Open Education materials enhance the students´learrning experience Considering the recent integration of the H5P tool into our Moodle courses, we would like to take advantage of this opportunity to design and create interactive videos to teach grammar at the beginners’ level. “H5P can be seen as a flexible, mobile responsive and versatile tool that promotes an innovative way of linking teaching resources and multimedia elements” (Homanová & Havlásková 9268). Thus, interactive video technology is an excellent tool to promote student engagement. Since H5P is innovative, free, practical, and easy to use software, the goal is to design interactive videos to accompany the course materials. These videos will be very useful and compatible with any teaching delivery method such as face to face, blended or online.

TC: How will you go about creating the resource? 

Considering the recent integration of the H5P tool into our Moodle courses, we would like to take advantage of this opportunity to design and create interactive videos to teach grammar at the beginners’ level. “H5P can be seen as a flexible, mobile responsive and versatile tool that promotes an innovative way of linking teaching resources and multimedia elements” (Homanová & Havlásková 9268). Thus, interactive video technology is an excellent tool to promote student engagement. Since H5P is innovative, free, practical, and easy to use software, the goal is to design interactive videos to accompany the course materials. These videos will be very useful and compatible with any teaching delivery method such as face to face, blended or online.

TC: Have you received some support for your work? 

LO: Yes, we have received $5000 funding from the Teaching Center.

TC: What is in involved in creating your openly accessible resource?

LO: First of all, we need to be very creative and work with a good team in order to target the students’ needs and to motivate them. We need to get familiar with several softwares to produce good quality videos.

TC: What digital technology will you use to publish the resource? 

LO: We plan to use Moodle and we are looking for other open platforms.

TC: When do you expect the resource to be available for instructors/ students?

LO: In Fall 2021.