Measuring Student Learning in an Online French Course

Abstract

This paper reports the results of the assessment of Elementary French I Online, the first course to be offered under the Language Online project at Carnegie Mellon University. The purpose of the assessment was to determine if there were significant differences in achievement, satisfaction, and time spent on the course between the students in the online course and those in a conventional (offline) course. Multiple measures were taken of student background, including language and technology experience, and individual differences in learning styles. Students were compared on measures of grammatical knowledge, written production, oral production, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension; in addition, measures of satisfaction and time spent learning French were determined through course evaluations and interviews. The only statistically significant difference on the learning measures occurred in the written production task in which the online students outperformed the offline students; however, results should be carefully interpreted due to the sample size and use of intact classes. Student satisfaction was generally positive, but students in the online course voiced some frustrations. Students in the online course also reported spending less time studying French than did their counterparts in the conventional course.