Virtual Connectedness: Working Together to Create a Companion Site for Spanish Phonetics & Phonology

Abstract

The creation of a resource for students who are struggling or who simply want to practice their skills, that is accessible to all, is crucial, especially during the current times of virtual learning. We have created a companion site for the Spanish Phonetics & Phonology course for all SUNY students to use, as there is no resource of its kind, that is in the target language (Spanish) and is free of cost for all students and faculty. This will be a long-lasting tool that will allow for clarification of concepts, practice with engaging virtual exercises, and many opportunities to exercise skills and learning. After students learn concepts in class, they can access the companion site to further reinforce the comprehension of content, test what they know, see diagrams, practice, and get tips from other students who have already taken the course. We use h5p plugins in order to create different types of interactive activities for students in each module, which enhance the practice and learning experience. Each module in the site follows the same structure: 1) objectives of the module, 2) a short pre-reading quiz, 3) the content of the module, used to review concepts covered in class with examples and diagrams, 4) a “tips from other students” section so that students can learn from other students who already took the course and remember some tricks that will help them when preparing for exams, 5) a section for activities and practice, and 6) a summary of what was covered in the module. Two key resources that have been crucial to the creation of the companion site are Pressbooks and Monday.com. Pressbooks is the site used to create content and interactive activities. Monday.com is a site that allows for task management, progress tracking, making comments, and for student-faculty accountability. This companion site is an Open Educational Resource (OER) and is ADA-compliant, so that all students- regardless of income and potential disability- can access it for free. This resource also falls into the category of Open Pedagogy, with our companion site being one of the few Open Pedagogy projects across the SUNY system, where content is planned and created by students under faculty supervision.