SPANISH IN ACTION R EDESIGN OF F IRST Y EAR S PANISH SUNY F REDONIA Annual Enrollment: 360 Goals: reduce cost for students meeting CCC for B.A.; equalize the level of students by restricting SPAN 115 to true beginners; make more efficient use of technology; lower the faculty-student ratio.

SPAN 120: SPANISH IN ACTION-ONLINE (2 CR.) SPAN 121: SPANISH IN ACTION-I N C LASS (3 CR.) For students with 2 or more years of H.S. Spanish All grammar instruction and vocabulary drill will be completed online before coming to class. Online testing. Class devoted to communicative activities. Enrollment per section: 22 students as opposed to 30. Students will satisfy CCC Language requirement in one semester. First four chapters will be covered in one month, the rest of the semester will focus on past narrative, reflexives, and subjunctive.

REACTION OF COLLEAGUES Initial Concerns Cut personnel Large sections Replacement of teacher with online delivery Assimilation of materials at accelerated pace Instructor´s role in the classroom (if I don´t have to explain grammar, what do I do?) Credit for online work?

T URNING R ESISTANCE INTO S UPPORT Patience and discussion Open invitation to weekly proposal drafting session Open invitation to weekly course development session Meetings with Registrar, Academic Affairs Committee, Director of CCC, Academic Advising, and Associate Vicepresident Discussion with other departments Publicity – Flyers Updates given at department meeting Transparency

LEARNING MATERIALS Consulted with book representatives at conference. Adopted Nexos from Cengage, seemed to be designed for online instruction, also a lot of communicative activities, fast but not too much, not too much grammar at one point. Problems: textbook did not have as much self-grading activities online. Students have to log on in QUIA and Eduspace (this will not be the case in the Fall with ILearn). Solutions: tremendous support from publisher, meeting with the technology person. Internship course with major in Adolescence Education who helped in the day- today planning of the course.

ADVICE FOR SELECTION OF MATERIALS Familiarize yourself with exactly what is available in terms of ancillary resources. Be aware that textbooks and the technology supporting them are constantly evolving. Plan a training session for all interested instructors for a week during the summer (include a stipend in the budget). During session, allow instructors to manipulate materials as students. Ask publisher to send assistance for the first days of classes to help students log in and answer questions.

TECHNOLOGY: CHALLENGES Assistance from IT: lack of staff, we had to hire a student to install computers and software; resistance to make it a ITAB lab. Resistance from faculty who favors old technology such as cassette recorders and video monitors. Lack of training of lab staff (will have to provide training). Students not buying book and not having access to online material right away.

SURPRISES Unexpected Surprises Students´ resistance to new way of learning, expecting traditional ways, i.e. come to class and instructor imparts knowledge. Students´ lack of discipline to work online on regular basis Great Surprises Students coming to class with full command of the grammar, with not many questions, if any. Students´ performance in oral exams: ability to maintain conversation for several minutes, without any notes.