Hi Derek,

Some of our faculty who have adopted TalkAbroad are dropping supplemental
textbooks in order to keep student materials costs reasonable. TalkAbroad
recommends five conversations per semester, which would be $50 per student.
I'm a little unclear how you are calculating the $160?

Our take on it is that this provides an enormous amount of communicative
material. Each conversation is preceded by an assignment designed to focus
on the planned topic and scaffold the student's participation, then the
conversation itself, followed by a detailed review -- by the student and
sometimes by the instructor -- of the recording of the conversation,
culminating in a written assignment in which the student touches on
questions raised by the conversation, new language learned in connection
with the conversation, cultural information gleaned from the conversation,
regrets about the conversation, etc. What I am hearing from faculty is that
students are willing to do this reflective step with great rigor and
energy, and this is where some "teachable moments" present themselves.

I probably sound like  a shill for TalkAbroad. I'm not on their payroll,
but I have drunk the Koolaid.

Let me just say that I met Todd Nichols at either ACTFL or IALLT about
seven years ago, and I came back to Harvard and asked a few faculty if they
might like to try TalkAbroad, which was then new, but nothing ended up
happening. Then last year, we were able to get a few faculty on board, and
it has burst like fireworks. I am kicking myself for not promoting it more
aggressively to our faculty when I first learned about it. People had
legitimate concerns: "Well, it costs money, and ideally we'd able to set up
partnerships with other universities in target-language countries so it
wouldn't be commercial." And in fact, our Portuguese language program has a
very successful partnership arrangement going with Brazilian universities
under "Teletandem."  But, in my experience, aside from the very successful
and well-organized Teletandem program, these partnerships are generally
very high-maintenance and do not last long. They tend to be based on the
efforts and energies of a single dynamic faculty member on each side, and
when faculty move on, the programs unravel. It's unfortunate that it works
this way, but this is the struggle that makes TalkAbroad excellent value,
in my judgment. They do the legwork, train the conversation partners,
supervise the interactions, troubleshoot technical issues, and provide
ongoing continuity. These are all the things I do not have the staffing or
cycles to do myself. Furthermore, the cost of doing it ourselves
"non-commercially" would undoubtedly be much higher, considering the high
cost of personnel, at least here in the Boston area.

My two cents.

Thom


On Thu, May 17, 2018 at 11:30 AM, Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I hope that some of the people using TalkAbroad will comment on how you
> integrate the cost into your educational program.  The lowest price I found
> listed on the website is $10 per student for a 30-minute session.  That
> seems reasonable to me from the value perspective, but using it once per
> week would add ~$160 per student to the cost of the class.  This would be a
> challenging cost increase for many programs and students.  However, cutting
> the number of sessions decreases the advantages.  I’d love to read more
> about the practical choices that you have made, to make Talk Abroad work in
> your language classes.
>
> Derek
>
> Derek Roff
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
> On May 16, 2018, at 1:19 PM, Hammond, Thomas <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> We have just completed a year-long pilot of TalkAbroad here at Harvard,
> and it has been very well received by students and faculty alike.
>
> I have been impressed with the speed and helpfulness of their support,
> both for our faculty and students and for my Center's team when some small
> issues arose with prepaid subscription codes, etc. We are adopting
> TalkAbroad full-steam ahead now that the pilot has been completed, and
> based on the "buzz" from faculty who participated in the pilot, I have
> received a number of queries from other language groups. They are just
> rolling out the option of shorter conversations (10 minutes, I believe),
> which might provide a very useful start for beginning-level students.
> Couldn't be happier with the program or the company.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Thom
>
> --
> Thomas Hammond, Director
> The Language Center, Harvard University
> Lamont 430, Harvard Yard
> Cambridge, MA  02138
>
>
>