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May 2004, Week 2

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From:
LLTI-Editor <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 13 May 2004 15:37:39 EDT
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--- Forwarded Message from "Peter Yang" <[log in to unmask]> ---

>From: "Peter Yang" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: "'Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum'"
<[log in to unmask]>
>Cc: "'Peter Yang'" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: CAN-8 Users, please help with this survey...
>Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 17:14:31 -0400
>Thread-index: AcQ4R6N+6WLZPGwfSaasl2f6me5UXwAGuXWA
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>

Sorry, my email address was not on the survey. It is [log in to unmask] Please
use this survey with my email address. Thanks!


Dear All CAN-8 Users,

The following comments were compiled from CAN8USERS listserv messages and a
small number of responses to a previous survey conducted on that listserv.
To gain a more accurate, updated picture of the CAN-8, responses from more
CAN-8 users are necessary. Would you please take a few minutes and answer
"Yes" or "No" to each of the following statements?

Please email your response to this survey--as soon as possible--to my
private email address ([log in to unmask]) instead of to LLTI.


I really appreciate it!


Peter

**************************************************************************
Yes or No?

1. Please comment on the following reported strong points. Are you
comfortable with all these statements?

.     Very useful for computerized drills and tests;
.     Instant reinforcement;
.     Automatic scoring for multiple choice;
.     Fill-in-the-blank and true/false questions;
.     Access from different locations, etc.;
.     Foreign characters are easily typed using American keyboards;
.     The audio quality is good;
.     "Authoring" is easy;
.     If there is a power failure or some other disturbance, students will
only lose the responses that they are making when the power goes off.  Each
question is saved to the server as the student goes from it to another
question;
.     You can change the way a test is taken (in order, random, or
menu-driven), even while students are taking the test! This has helped us,
when students exited a test that was in sequential mode and could not get
back in to answer questions that they'd skipped;
.     You can import images, sound, video, etc., to create a multimedia
drill, test, etc.;
.     The tracker enables you to instantly see how all the students are
doing on the test, question by question.  This can help instructors teach
more effectively;
.     Within the virtual lab, several instructors can be working with
students at the same time;
.     The tracker helps steamline the task of listening to and grading oral
work;
.     CAN-8 seems to be revised continually;
.     The representatives do listen to instructors' and lab directors'
requests, and implement improvements when they can.

2. Please comment on the following reported shortcomings and down sides from
Lab manager's, instructors' and students' perspectives. Do you still/also
have these problems?

.     MATERIALS: Destinos, French in Action, and many others programs,
including ESL titles are listed as available in CAN-8. When given the list
of materials, faculty and staff members at my institution were under the
impression that we would have the oral/aural exercises in CAN-8 format.  We
could just make assignments for the students to complete.  This is not the
case. Rather, it means that we can have the audio track digitized in the
CAN-8 format, only.  We still have to author all the screens: instructions,
drills, questions, etc, and add the part of the audio track that is needed.
We'd been told we could get or purchase ESL programs, and have asked
repeatedly to be able to preview some. We have waited throughout the entire
academic year, and still have nothing to look at;
.     We are unable to use the SCAN-DV to distribute video;
.     We get an error message when getting into the menu item. Initially,
the problem lay in our ATI software.  We've replaced that, and it seems to
do everything it should be able to do.  CAN-8 has sent an upgraded version
to its software and some other modifications, too.  However, between the
CAN-8 vendors and our IT Dept, we have not yet solved this problem. I do not
know where the fault lies;
.     We cannot print from the program.  We would like to be able to print
the tracker info, reports and essays from the program.  The newest version
of CAN-8 lets you print these things from the program.  However, when we
try, we get an error message: "Printer does not support stretchblts". We
have a new HP laser printer.  Because this does not work, to print the info
we have to use the PrintScreen option, trim and resize the image and then
paste it into Word.  This takes a lot of time!
.     Graphics can be used, but in a very limited manner, as CAN8 only
accepts a very small sized image;
.     So far we have not been able to use video on a CAN8 page;
.     We are unable to use SCAN-DV to distribute video;
.     For teachers having more than one class at the same level, the
function "OWN STUDENT" in a tracker shows the students of all those classes
in a random order, instead of in individual classes separately;
.     You have to "author" everything you use in CAN-8. Nothing exists in
that format.  If, after we have gone to the trouble of creating hundreds of
files to use with a particular textbook, the instructor changes texts, there
will be nothing, again, to use as resources;
.     The templates do not allow for changes in image size, placement of
objects;
.     You cannot create a single screen (question) that gives a written
stimulus or question and allows for a written response.  In "W" screens
(that solicit a written response from the student), only images or sound
will appear in the test or drill.  Instructors at our institution want to
include written questions that solicit written responses;
.     We cannot have a random selection (of 25 questions) from a test (of
100).  We can have the entire test be random, giving the students all the
questions from a particular test in random order;
.     Clunky interface. We were surprised when CAN8 came out with the
January  2003 upgrade and didn't make the interface more user-friendly.  In
fact, we hardly felt that the upgrade did much of anything to make the
program better;
.     Constant training;
.     Cost of licensing and maintenance.

3.  Other problems

.     We could not access the help files.  The link led to an address that
did not have them;
.     We could not assign a single member of a class to a quiz; it had to be
the entire class, or no one.  This gave access to other classmates who could
look at the quiz in advance;
.     Instructors have had last-minute problems in setting up a class
(without being a Master user, there are many administrative functions that
an instructor cannot use);
.     We experience frequent, annoying computer freezes while working in
CAN8, most often with the S (Simultaneous) screens, especially when 2 or
more people are using the system;
.     Babilon doesn't work correctly in our lab-once there are more than two
or three users in a group, the sound is garbled. We could not use Babilon.
We were unable to get the first screen to come up and we had no sound.

4. Explanations and other comments.

If you want to explain any of your above answers or make more comments, feel
free to do so here....

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