--- 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....