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No conclusions have been drawn about the usefulness of this material as a teaching aid, as it was not within the scope of this project to measure this. No control group was set up and students were not asked to write letters before and after consultation of the material. Furthermore it was not possible to distinguish which letters had been written with the help of the website. In the interest of getting frank replies, especially from those who had not visited the site, the questionnaires were completed anonymously.
Ease of access
The takeup was small, as only about half the students decided to use the pages. By far the most common reason for this was not the expected excuse “I don’t like computers” but “I did not have time”. The perception that use of the Web is more time-consuming, when the whole point of the exercise is to create a more convenient and easily accessed resource, seemed at first especially disappointing. I believe, however, that the “lack of time” excuse does not mean lack of time to look at the pages but lack of time to get to a computer. Once on campus access to computers is easy in the Foreign Language Centre’s self-access centre. Other conversations with students about the use of the centre, however, suggests that many of them prefer to take materials away and study at home, and that they are not in the habit of working on campus.
Ease of use
The score for ease of use of the pages was high and there were no negative comments on this subject. This would reinforce the conclusion that low takeup is not related to the ease of use of the pages but ease of access to computers.
Usefulness and relevance of the material
There is clearly a demand for this type of material. All students said that they had already needed to write letters of this type (although the questionnaire did not ask them to specify whether they had needed to do it as a school exercise or “for real”), and all thought that it would be useful for their year abroad. Comments focused on the need for expansion of the material.
Such sets of sample correspondance are, of course, widely available in book form, but the website does provide an option which is free at the point of use and readily accessible (once the student is in front of a computer, see above).
Efficiency
The material has clear benefits in terms of efficient use of staff and student time. It is as concise and easily understood as a paper handout, and has saved an hour of class time explaining and talking about how to write letters (which some students know about already). Class time can then be used for feedback and concentration on any points causing difficulty. It also encourages students in the skills of navigating the site and selecting the material they need.
Suggestions for improvement
The material could usefully be expanded. A list of “building blocks” in the form of a list of standard phrases which could be combined to suit any situation is an obvious need, and several different letters on the same subject would be useful (perhaps accessible from one of the main letters as a second layer to maintain ease of navigation about the site).
Cost
The sample correspondance was not extremely time-consuming to prepare and as the website is not complicated no extra technical assistance was required to put the material on the Web. Once on the Web it provides a cost-effective alternative to paper copying of the same material.
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