IMC 2011: Sessions

Anglo-Saxonists have long been at the forefront of using digital technologies to enhance both research and teaching. Software was developed in the 1980s to provide computer-assisted learning, a move quickly followed by production of electronic databases, digital facsimiles, and hypertext editions. The proliferation of web resources, such as The Electronic Introduction to Old English (Baker), Anglo-Saxon Aloud (Drout), and Old English Literature: A Hypertext Coursepack (Lee et al.) have made the study of Old English more accessible to students, even as digital access to dictionaries and glossaries have enhanced translation work. Still, few have taken the next leap across space and time: offering Old English online using course management systems like Blackboard or WebCT.

In a time of significant budget cuts for language study, teachers of Old English might want to think seriously about asynchronous teaching. It seems, therefore, a particularly good moment to consider what teaching Old English online might offer to students, to teachers, and to institutions. This round table discussion is designed for panelists to engage in a series of questions about the challenges and rewards of teaching Old English online:

• What do teachers/students gain or lose in learning Old English asynchronously?
• How do traditional methods of teaching Old English lend themselves (or not) to online learning?
• How is the study of language conducive to distance learning?
• How might a consortium of institutions sponsoring the teaching of Old English increase student numbers?
• How might a consortium of institutions generate the staff to provide Old English courses? (This idea might easily be extended to other medieval courses which are being hit hard by the economic downturn.)
• What are the problems of teaching Old English online?
• What are the challenges for students who learn Old English online?
• How might asynchronous learning enhance synchronous learning of Old English?
• How might hybrid courses, ones that use by synchronous and asynchronous learning technologies, improve the teaching of Old English?
• What are the resources currently available to make teaching Old English online possible?
• How might asynchronous teaching/learning drive more research in the field?

Participants include Martin Arnold (University of Hull), Stuart D. Lee (University of Oxford), Orla Murphy (University College, Cork), Jeremy Smith (University of Glasgow), and Veronica O'Mara (University of Hull).