The FAVOR Project
LLAS has been funded by JISC to lead The FAVOR (Find a Voice through Open Resources) project. The Project will showcase the excellent and often unrecognised work of part-time, hourly-paid language teachers in HE, and engage them in activities which will enhance the student experience. Tutors will publish teaching resources as open content, and create a suite of new Open Educational Resources designed to assist prospective students in understanding the nature of language study at HE level. Outputs will be disseminated to schools and evaluated by prospective and existing students and will contribute to the national agenda for the promotion and support of language learning.
Timescale
October, 2011 - October, 2012
Key contact(s):
Kate Borthwick, Project Manager LLAS
Funded by:
The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) OER Phase 3 programme
Project partners:
Aston University, Newcastle University, SOAS, University of Southampton, UCL SSEES
Project aims:
a) to engage part-time, hourly-paid language teaching staff from 5 different institutions across the UK, in the release of a significant number of teaching resources related to the study of languages in Higher Education in the UK, as open content for use and re-use.
b) to draw on the experience of this group in working with students at ab initio (beginners) level and in the early stages of HE language learning to create a suite of repurposable digital resources which will support tutors and pupils in the decision-making process of university applicants considering the study of languages, and additional resources for prospective university students on the nature of language study at higher level in the UK including other aspects of preparation for study such as online learning and digital literacy
c) to raise awareness of the work of part-time tutors within their own institutions and the wider academic community and enhance their professional profiles
d) to train and upskill part-time tutors enabling them to make a real and valuable contribution to their institution’s strategic aims, and that of the wider language teaching community e) to establish an online community which can offer mutual and ongoing support for the development and sharing of language teaching materials
Links:
JISC : www.jisc.ac.uk
JISC profect web pages : http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/ukoer3/favor.aspx
The LanguageBox online repository www.languagebox.ac.uk
Further resources available on our website:
The FAVOR project builds on previous projects led by LLAS, including the HumBox project and the Community Café project. LLAS has long-standing experience of working with language tutors to support teaching and learning in higher education.
