Even from several thousand miles overseas, amidst her teaching training through the U.S. Embassy and universities in Sudan, Leslie Opp-Beckman can enjoy the fruits of her labor.
Opp-Beckman, a senior instructor with the University of Oregon’s American English Institute, took the initiative to create an online distance education course for students and educators in Iraq after three global organizations asked for her help earlier this year.
Opp-Beckman developed a one-year pilot program to help students and instructors in Iraq enhance their English proficiency and technological skills with the help of other AEI instructors.
Funded by a U.S. State Department grant, the program remains free to Iraqis participating in the online course because many do not have the financial means to pay for such classes, Opp-Beckman said. After she created an Oregon-Iraq Guided Online English Studies proposal in May 2008, Opp-Beckman searched for tuition scholarship funds for interested Iraqis. GOES works in collaboration with the University of Oregon’s AEI and three organizations and institutes overseas.
“There is such a need and the various U.S. offices in Iraq were poised and ready to act,” Opp-Beckman wrote in an e-mail.
The program enrolled educators in courses on a trial basis last spring term and into the following summer. There are about 75 participants this term and the instructors expect to have at least that many next term as well.
For nearly 10 years, the University’s AEI has provided online distance education courses for groups of English language educators, Opp-Beckman said. Any time participants write to tell how much of a difference the program has made in their life, Opp-Beckman said she takes comfort in assessing the program’s success.
“We are really happy to have this opportunity for UO and AEI,” Opp-Beckman wrote. “We are learning a lot about the people there, especially the teachers. It’s extra hard for some of them because not everyone in their communities supports working with U.S.-affiliated projects. We have lost people from the courses due to negative pressure they have received locally (in Iraq). We hope over time to be able to further strengthen ties at both institutional and personal levels.”
Robert Elliott, a University AEI instructor with the GOES program, said he hopes the program will make something positive out of all the chaos in Iraq. He said the program has already benefitted numerous educators who were stuck with ineffective, poor quality teaching materials from the “Saddam Hussein era.” .
“It was like the dark ages of language teaching,” Elliott said. He said much of the old material he reviewed basically asked students to regurgitate what they had read without requiring much thinking.
But Elliott said the students who remain committed to the program constantly express their gratitude for the educational opportunity. He added that the program may foreshadow the future of technology by connecting countries internationally through online global communication. Though he has never met the students enrolled in his course, Elliott said he can feel the positive effects the program creates.
“We’re helping them use technology, but it’s just as important to have contact with someone in the U.S. who cares about them,” Elliott said. “That human element is important even if it’s just knowing there’s someone who tries to help them figure out their problems.”
The GOES course teaches students and educators in three core areas: online reading circles, Rosetta Stone software and online self-study sites. The online course acts as a self-guided resource in which students determine the intensity of their workload. For example, with the online reading circles, students must choose at least one of three articles to read each week and join a discussion group to share their input for the story. The more ambitious and well-versed students often choose to read all three articles offered, responding to every one.
“Some of them are eager beavers and look at all the sites,” said Char Heitman, an AEI instructor working with Iraqi educators. “Others do one activity and that’s more than enough for them because they have to look up 20 words for one reading. They can tailor it to their interests and language levels.”
Heitman said the experience has strengthened her teaching skills by forcing her to give directions in a more digestible way. Elliott and Opp-Beckman have also taught her much about the technological aspect, including how to use a Wiki.
“Char and I have to make sure we agree on our ideas,” Elliott said. “So I thought, ‘Why not use more technology?’ So I created a Wiki. It’s nice because it matches what’s going on in the ‘classroom.’”
Opp-Beckman said in an e-mail that the program has continued to meet her goals throughout its evolution.
“It is our hope with all University of Oregon (UO) American English Institute (AEI) online distance education courses that we can provide a professional development service for English language educators outside the USA, actively engage in the process of learning about the cultures and educational systems of our colleagues in our courses, and perhaps bring the world a little closer together through the online networking process,” she wrote. “Iraq has some special circumstances, given that it has been isolated for such a long time and is the process of reconstructing in many areas – educational systems among them – due to the ongoing conflict in that country.”
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