Faculty Grants

Fall 2022
Implementing PBL in advanced Chinese course where students select and present authentic materials autonomously, alongside textbook curriculum, constituting 24% of semester grade. Addition of Think-Tac-Toe gamification element in Spring 2023, where students select tasks from a table with input/output types and cultural topics, diversifying task types and meeting individual interests.

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The use of wizer.me was explored to design and share interactive worksheets with Spanish language students in the third and fourth semesters. The app incorporated a variety of text and media in visually stimulating ways, including written and recorded instructions, student recordings, labeled images, and drawings. The tool targeted the acquisition of vocabulary related to health, wellbeing, illness, sports, environment, culture, and politics, with students producing audio, written, and visual texts to appeal to different learning preferences.

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Gameful design was implemented in the past to address learner variability issues in Advanced Chinese language classrooms. This curriculum allowed students to personalize their learning experience by selecting tasks aligned with their goals and accumulate points. Instead of traditional grading, students leveled up their grades with a gameful design throughout the semester, promoting intrinsic motivation and a sense of achievement. With this approach, students had more opportunities to take charge of their learning and engage in deeper learning.

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This project implemented Miro, an online whiteboard, to create interactive online learning activities in a hybrid class. As virtual teaching became more prominent due to current circumstances, Miro was used to transform in-person activities into online ones. The project proposed creating, assigning, and assessing activities that integrate the four basic language skills through Miro and incorporating it into existing learning platforms like Blackboard.

In this project, songs were used to improve verbal and written output among students. A song was chosen for every chapter of the course to reinforce vocabulary and grammar from the textbook. The project focused on reading comprehension of lyrics and analyzing cultural meanings in the song. Students were asked to create their own stanzas and to use free online software such as GarageBand to create a song related to a Latin American or Spanish cultural, political, or social topic. This project encouraged creative writing and verbalization in an innovative way.

During the Spring 2022 semester, a working group was led by Professor Mesrobian to discuss ungrading as a more effective approach to student learning than traditional grading methods. The group met monthly to explore different ungrading models and practices, as well as modify an existing course syllabus or create a new one to incorporate ungrading elements. Ungrading was also implemented in the professor’s Spanish 260 course, where students were encouraged to find internal motivation to learn through self-reflection and assessment, and meaningful feedback from the professor. The effectiveness of this approach was evaluated through student self-reflections and surveys.