Course Description
This is a Blended, Face-to-Face and online, English
for Specific Purposes, (ESP) Program for Business English, designed
for Gulf
Bank, (GB) Branch Managers aiming to improve their business
communication skills in the workplace. There are two main communication
modes throughout this course: the face-to-face mode, which will
occur inside a computer-lab, and the virtual mode that will
happen live online through a virtual classroom by Elluminate
Live! This program encourages independent learning
and collaborative work through a project-based approach of teaching
and learning. For this purpose, various synchronous and asynchronous
social
software and Computer Mediated Communication, (CMC)
media are to be incorporated for participants to create their
own webpresence, during hands-on activities.
Participants will build their own collaborative
Community of Practice, (CoP)
to explore, learn, and help each other practice different ways
of communications, including Podcasting,
Webcasting,
Blogging,
and Videoblogging.
This course will also introduce the term and concept of Multiple
Venue Presentation, (MVP), which will be practiced in week
6. At the end, (GB) Branch Managers complete building their
(CoP) online and continue
their innovative fun informal elearning
experience, together.
Instructor / Facilitator: Buthaina
Al-Othman - Contact information
Length of Course: This course begins April
16, 2006 and ends on May 25, 2006
Face-to-Face Classes: Saturday - Monday - Wednesday
(6:00 - 8:00 PM)
Venue: The Arab Planning
Institute (Awqaaf Room)
Virtual Classes: Sundays & Tuesdays (8:00 - 9:30
PM) - Thursdays (2:00 - 4:00 PM)
Virtual venue: (a link to our Elluminate vClass will
be provided soon)
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Participants will learn how to use and utilize
Internet technologies to practice oral and writing communication
skills
-
Participants will improve their business
writing ability for email, memos, and letters.
-
Participants will learn how to produce effective
short reports (individual / group-writing)
-
Participants will develop self-confidence
by communicating live online with Native English Speaker,
(NES) professionals and educators from the USA and UK
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Participants will improve their oral presentation
skills using the innovative method of blended, local and remote
MVPresentation.
-
Participants will build their collaborative
learning community or network
online to maintain and continue their independent learning
experience started in this course
Week-by-Week Outline
Week One
- April 16-20 - Guest Speaker(s): (TBA)
- Session #1 - Getting to know one another, building
our networking community, Study Skills
- Sunday, April 16: Orientation: General
introduction to the course Select topics for final group-Multiple
Venue Presentations, (MVP)
Introduce our virtual classroom, by Elluminate
Live!
Create your podcast channel at ODEO.com
- Record and podcast your audio-message - Respond to each
other's voice message
- Monday, April 17: Create your Blog
at Blogger.com
Writing and posting entries to our blogs - Posting
self-Introduction paragraphs - Skype conversation with Guest-Speaker(s)
Week Two - April 22-27
- Guest Speaker(s): (TBA)
- Session #2 - Summary Report Writing
- Saturday, April 22: Writing Summary Reports
- Reading Skills: Skimming, Scanning, Reading between
the Lines, Note-Taking, and Outlining, (see the handout)
- Sunday, April 23: Practice Reading Skills
and outlining from a Reading passage (Reading: What
Makes a Great Manager - Critical thinking skills)
- Start working on final projects:
Working and writing in groups - Collaborative writing
- Techniques and Format - Technology: Wiki - Whitesmoke)
- Monday, April 24: Memo
Writing - Format and Type - See an example
- (Grammar) - Technology: pbwiki.com/biz/
- Tuesday, April 25: Practice writing and
audio-recording an internal memo - Edit your memo, and
then post and publish it to our class ODEO channel
- Wednesday, April 26: Let's build
our ODEO community - Connect / Network Exchanging text
and voice messages - What is RSS?
What is Tagging?
Create your news
aggregator. For example, Blogline
is one of the popular ones that allows you to subscribe
to your favorite website via RSS
- Thursday, April 27: Writing and Editing
Memos - Group-discussions - Compare / Contrast between
E-mail
and Voice Mail
Week Three - April
29-May 4 - Guest Speaker(s): (TBA)
- Session #3 - Business Letter and Report Writing
- Saturday, April 29: Business Letters
- Purpose - Format - (Grammar - Vocabulary - Expressions)
writing compliment, complaint, recommendation, and persuasive
letters
Job application Letters - Follow Up Letters and Calls
- Resume (See Resources)
-
Sunday, April 30: Reporting
/ Narrating - Type - Format ( The concept of the 5Ws)
Writing brief business reports - Webcasting news reports
/ stories - Participate in a public Webcast to broadcast
your news report to global audience - (Skype "WorldBridges")
Week Four - May
6-11 - Guest Speaker(s): (TBA)
- Session #4 - Writing Summary Reports for Group
Presentations
- Saturday, May 6: Working and writing
in groups - Collaborative writing - Techniques - (Technology:
Wiki - QuickTopic - Whitesmoke)
- Sunday, May 7: Plan, Organize, Outline
the information you collected, based on your topic selected
in Week 1
- Monday, May 8 : Group Reports: (First Draft)
- Proofreading - Techniques - (Grammar)
- Tuesday, May 9: Organizing, managing effective
group-work - Hints - Techniques
- Wednesday May 10: Use interviews
, search engines, like Google.com to tap more information
Techniques - (Grammar)
- Thursday, May 11: Utilize and organize
your own resources collected through or stored in your Web
Tools, like http://del.icio.us/,
blogs / e-Notebooks,
e-Calendars,
ODEO channels - Learn how
to manage time and information to use for your final group-projects
Week Five - May
13-18 - Guest Speaker(s): (TBA)
- Session #5 - Making Group-Presentations & Selecting
Mode of Delivery
- Saturday, May 13: Writing and sending
invitation email - Group Reports: (Final Draft) - Content
- Proofreading - Techniques (Technology: Using WhiteSmoke)
- Sunday, May 14: Outline - Structure
- Design templates for your final presentations - Design
effective slides, graphs, and visuals for your presentations
- Be creative - Integrate links / audio / video in your
presentations -Techniques, Technology, (More on PowerPoint)
- Monday, May 15: Put Your Heads Together
- Decide
on a strategy to deliver your 30 minutes presentations
- Modes of Presentation: Face-to-Face / Online / Multiple
Venue, (MVP) - Techniques and Tips! (time and people management
- Handling technology)
- Tuesday, May 16: Rehearse
your part with your group members - Mode: MVP - Oral
Skills- Common Sense Skills: What works and what doesn't
work?
- Wednesday, May 17: Rehearsal (1) Groups
1 & 2
- Thursday, May 18: Rehearsal (1) Groups 3
& 4
Week Six
- May 20-25 - Guest Speaker(s): (TBA)
- Session #6 - Delivering Final Group Multiple Venue
Presentations, (MVP)
- Saturday, May 20: MVPresentation
by Groups 1& 2 - (Peer Evaluation: Groups 3 & 4
use evaluation forms to provide constructive feedback to
Groups 1& 2)
- Sunday, May 21: MVPresentation b Groups
3 & 4 (Peer Evaluation: Groups 1 & 2 use evaluation
forms to provide constructive feedback to Groups 3 &
4)
- Monday, May 22: Trainer and Program Evaluation
/ Survey,( face-to-face and online)
- Tuesday, May 23: Open group discussions on the
social software integrated in this program and other topics
selected by the participants
- Wednesday, May 24: TBA
- Thursday, May 25: TBA
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