TESOL '98

Ergonomic and task-based CALL room design

Case Study: English Language Institute

at Oregon State University

Deborah Healey

ELI/Oregon State University, 301 Snell Hall, Corvallis OR 97331

Deborah.Healey@orst.edu; http://ucs.orst.edu/~healeyd/

Background

• 1987: four separate labs: Reading Lab in Waldo Hall, Computer Lab with Apple IIes in Education Hall, "Little Lab" for checking out listening materials in Extension Annex, and Kidder Lab in Kidder Hall for group listening work (traditional Sony language lab)

  The first two were scheduled to be taken over by other departments and the third was in a building scheduled for demolition; fewer and fewer teachers were using the Sony lab except for video playback.

Planning

• Teacher involvement from the beginning
• IDL Task Force - 5 people who met for six months to research the concept of a self-directed learning center with a teacher as facilitator, design the ideal setup, and lobby the university for space

Decision points

• Shared with another department?
• Types of classes likely to be scheduled into the space
• Integrated media or separated?
• Teacher or student worker?
• Budget

Implementation

• We could fill the space ourselves with our classes, so we didn't want to share the space
• All writing classes and grammar classes would have one hour per week in the Learning Center; a computer class to introduce students to basic business applications would be offered; all students would have a required three hour/week "Individualized Directed Learning" class
• Integrated media - students should be able to move freely, using whatever medium best fit their needs
• Teacher as facilitator with student workers to check out material and help with computer problems
• Budget - $100,000 would remodel the space (including a former abattoir), wire it, add carpeting, and buy lab furniture, 15 Macintoshes, and software.

CALL Room use

• Teacher-led activity - students need to be able to see the teacher and an image projected from the teacher's computer
• Pair activity - need room for two chairs at each computer
• Individual activity - one student to a computer, room for books, place to clip a sheet of paper to type from
• Activity with an assistant - need room to move around to help students

CALL Room layout

• Computers around outside of room and tables for writing in middle (see a room plan)
• Swivel chairs
• Book storage space on shelves below the desks
• Wheelchair access

Changes

• Required move - the university paid for the move and further remodeling; slightly more space and more interesting design - more windows, fewer tall walls
• Upgrading equipment to LC 575s, PowerPCs; added memory, 2GB hard drives to LC 575s; upgrading is an ongoing process
• Current hardware:

  15 Macintosh LC575s and PowerPC 1600s with System 7.5 (one with a DOS card and SoftWindows), 20MB RAM, 2GB hard drives; 1 Pentium 133 with Windows 95, 12X CD, 16MB RAM, 2GB hard drive; 1 Apple IIe, 5 Mac SEs

  CD-ROM drives on all computers except Mac SEs, Apple II, and one PowerPC

  Appleshare file server for some programs (8150, RAID)

  Word, HyperCard, Netscape on each computer

  Wall-mount cabling

• Communication Station addition - university grant to buy an AV Mac, a Windows machine, and pronunciation software

Current thoughts

• Need to consider shift in operating system - next computers will probably be Windows, so that we can offer both platforms
• Teacher vs student worker - still under discussion
• IDL as a required class for all levels vs elective for some - it's an elective in summer
• Number of open hours - needs to be appropriate to the number of students
• Printing constraints - restricting printing from Netscape; teaching students to save web pages as text and printing selectively to reduce waste

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