 Hello, this presentation introduces you to the teaching, learning and assessment concept used in the Virtual Linguistics Campus online classes. Studying online means from anywhere at any time without any in-class meetings. The backbone of our online teaching concept are the VLC classes. The following classes are regularly offered as online classes on the Virtual Linguistics Campus. The Linguistics classes introduction to linguistics, phonetics, phonology and transcription, morphology and syntax, semantics and pragmatics and varieties of English. And then we have some classes in web technology, HTML and CSS basics and multimedia on the web. All these classes are offered twice per year. Our spring term classes start on the 1st of March and end on the 31st of May. And our fall term classes start on the 1st of September and end on the 30th of November. That is, within these periods the content of a class should be mastered. Let us now illustrate how this works on the basis of the phonetics, phonology and transcription class. Before we start however, we have to register. Now registration is really simple. You first of all load the VLC homepage www.linguistics-online.com. And once you're there, you can create your free account. All you have to do is click on the button create account then an interactive form would be displayed where you have to add your personal details including a password of your choice. After your account has been created, log in with your personal data and then you can go to the VLC registration office where you can register for one or several classes via a few mouse clicks. After you submitted your class registration, you will receive an invoice via email. Details about the transfer of the fees will be included in that email. You can either pay via transfer or credit card. Once the fees appear on our account or we receive your credit card details, you will be admitted to your class or even several classes and you can use the class or classes after login. When you log in, you will first see your personalized VLC start site. On this start site, you have permanent access to many other options such as the VLC toolbox or the VLC e-lecture library and so on and so forth. These options are available for all VLC community members irrespective of whether they have registered for a class or not. Furthermore, you have additional options that concern your account and your profile. Most importantly, however, you will see the classes for which you have registered. In our case, the online class phonetics, phonology and transcription. And a simple mouse click on the class name leads you to the class start site. On the class start site, you have several links that inform you about general class related aspects. You can obtain information about the class fees. You can order the workbook. You find details about your instructor. You will be informed about the content of the class by means of a short YouTube video. You will find information about the requirements and certification of the class and last but not least, you will be able to access a short list of dates and deadlines that are relevant for your class. Central to each class, however, are the units. Each class consists of a predefined number of units in the case of this class. We have one introductory unit and 12 e-learning units. The introductory unit is mainly a textual repetition of what I'm explaining in this video. The e-learning units contain the content of the class. After class activation, the current unit, that is, the unit in the current focus is marked red. So let's assume the unit phonetics is currently in focus. The other units, of course, are accessible too, but the red indicator means that this is what you should, if you have the time, do next. All units are represented as hyperlinks that open their unit start site. Let us illustrate this on the basis of the first unit of the phonetics phonology and transcription class, phonetics. Here is the corresponding unit start site. All e-learning units on the virtual linguistics compass have the same structure as far as their unit start site is concerned. Thus, they have the same navigation menu on the left. The link introduction in this menu refers to the start screen where the central goals, the main topics, and sometimes even a central definition relevant for the content of the unit are listed. The introduction is always displayed when you load a class start site. The virtual session is the heart of an e-learning unit. It represents the content. So a click on virtual session opens a new site, which contains the content of a unit. We'll do that in a second. If you click on worksheet, an interactive exercise that is presented and evaluated by the computer will be shown. And the link practical loads a set of questions and tasks about the virtual session that are associated with model solutions. And if you want to contact your instructor about a particular problem, use the feedback link. Let us look at these main components of an e-learning unit in detail. Here is the virtual session for the unit phonetics. The virtual sessions are for you. They supply you with highly interactive multimedia content. Shall we look at an example? I think I have one. Well, here you see an animation which explains and illustrates to you the glottalic, aggressive airstream. In each virtual session, you find a link to an e-lecture that can also be seen independently on YouTube. Here is the e-lecture that goes with the unit phonetics. A simple click on the link loads the e-lecture. Articulatory phonetics studies how speech sounds are produced. OK, that'll do. As a special service for VLC community members, you can also access the board content that was generated on the active board by Promethean behind me during the production of the respective e-lecture. So a click on the link, IWB nodes, interactive whiteboard nodes, load this content, and this here is the link for the e-lecture. Well, and then there are additional exercises that can be loaded via the interactive tutor. The central question you might ask yourselves at this point, how do I study all this? Well, essentially you go through the virtual session where you can use a set of guiding questions for help, where you can watch an e-lecture, that is a video that summarizes the virtual session content, but also focuses on aspects that are of particular interest. And last but not least, you should try to answer the questions and solve the tasks presented by the interactive tutor. And the important point is, there is no pressure. You can do everything as often as you like, and wherever you like. And once you're ready with the virtual session and you feel confident about its content, well then you tackle the worksheet and do the practical. So let's do that. Leave the virtual session and go back to the unit start site. Before we look at the worksheet, however, let us say something general about the VLC assessment principles. First assessment on the virtual linguistics campus is carried out electronically. We have the worksheets, that is, little electronic tests which are not graded, but which students have to pass. We have the graded worksheets where the computer not only presents the task but also evaluates and grades it. And we have the e-exams where several tests are combined to a complex electronic exam which has to be done within a limited period of time. In an additional video, the VLC assessment strategy will be explained in detail, so I can leave it with that at this point. Further assessments depend on the organization of a class and, of course, on the number of participants in it. And these assessments may involve analysis, tasks, projects, term papers, etc. Let us look at the worksheet, the ungraded worksheet for the unit phonetics. Now worksheets are important prerequisites for the certification of the class. In each VLC online class you have to do as many worksheets as there are e-learning units in the case of our class 12. More worksheets can be accessed via the link worksheet on the unit start site. The worksheets are structured in such a way that they take up the content of the virtual session and the e-lecture of a unit and ask some randomly chosen questions about it. Worksheets are not graded but only have to be passed. If you do not pass them in a first attempt, don't worry, you can try as often as you like and no one will notice. Only if you pass a worksheet and the submit window turns up, then you can submit the result via this button and your successful attempt will be stored in the VLC database and your class instructor will know about your success. You will also receive a confirmation via email. Graded worksheets are electronic tests where you only have one attempt and the computer will evaluate your performance and generate a grade. They are more complex than simple worksheets. They may involve e-tests such as phonemic transcription selection tasks etc. They may even be connected with an external data sheet and additional questions as input tasks and so on. Graded worksheets can be submitted at any time during or at the end of a test. A simple click on the submit button will do the job. Well in this case I would recommend not to submit the worksheet and click on no because as it says over here you have currently only analyzed three or fifteen sentences. So the result will not be very good. The final option of an e-learning unit are the so-called practicals. Now each e-learning unit is connected with a practical sheet where additional questions have to be solved. These questions which are also part of the optional workbook are paired with model solutions that can be retrieved according to a predefined rhythm. Whenever the red indicator you remember the one I moved to the unit phonetics whenever this red indicator on the class start site moves on you have access to the practical model solution of its predecessors and then you will see these little symbols and by means of a simple mouse click you can access the model solutions. Now the model solution to a question or a problem can be a textual explanation, a diagram, a picture or a short video that explains the problem. Instead of printing out the hypertext of a virtual session which is possible, students often prefer to have the content of a class in print. That's why many classes are connected with a so-called workbook. The workbook contains the textual content of the virtual sessions of a class in a non-hypertext format and it contains a number of empty slots and boxes which have to be filled with the online content. For this reason our workbooks use a special system of symbols indicating where the online material can be found. In the glossary, in the language index, in the VIP index and so on and so forth. The most important of these symbols is this one. It tells you that you have to supplement the missing information in the workbook with the online content. In other words, the workbook makes you work, allows you to add notes and is not just a reader. It is an efficient additional method of studying on the VLC for those learner types that do not like reading text on screen. So studying on the VLC simply means go through each e-learning unit at your own pace. Study the virtual sessions using the guiding questions. Watch the corresponding e-lecture video. Use the tests in the interactive tutor and optionally supplement your workbooks with the missing information. And when you've understood it all, submit the worksheet and answer the questions on the practical sheet. And once the unit is no longer the current unit, look at the model solutions and compare them with yours. And if you wish, you can discuss further problems using the class-related message board, the class-related forum, which is open for all registered users of your class. And at the end you will write an e-exam, which consists of a combination of e-tests to be solved within a limited amount of time. And if you pass the exam, and I'm sure you will, well, then you will be sent the official class certificate signed by your class instructor. So somewhere here, your class instructor will sign, including a transcript of the class content. The requirements for receiving the certificate are class dependent. For each class you have to pass the worksheets, some graded worksheets, and an e-exam. And what about the role of the class instructor? Well, first of all, the class instructors on the Virtual Linguistics Campus are all professional linguists or teachers with a profound background in web technology. In an online class, however, we do not teach. Rather, we supervise your activities. We try to motivate you to do your tasks in time, and we make sure that everyone is served as well as possible. And from time to time, we check the class-related message board to look at your questions and your threads. We do not use standard social media in order to keep the discussion straight, topic, and class-related. Well, and what does it cost? Well, not very much. We charge 50 euros for the registration at the University of Marburg. These registration fees give you the status of an online guest student at our university. They only have to be paid once per term, irrespective of how many classes you take. For the classes themselves, we charge 15 euros per credit. The credits are awarded in accordance with the European Credit Transfer System, that is, one credit is the equivalent of 30 hours workload. So, for a four credit class, such as phonetics, phonology, and transcription, the fees are 50 euros for the registration at Marburg University, 6 euros for the four credits, and that of course is a total of 110 euros. And what do you get for your fees? Well, you get classes that are quality-assured and up-to-date, classes that combine all modern digital media, classes that support each learner type most efficiently, learners who prefer textual material, learners who enjoy watching video material, and learners who like using interactive multimedia. So, we invite you to join us in one or several of our online classes. The material that has been created by the Marburg Linguistic Engineering Team and a large number of helpful linguists is there. The rest is up to you. We are waiting for your registration. Until then, have a good time.