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Professor Don Hinkelman's review @Moodle.org
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WebSwami Press & News Archive
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Professor Don Hinkelman’s WebSwami Review Recently, I had a chance to participate in a demonstration of WebSwami and was very pleased to see how easy it worked on our standard equipment. Myself and several members of our EFL teaching faculty at Sapporo Gakuin University were so impressed, we decided to apply for a budget to use WebSwami during our 2010 school year. Even if we do not get that request approved, we may take you up on your offer of a student-paid hosted plan. For those of you who are considering WebSwami, here is a brief review of its strengths and weaknesses from a pedagogic and administrative point of view.
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Review of WebSwami for the Moodle LMS
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WebSwami is a video-recording and assessment management tool for web-based learning management systems. It is a commercial plugin for Moodle 1.9 that is available as either a site license for your school's Moodle server or as a per-student hosted service. It is particularly optimized for second language learning but it could be used for any purpose with video-recording of student learning activities/projects.
Strengths - Over ten different speaking activities--new ones I have never seen before. For example, video-matching (listen to video-recordings and match them to other recordings). Also, students can record themselves speaking alone or in pairs and submit that as an assignment.
- Teacher recordings are easy. I can make a video podcast in seconds and have it broadcast to all the students in the class. As easy as sending a forum post.
- The teacher feedback screen is incredibly easy. You can give individual coaching and feedback to students with a point-and-click interface. I do lots of recording of student speeches but never actually upload, assess and return them to students because of the time-consuming management required with digital cameras/camcorders. WebSwami cuts the time factor for handling and assessing each student to seconds, not minutes. I estimate it is 20x or 30x faster than manual handling of files.
- Students' faces are clearly recorded, so the non-verbal aspects of communication can be judged.
- Recording quality was excellent. It works on standard webcams and microphones. I tested it on our low resolution, US$20 Buffalo webcams and experienced no problems. Not HD quality, but we don't need that.
- Server software cost is low if you install on your own server (using Wowza--an alternative to the expensive Flash Media Server)
- Hardware costs are low. No special CALL equipment--just a computer with internet. For a 25 seat blended learning room (25 desk/chairs, 25 networked computers along the wall), it cost us US$750 to add standard webcams and microphones.
Concerns - Requires thoughtful re-design of your courses to include more speaking activities (actually this is an advantage, but teacher time to re-design will be necessary initially)
- For classroom-based activities a blended learning space (computers in your classroom) or a computer laboratory with webcams and microphones are necessary. Otherwise, students can access the site 24/7 from home and make recordings whenever convenient for them.
- Teacher training is necessary. I estimate about a two hour session will orient teachers to all the possible functions of WebSwami.
Overall Assessment - This is the most innovative learning module for Moodle on the market now. It generated instant excitement among teachers who were hungry for tools that enhance oral communication. Too much of CALL software and most LMS modules just deal with written communication. It is also the most well-refined interface and smoothly operating web-learning tool I have experienced.
With my strongest recommendation,
Don Hinkelman
Associate Professor, Sapporo Gakuin University
Moderator, Moodle for Language Teaching Community
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