Abstract—Many electronic platform packages are intended for self-study and marketed as complete learning solutions; however, little is known about how well they work or under what conditions they should be used. This article reports on a study conducted at the Taxandria cvo Turnhout that explores the way adult learners use Smartschool – in Belgium a popular, commercially available, technology-mediated electronic learning environment. The Taxandria cvo Turnhout uses this electronic platform for more than five years in blended language learning classes for professional French. The participating adults from different Belgium companies agreed to use this program according to manufacturer’s usage guidelines and to complete regular assessments to document their language proficiency throughout their sixty hours courses. The most striking finding was a significant participant attrition towards the evaluation process, which was likely due to a variety of technological difficulties as well as the lack of sufficient support for autonomous learning in the workplace. This lack of compliance with self-study suggests that despite the logistical ease of providing an electronic platform as Smartschool for blended language learning, more resource-intensive types of language training are more likely to be effective.
Index Terms—Computer-assisted language learning, blended learning, learner autonomy, online teaching and learning.
The authors are with the Department of Adult Education, Turnhout, Belgium (email: gert.hurkmans@cvoturnhout.be, linda.goos@cvoturnhout.be).
Cite: Gert Hurkmans and Linda Goos, "The Use of Smartschool as an Electronic Platform for Blended Language Learning," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 110-112, 2013.