Virtual Language Lab software

Conventionally it was only possible to eavesdrop on the students. This was never very effective because the students need to listen to the material several times in order to understand it. Thus the probability of listening when a student was talking was quite small. With VLL you can review all the responses that the student has thus far made before deciding whether you need to monitor or talk to him/her.

Note that much of the effectiveness of VLL is due to the complete capture of student responses as well as the ability to eavesdrop and directly communicate with the students.

Real-time monitoring allows the teacher to eavesdrop on what any of the students are listening to or recording. A real-time conversation can then be held with the student being monitored.  This also allows the teacher to control any of the students consoles via the monitoring panel. 

Real Time Monitoring and Remote Control

Note, because VLL requires no special hardware, it can run on any Windows XP/Vista machine with a soundcard. This makes every such PC in your establishment a potential multi-media language console. You are not limited to a single room of PCs for which specialist hardware has been installed as with other commercially available systems (which are incidentally far more expensive because of that very hardware!)

This also makes VLL ideal for open access by allowing you to review student progress at some time later than when the work was undertaken.

Studetns who are using the system are displayed in various colours depending on the number of responses made. This allows the instructor to immediately target the students who are making poor progress. Clicking on any student displays the recordings that they have made as tape icons in the scrolling window on the right.  VLL captures all student responses and keeps them for as long as you want. This enables you to evaluate progress over long periods. You can ask VLL to display recordings made in any time period at all, so you can just as easily mark an exam from several weeks ago as monitor a live class.

Monitoring

VLL supports the attachment of text to any title. This text will scroll and highlight as the title advances. Text can include formatting and even pictures.

Added text and pictures

Existing material in VHS format can be transferred from an external player to the PC via use of an inexpensive TV card in one machine. No extra hardware for playing video is necessary in any other machine.

VLL is capable of playing video which, from the users perspective, operates in exactly the same way as audio, except a screen showing the video is displayed. The student simply uses all the usual tape controls and can record his own responses in the usual way. Existing video material in AVI and MPEG format can be instantly imported.

Video

Can be installed on any machine on your network which has a sound card making VLL Ideal for classroom and open access.  Student responses are stored in a centrally on your network server.  These can be marked or reviewed at any time making VLL ideal for open access. The recordings can be copied to a portable for home marking. Any multimedia machine on your network can be a VLL workstation, so you do not even need a dedicated room.  The Virtual Language Lab has a particularly easy to use interface with normal multimedia controls.

Real time student monitoring with remote control and intercom.

Scrolling text and pictures. Provides a richer learning experience. Any text and/or pictures can be attached to any audio or video title. Allowing students to check grammar for a dictation exercise, negotiate difficult phrases or fill gaps in a story.

Video facilities. Video greatly enhances the student learning experience. Videos are under full student control just as with an audio title.

All student responses are captured for analysis by the teacher at any time. You are not limited to just hearing what the students are doing at any particular time, VLL collects all the students responses for evaluation at any time, even outside of the lesson.

Much cheaper than a conventional system because VLL uses your existing PCs with no requirement for costly extra hardware.

provides similar but extended functionality to a conventional laboratory. Major benefits include:

VLL is a multimedia database application that runs on a Windows XP/Vista network and

Introduction

PC based language lab that uses the multimedia and communications of networked PCs to give the functionality of a language lab.