Developing students’ judgement of their own work by comparing it to that of others

The mandatory ‘zero point’ course, Te Reo Māori Pronunciation Online had some interesting challenges for development. It was self-paced over two semesters, was fully online and had no online tutor presence prior to final assessment, so there was a need to provide ongoing self-assessment opportunities that were sufficiently engaging to keep students participating, despite the course carrying no grade.

In this course, students are presented with:

A ‘soundboard’ showing te reo vowel sounds and recordings of actors pronouncing them.
Close-up videos of the actors’ faces whilst speaking te reo sounds, alongside the ability to record their own attempts to reproduce them.

Replaying their own recordings allows students to make a comparison between their attempts and the original, professional actors’ recordings. The close-up views of the actors shows the mouth shapes involved in making each sound, with male and female versions of each sound recorded for comparison.

Lecturers commented on the usefulness of the soundboard when giving feedback on assessments – for example, the Māori sound ‘ko’ which is often spoken as an English ‘O’ (as in Oh) , but should be more like the ‘o’ in ‘ordinary’ – students could be directed back to that sound on the soundboard and encouraged to listen and repeat until they were satisfied.