Chapter 4: Practical guidelines on the use of the WebCEF online

assessment environment
Main Authors
John Osborne (Universit de Savoie)
Ludo Mateusen (Euneos)
Antje Neuhoff (T.U.Dresden)
Chris Valentine (Open University UK)

Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Registration
Logging on
Changing the interface
language
Viewing samples
Assessing a sample
Making an assessment
Adding annotations
Overall comments
Time-specific comments
Publishing your assessment

6.

Making and uploading your

own samples
Recording a video file
Editing a recording
Uploading a sample
Recording with FlashVlog
Uploading FlashVlog files
Editing the metadata
Publishing a sample

7.
8.

9.

Creating a new task

Creating and managing groups
User roles in WebCEF
Creating a new group
Adding a new member
Existing WebCEF user
Using the edit function
User without a WebCEF
account

Registration
Users cannot register themselves on the Assessment tool - they have to request an account via
one of the project partners.
Once an account has been created, the new user will receive an email containing the URL to view.
On their first visit, they should enter their email address and click the "email" button to request a
new (random) password, which will be sent via email. They can then use that password to log in
and, if required, change their password to something more memorable.
It is suggested that you avoid copying and pasting either email or password from Microsoft Excel
as doing so will sometimes include hidden characters, preventing the login from working

Logging on
Go to the following address:
http://webcef.open.ac.uk
Enter your email address and password

When you have logged in, you will be taken to the "home" page, where you will see a box like the
one below, listing the things that you can do.

Note: the pages you see may differ slightly from the screenshots shown here, depending on your
"user role" in WebCEF. This is explained in more detail in section 8.
By default, when you first log in, the interface will be in English. If you prefer to work in another
language, follow the steps described in the next section. Otherwise, go on to section 3.

Changing the interface language

On the home page, click on "Manage Groups". You will see a page like the one below.
If you do not see "Manage Groups" on your home page, click on "User Account" instead, and you
will be taken directly your "User Details".

Click on "edit your user account". This will open a page entitled "User Details". Scroll down until
you see the box called "interface language". Click on the
arrow to open the drop-down
menu, and choose your preferred language from the list. At the moment, the following languages
are available:

Scroll right down to the bottom of the page and click on the "update" button. The new interface
language will become active the next time you log in. If you want it to become active
immediately, you will therefore need to log out and log in again. You can change the interface
language again at any time, by following the same procedure.

Viewing samples
Return to the "home" page (if you are not there already) and click on "My Mentor Groups" or
"My Student Groups". You will now see a list of the groups that you belong to. As a new user, you
will probably only see one group listed in this box. In the lower half of the page, there will be a
second, larger box headed "Other mentor groups", which you can ignore for the moment. In the
top box, click on the name of your group. You will see a list of samples available in the group, in
a table like the one below:

This simple example shows a group where just one sample has been published. The table gives the
following information:

column 1: gives the title of the sample (given by the person who uploaded it; see later on how
to do this).
column 2: gives the name of the student who was recorded or of the teacher who made the
recording (there is an option to hide the student's name; that is why in this example
"Anonymous" appears in column 2).
column 3: displays the icon that you click on to make an assessment (how to do this is
described in the next section).
column 4: lists the assessments you have made of this sample (in this example, no assessments
have yet been made, so the column is blank).
column 5: displays an icon that allows you to see the summaries of assessments made by you
or by other users (if the column is blank, as in this example, then the sample has not yet been
assessed by anyone).

To view a sample without assessing it, simply click on the file

title in column 1. This will open a video window like the one
on the right, with control buttons to play/pause the video, to
replay a preceding segment, or to fast-jump forwards or
backwards in the recording.
If for any reason the video fails to load (you get a blank
window with "no video" in it), try closing the preview window
and clicking on the file title again to re-open it.

Assessing a sample
Navigate to the list of samples in your group. Choose the sample you want to assess and click on
the icon in the make an assessment column.

You will first see a brief summary of the task that the sample was based on, as in the example
below. Any documents that were used for the task (instructions, text, pictures, audio/video
recordings) will be listed in the box of "Associated documents". You can click on the file names in
the right-hand column to open and view the documents. In some cases, if the document is on a
website, a URL will be provided instead of a direct link to the file.

Click on proceed to make an assessment to open the assessment form. The assessment form is
divided into four zones, as shown in the screen shot below. In order to see the entire form on your
computer screen and avoid scrolling, you may find it convenient to set your computer display to
"Full screen" (on a PC this is usually done by pressing the F11 key; you can return to a normal
display by pressing F11 again).
Click on proceed to make an assessment to open the assessment form. The assessment form is
divided into four zones, as shown in the screen shot below. In order to see the entire form on your
computer screen and avoid scrolling, you may find it convenient to display "Full screen" (on a PC

this is usually done by pressing the F11 key; you can return to a normal display by pressing F11
again).

Zone 1: the video player. This has the usual buttons for play/pause etc., plus a row of buttons
underneath ("clear", "go", etc.) which are used for adding time-stamped annotations. This will be
described in the relevant section below.
Zone 2: annotations. This zone allows you to add comments and explanations to your
assessment. In a collaborative assessment, this can provide useful information on why a sample
has been assessed at a given level. The annotation function is described in more detail in the
corresponding section.
Zone 3: assessment form. This zone displays the descriptors for the CEF scales used in evaluating
oral production, so that you can select the level (A1 to C2) which corresponds most closely to
the sample you are assessing.
Zone 4: summary table. Once you have selected the CEF level that you think is appropriate for
the sample, your choice will appear in this table, so that you can see at a glance which levels you
have chosen for each of the scales (Overall, Range, Accuracy, etc.)

Making an assessment
There are two types of samples to be evaluated on the
assessment tool:
Oral production (one speaker)
Spoken interaction (two speakers)
When evaluating an interaction, be sure to check which of the
two speakers is to be assessed - this information is sometimes
displayed in a caption on the video, or in the task description
The assessment form (zone 3) shows the descriptors for all levels A1 to C2. These are the
standard CEF descriptors published by the Council of Europe. Note that the language the CEF
descriptors is displayed in is set by the person who created the group you are working in, rather
than your choice of interface language, so you cannot change it.
To indicate the level that you would assign to the sample, select the corresponding radio button in
the left-hand column. The form does not offer the possibility of selecting + levels (e.g. B2+), but
if you want to specify that you think a sample is, say, B2+, you can add a note to this effect in
the annotation box (see below for an explanation of how to do this).
To validate your choice, click on the "next" button at the bottom of the annotation form. Your
first assessment will now appear in the summary table, and the next set of descriptors will appear.
Notice that you can come back and modify your selection at any time, up to the point when you
publish your assessment (see below).

The CEF scales are displayed in the order shown in the summary tables above. However, it is
possible to move back and forth through the scales and do the assessment in a different order if
preferred.
As you make your assessments for each of the CEF scales, your choices will appear in the
summary table.
In the two examples above, the one on the left shows the assessment of a monologue and the one
on the right shows an interactive task, in which case there will be an additional scale for
Interaction, between Fluency and Coherence.
In all cases, the Overall rating (Overall oral production or Overall spoken interaction) is a
required field and you cannot complete the assessment without having provided an Overall rating.

Adding annotations
Annotations comments, explanations or examples to illustrate your assessment can be added
to any of the assessment pages, so that you can add separate comments for Range, Accuracy, etc.
You simply type your comments into a text box, so they can be in any language and of whatever
length you wish. There are two types of annotation: overall comments, which apply to the whole
of a sample, and time-specific comments, which apply to a particular section within the
recording.

Overall comments
You can apply an overall comment for each section of the CEF scales. to add such a general
comment, type your text in the annotation box and click on "applies to entire sample" (or click
first and then type your comments; the order in which you perform these operations is not
important). The "save new comments" button will now be active; when you click on it, the text
of your annotation will be transferred from the text box to the right-hand part of the annotation
zone, accompanied by two icons which you can use to edit your comment, or to delete it
altogether. You can repeat these steps to add as many other general comments as you wish.

Time-specific comments
If you want to add a remark concerning a specific section of the recording (for example, to
comment on a section that provides a good illustration of the learner's range, or fluency), you can
link your annotation to a time-stamp in the recording. In that way, someone looking at your
assessment can click on your comment and the recording will automatically start playing at the
beginning of the section you have selected. You can add as many time-stamped annotations as
you wish, and it doesn't matter if the sections overlap. The procedure is as follows:

How to add time-specific comments

Use the video player
controls to find the
beginning of the
section. Pause the
video, and click on
"add start point".
The example shows
a start point after 46
seconds (00:00:46)

Move to the end of

the section and do the
same thing for "add
end point" (this step
is optional).
The example shows
an end point after 1
minute and 2 seconds
(00:01:02)

Type your comments in the annotations text box. When you have finished, click on "save new
comments" to transfer your text to the right-hand part of the annotation zone.
With the "go"
buttons you can
jump to a start/end
point that you have
selected, to check
that you have
marked the right
point. If not, you
can use the "clear"
button to erase it and
start again.

The buttons on
either side of the
play/pause button
allow you to jump
backwards and
forwards,
respectively, in
order to move
more rapidly
through the
recording.

Publishing your assessment

Up to this point, only you can see your assessment. To make it available to other members of the
group, you now need to publish it. Check that you are satisfied with your assessment and with the
text of any annotations you have made. Then click on the "Publish" button in the top right-hand
corner of the screen. Once you have published your assessment, it cannot be modified or deleted.
If you have second thoughts, or want to add something, you can always publish a second, updated
assessment.
If you are not yet ready to publish your assessment, you can leave it and come back to it later. It
will be saved on the server and will appear in the list of samples and assessments:

Under "my assessments" you can see that this user has made two assessments of the same sample.
The first one has been published and cannot be modified; the later one is unpublished and can be
modified and then published, or it can be deleted.

Making and uploading your own samples

There are various ways of recording a sample which can then be uploaded to the WebCEF server.
The main ways are:

use a camcorder to make a video film that can then be transferred to your computer and
uploaded to the server
record directly onto your computer using a webcam and microphone
make a recording online using the FlashVlog facility

Recording a video file

Precise instructions for recording with a camcorder or webcam will depend on the kind of
equipment that you use, so here we will just give some general recommendations.

Sound quality: use an external microphone placed in front of the speaker. Try to avoid
background noise.

Background: if possible, place the speaker against a plain background. Once you have started
recording, do not move the camera or use a zoom.

Video quality: picture quality is not so important. Do not make high definition video files
because they will take a long time to upload.

The system transcodes all uploaded video into a 4:3 Flash video format, so widescreen movies
will be cropped at the sides.

Always do a try run !

Editing a recording
A sample intended for the WebCEF assessment tool is not a work of art, so fancy editing is not
necessary. However, you may want to cut the recording, or select a section out of a longer
recording. You can do this with any of the free video-editing software available. On a PC, for
example, Windows Movie Maker is easy to use and is often packaged with the computer. If you
don't already have it on your computer (look under Programmes/Accessories/Entertainment), you
can download it from the Microsoft site.

Preparing to upload samples

Look for the USB-port on your camera.

Connect the camera to your computer with a USB-cable and turn on the camera.

You may have to look on the screen of your camera for the option PC Connect.

Copy your recordings to the hard disk of your computer.

Check whether all has been uploaded on your PC in a separate folder.

Use safely remove hardware to disconnect your camera.

Check the size of your recordings. You may upload video files up to 1Gb in size.

Check the extension of your media recordings. These are the extensions accepted by
WebCEF: 3GPP (.3gp), 3GPP2 (.3g2), AVI (.avi) limited codec support, DV (.dv), HDV

(.m2t), MPEG 1 and 2 (.mpg) not all mpeg movie encodings supported, MPEG 4 (.mp4
.m4v), QuickTime (.mov), Windows Media (.wmv)

If you recordings have another extension, you will need to rename the extension of your
files.

If you can not see the extension of a file on your PC, change the settings of your folder as
shown in the attached movie (extension.wmv).

Uploading a sample
Once your video file is ready, you are now ready to upload it. Return to the main page and choose
Samples. You will then see the My Samples page; to upload a new file, click on upload
video at the bottom of the page.
On the upload video page you will see a list of file formats that are supported, and the box for
selecting the file to upload:

Browse the files on your computer to select the one to upload (the button marked Parcourir in
the screenshot above will of course have a different name depending on the language used in your
computer system). Repeat the process for any other files you want to upload at the same time,
then click on Begin Upload. Depending on the size of your files and the speed of your internet
connection, there will be a delay while the files are uploaded, and then while they are being
automatically encoded.
Remember that if you have recorded an interactive task and you want each learner to be assessed
separately, you will need to upload two samples (i.e. two copies of the recording), one to be
associated with each learner.
Once your sample has been uploaded and encoded, it will appear in the list of samples, and you
are ready to go on to the next step.

Recording with FlashVlog

This is a simple and quick way of making recordings. All the equipment you need is a computer
equipped with a webcam and microphone, and an internet connection. Go to the "home" page and
click on "Samples". At the bottom of the "My Samples" page, you will see a number of links:

Click on "record/import FlashVlog", and then follow the steps described below.

1. On the new page

that opens, click on
"record a new
FlashVlog now". Log
in using the same
user name and
password as for the
WebCEF assessment
tool. If the user has not used the FlashVlog facility
before, the annotation tool will automatically create
a new account for them using the same email address
and password.
3. Check that the
image appears
correctly in the
video window and
that the microphone is working
properly, and click
on "NEW".

5. There is a 3second delay before

the recording
actually begins. Start
talking when
RECORDING
appears below the
video window.

2. When the
recording page
opens, you may
need to allow
access to your
computer's
camera and
microphone.

4. When you
are ready to
start recording ,
click on
"Record" (or
ask the person
being recording
to do it).

6.

6. You can edit your FlashVlog recording. Click on Edit and you can see the segments you have
recorded. You can delete and re-order segments. You can always record new segments by clicking
on the Record tab.

7. Click on the Title Tab and Give a title to the

sample. If you are satisfied with the result, click on
the Publish tab at the top of the screen in order to
transfer the recording to your list of FlashVlogs.

8. Click
on the
padlock
to publish
your
recording.

Importing FlashVlog files

Go to the "home" page and then "Samples". At the bottom of the "My samples" page, click on
"record/import FlashVlog". You will see a list of FlashVlog recordings that you have made:

To import your FlashVlog as a WebCEF sample, simply click on "import to WebCEF". It will
then appear in your list of samples, so that you can add metadata and publish it.

Adding the samples metadata

Whether you have imported a sample as a video file or as a FlashVlog, on your My samples
page you will see a table like this:

Click on the metadata button

following information:

to open the metadata form. This will ask you to provide the

Sample title. The system automatically displays a title, usually consisting of a numerical
code followed by the name of your file. You can rename the sample to give it a simpler
title.
Sample description. This is optional, but it may help users to know what kind of sample it
is.
Date. By default this is the date the file was imported but you might prefer to change it to
the date the sample was recorded.
Task and group. Select from a drop-down list. This assumes that your sample is based on
an existing task and group. The procedure for creating new tasks and new groups is
described later.
Target language, Target CEF level, Register and Setting: all selected from drop-down lists.

When you have completed the form, click on the update button at the bottom. The
metadata can be modified later if necessary.

Publishing a sample

Your sample will now appear in the sample table as above, and you can click on the publish
button
to make it visible to other members of your group. An intermediate "Publish Sample"
page will then appear; here you can choose to either publish the sample as anonymous (click the
checkbox) or pick the name of the learner in the sample from the drop-down list (obviously only
leaners that actually have user accounts will appear here). Note that these settings have no effect
on the assessmentment that can be made later.

Once you have published a sample, it will disappear from your list of samples requiring further
action and will be added to the list of samples in your group, so that it can be assessed, both by you
and by other members of the group.

Creating a new task

So far, we have described the procedure for making samples based on an existing task, but it is
possible to use any task, provided that you add a description of your task. To do this, go to the
"home" page and choose Tasks. This will open a page entitled "Task management", which
contains two lists of tasks. The first one is headed "Your task(s)" and lists tasks that you have
already created; if you have not yet created any tasks, then instead of a list you will just see "You
do not have any tasks". The second is headed "Other tasks that you can access and use", which
lists tasks created by other people.

Underneath this table, you will see the "add a new task" button.

Clicking on this button will display the Task Management form, which asks you to enter the
following information:

Task title (once your task has been created, this is the title that will appear in column 1 of
the table above)
Task description (this will then appear in italics in column 1, underneath the title). It is
recommended to keep this description fairly short otherwise the task list becomes difficult
to navigate.
Was there any preparation or support for the task? Answer Yes or No. If the answer
is Yes, there is a text box for you to give a short description of the preparation.
Was the task part of the regular curriculum? Answer Yes or No.
Task type: select from a drop-down list of tasks. These are the types of oral production
tasks listed in the CEFR document.

Select group: select from a drop-down list. Choose the name of the group you are working
with. Make certain you pick the correct group - only members of that group will be able
to see the task and any samples associated with it.
Educational level of the learners the task was used with.
Domain (personal, public, occupational or educational)
Supporting documents: any documents that were used for the task (instruction sheet,
pictures, recordings, texts) can be attached and uploaded.

When you have completed the form, click on the Save new task button at the bottom of the
screen. If you return to the "Task management" page, you will now see your new task listed, like
in the example below:

The three icons on the right of the list allow you, respectively, to view the task details, to modify
the task, and to delete it. For the moment your new task has no samples associated with it. Once
samples using the task have been uploaded, you can still edit the task, but you can no longer delete
it, and the third icon will have a red bar through it.

Creating and managing groups

As a user of WebCEF, you will probably want to add new users to a group (for example, your
students or other colleagues with whom you want to collaborate), or to create your own groups.

User roles in WebCEF

The kind of groups that you can manage will depend on your own user role. As a general rule, if
you are a language learner, your user role will be "student"; if you are a teacher, you will normally
be a "mentor"; and if you are a teacher trainer or coordinator, you will be a "mentor of mentors".
Your user role will determine what you can do within WebCEF and, consequently, the options that
will appear on the "home" page. A student user, for example, will see a home page like this:

A student, therefore, can manage his/her own account, create tasks and upload and assess samples,
but cannot add users or create new groups.
A mentor, in addition to these options, will be able to manage student accounts, add new students,
and create new student groups. Consequently, a mentor user will see a slightly different home
page:

A mentor of mentors, finally, will be able to edit both student and mentor accounts (including
modifying their status), to add new student and mentor users, and to create new student and
mentor groups. In addition, a mentor of mentors has access to a list of all the assessment scales
available on WebCEF. If your current user role in WebCEF is too restrictive for what you want to
do, you should contact the manager of your group or a WebCEF administrator and ask if you can
have it modified. The coordinator of your national community of practice will normally be an
administrator.

Creating a new group

Go to the "home" page and click on "Manage Groups" and then on "add a new student group" or
"add a new mentor group", as appropriate. The example on the next page shows the creation of a
new student group, but the form is identical for creating a mentor group.
Here is a brief explanation of the different parts of the form:

Title. Give a short name for your group, so that it will be easily recognised by users.
Description/Notes.This box can be used to give a short description (one or two lines) of
the group. It is a free text box, so the description can be in any language.
Assessment schema. Choose from the drop-down menu which set of descriptors you
want to be used in the group. For example, if you are assessing samples of German as a
foreign language, you can choose to have the CEF descriptors in German or in the
students' L1.
Default visibility of samples and annotations. By default, all samples and assessments
can be seen by all members of a group, but you can change this if you wish. For example,
if you are using WebCEF to give feedback to learners, you may not want students in the
class to see each other's recordings, or to see the assessments that you have done of other
students' productions. Similarly, if you are a teacher trainer, you may not want your
trainees to be influenced by each others' assessments. Use the drop-down menu to select
the settings that you prefer.
Is the group active? Normally, the answer to this will of course be "Yes". You may wish
to make a group inactive later, if it has served its purpose and is no longer being used.
Notice that once you have created a group, you cannot delete it.

When you have entered the metadata for your group, click on "add" to create the group.

Adding a new member to a group

When you want to add a new person to a group, there are two possible cases:
the person already has a WebCEF account (but is, for example, a member of another
group)
the person does not have a WebCEF account

Adding an existing WebCEF user

If someone already has a WebCEF account, there is just one step involved in making that person
a member of your group. Go to the "home" page and click on "Manage Groups" and then on "edit
student groups" or on "edit mentor groups", as appropriate. You will then see a list of all the
corresponding groups that you are yourself a member of:

The "invite" function in the last column will only appear for groups that you have created
yourself. To add a new member to your group, click on "invite" to open a page like the following:

Scroll down the box on the left (organised alphabetically by the users' first names) until you find
the person you want to add. The background colour of each line indicates what kind of user they
are. Double click on the name to add that person to the box on the right. Do the same for any
other people you want to add to the group, and then click on the "send invites" button that you
will see at the bottom of the page. The new member(s) will be added to the group and will
automatically receive an email message (in English) saying that you have added them. If you want
to add an explanation to the email message, or if you are working in a language other than English
and want to send a message in the user's own language, there is a text box on the invite page in
which you can type your message, which will be added to the automatically generated email.

Using the edit function

You can also add a new member with the "edit" function. When you click on "edit" in the
"members" column of your group, you will see a list of the people who are already members of the
group. To add a new member, click on "add members" at the bottom of the page. You will see a
list of all the WebCEF users who have the appropriate user-role to be included in your group. The
beginning of the list will look something like this (the surnames and email addresses have been
erased):

Users are listed in alphabetical order, by surname. You can use the letters above the table for quick
access to all users whose names begin with a particular letter. To add a person to your group,
check the box corresponding to the role that you want that person to have in your group. In this
example, "Yvette" can be added as a mentor or as a student; "Christophe" can only be added as a
student. Then click on the "add" button at the bottom of the page to add the new member(s) to
your group.

Adding a user who does not have a WebCEF account

In order to add to your group someone who does not already have a WebCEF account, it will be
necessary first to create a user account. You can create a new account for someone whose user

role is lower than your own. In other words, if you are a "mentor" you can create new accounts
for students; if you are a "mentor of mentors" you can create accounts for either mentors or
students.
To create a new account, go to the "home" page and click on "Manage groups", then on "add/edit
users". This will display the user list; at the bottom of the table, click on "add user":

This will open the "User Details"

form shown on the right. The only
fields that you need to complete are
those in bold: first name, last name
and email address.
You may want to complete the fields
relating to Gender, Date of Birth,
Country of Origin and Native
Language/Working Language, because
it can be useful for people assessing
the sample to know the age,
background and L1 of the learner (you
can also get the user to complete
these fields later).
You may also wish to set the interface
language.
If you are a "mentor", the new user's
role will automatically be "student"; if
you are a "mentor of mentors", you
can choose whether to set the role as
"mentor" or as "student".
Click on the "add" button beneath the form to create the account. You can then give the new user
the URL of the WebCEF assessment tool (http://webcef.open.ac.uk), so that he/she can go to the
login page and request a password.
Tell the new user to enter his/her email in the
login box, and to click on "email me a new
password"
An automatically generated password will be
sent by email.
The user is then free to change this password
for something more memorable, by clicking on
"change password" and following the
instructions.

To add the new user to your group, follow the steps described above for "Adding an existing
WebCEF user".