NEEDS ANALYSIS PILOTING RESULTS

INTERVIEW TO TEACHERS
One of the aims of our analysis was to know what teachers from the English Course at
Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia Sede Neiva thought about the platform Rosetta
Stone and how they had perceived its use and usefulness in the time they had worked with
it. To do this, four questions were written and the interview was prepared. Unfortunately, it
was not possible to apply it to all the English teachers because they were on vacation, so
only two people were interviewed: Teacher #1and Teacher #2. Above you will find the
questions we thought would be appropriate.
QUESTIONS
1. How often do your students complain about using the platform?
2. What are their usual comments after/during they complete ac activity?
3. What kind of exercise in the platform are students most likely to have problems with?
4. Have you ever thought about a way of solving the problems your students mention
regarding the use of the platform?

TEACHER #1
I: Okay, so first question is: how often do your students complain about using the
platform?
T1:Well, most of the students complain when they are doing the exercises because
sometimes the recording system is not a good one so one of the most complain is when they
are trying to record their voice to make the exercises so they have many problems with that
and it is because the platform doesnt recognize the voice.
I: Okay, here we have like three answers. The second question is what are their usual
comments after or during they complete an activity. So, the first question is like a general
view of the platform. Do they have, um, any other problems not related to voice
recognition?
T1: Well, sometimes they have problems when some of the teachers do not upload the
materials at the correct time so they have to be like behind the teacher trying to make them
eh, available those resources for them so that they can access and work on those.
I: Okay, lets jump into the four, the last question that is: have you ever thought about a
way of solving the problems your students mention regarding the use of the platform?
T1: Well, when it comes to the use of the platform I have tried to eh, create some channels
for communication so they can easily communicate with me if they have problems you
know, using the platform and the other thing is when we are asked for reports about the
functioning of the platform so like, each semester we give our opinions and our thoughts
about how the platform works and if it is a suitable one for our teaching.
I: Do you think the platform is bad itself or its something that needs to be complemented?
T1: I would say that the platform is not bad, however, I think its primordial to look for
other things that may complement this thing. Sometimes, well, in some of the courses that
Ive had I have tried to complement through other platform that is Schoology. Well, I think
that it could be exploited in a very good manner but of course it has to do, it has to be very
good planned. So, you have to plan your activities organizedly, so that you can take
advantage of the complementary things.
I: There is a question that is not here, um, but, do you think that the platform its a good
tool to improve students oral skills?
T1: Well, in my deep thought I would say that the platform, the focus it has it is not
directed to that thing. It may work sometimes to work on issues related to the pronunciation
which is very helpful sometimes but, I think that it does not develop the oral skills and
communication skills in the manner that it has a behavioristic focus and it doesnt help
students. So, its something that is drill repetition, so its something that doesnt allow that
to happen.
TEACHER #2
I: How often do your students complain about using the platform?
T2: Well, they complain most of the time but specially when the deadline is about to come,
this is common when they are more concerned about the platform because this is the time
when they realize they dont know if its already completed.
I: What are their usual comments after/during they complete an activity?
T2: Well, comments may vary according to the or depending on the level for example level
one students always complain about the speech recognition because this is something new
for them, they dont know how to set, or they dont know how to use the microphones or
how the activities work but later on if you think about level two or three or four students
they always complain about or they always um, comment on the time or the span of the
units.
I: What kind of exercise in the platform are students most likely to have problems with?
T2: Em, all level students usually have problems with the voice recognition in the platform.
So, mostly exercises related to pronunciation, repetition, fill in the gaps, but also,
pronunciating words or sentences this is usually the problem they have, voice recognition
because they have to repeat the exercises or the words many times until the platform
recognizes the answer.
I: Have you ever thought about a way of solving the problems your students mention
regarding the use of the platform?
T2: I have thought about many ways of solving this problem, um, some of these solutions
are related directly with the platform, some others are just another option they can use.
They problem here is that they cannot um, they cannot stop using the platform because this
is something mandatory. So, when you think about some other options you have to think
also about the time they have to spend on the platform and also they will have to spend
more time or a lot of time in other things. This is a problem here: time.

FINDINGS
NEW

Voice
recognition

Materials Main Mandatory

upload Problems

Time
The information on the diagram sumps up the answers given by the educators related to the
use of Rosetta Stone. Teachers agreed that the major dilemma is the fact that the platform
does not count with a good system of voice recognition. This has caused problems among
the students who every semester complain about the same and get frustrated because they
have to try to do the exercise many times. Also, this feature of speech recognition happens
to be new for most of the students as this is the first time they face this kind of exercises.
Some teachers do not upload the materials on time for students to work. In the same order
of ideas, time is a key factor when completing the units of the platform. It takes a student a
lot of time to complete the assignments and even more when the speech recognition
software does not work properly. Teachers try to look for other means to establish
communication with their students and use tools as Schoology, but they all agree that it is
not possible to put the platform aside because it is mandatory for teachers and students to
use it. One teacher also mentioned that the platform does not really have a communicative
objective as students only repeat words but do not use the language.