E–Learning and Digital Media

Volume 9 Number 2 2012

www.wwwords.co.uk/ELEA

Project-Based Learning in a Technologically

Enhanced Learning Environment for
Second Language Learners: students’ perceptions

LINDSAY MILLER, CHRISTOPH A. HAFNER & CONNIE NG KWAI FUN

City University of Hong Kong

ABSTRACT This article presents a new approach to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course
design. Situated in the context of an English-medium university in Hong Kong, the article describes an
undergraduate course in English for science, which focused not only on traditional academic genres
but also engaged students in the creation of a multimodal scientific documentary via a digital video
project. As part of this project, students carried out a simple scientific experiment, documenting
procedures, results and interpretation in the form of a digital video uploaded and shared through
YouTube. This method of presenting scientific information not only engaged students in novel,
multimodal forms of representation, but also involved them in an online learning community
consisting of their tutor, classmates, other peers as well a wider Internet audience. This use of
multimodal scientific documentaries as a pedagogical tool in EAP is reported with reference to data
drawn from a student questionnaire, interviews with students, and students’ comments in a course
weblog. The findings show that the students perceived both linguistic and technical value in the
construction and sharing of their multimodal documentaries.

Introduction
One challenge in designing an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course for twenty-first century
language learners is to ensure that learners improve their academic language skills, while also
catering to their increasing technological sophistication. Students born after 1980, who have grown
up immersed in digital technologies, are referred to as the ‘net generation’ (Oblinger & Oblinger,
2005) or ‘digital natives’ (Prensky, 2001). Such students differ in fundamental ways in how they
approach the use of technology for communication and learning. They do not see technology as an
‘add on’; as Conole (2008, p. 138) maintains, ‘it is central to how they organize and orientate their
learning’. Therefore, the implication for university tutors is that they have to ‘radically rethink how
courses are designed’ (Conole, 2008, p. 138). A twenty-first century student is also no longer just a
passive consumer of media; many are now also becoming competent in producing and sharing
their own creative work in online ‘affinity spaces’ (Gee, 2004) like Flickr (photo sharing), YouTube
(video sharing) or FanFiction.net (fan fiction writing). These spaces can act as informal learning
communities, bringing together diverse groups of people who support one another in the pursuit
of common shared interests that they are passionate about. As a result, the learning experiences for
this type of student are very different from those of previous generations. These students expect
their EAP tutors to use new technologies in the management, delivery and assessment of their
courses – a challenge met with differing degrees of success.
Today’s learners have a vast array of technical devices to support their study. Conole (2008)
followed the learning patterns of a group of students in universities across the United Kingdom and
discovered that, ‘technology appeared to be integral to learning for all the students, irrespective of

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their background, prior IT expertise, learning preferences or subject discipline studied’ (p. 126).
Citing two case studies of non-native English students (from Turkey and China), Conole drew up a
long list of technology tools these students used in their everyday lives both in and out of class:
email, mobile phones, PowerPoint, search engines, Teacher TV, library system, voice recorder, etc.
Various other surveys show that the penetration level of technology in young peoples’ lives in
developed countries is very high: Internet use in the USA of teens aged from 14-17 is 95% (Jones &
Fox, 2009); while in a survey of students aged 15-24 in Hong Kong it was found that 98% used the
Internet for information search and 96% used it for homework tasks (Chan & Fang, 2007). Internet
use in the rest of Asia is also on the increase: in Thailand the penetration rate has jumped from
3.7% in 2000 to 26.3% in 2010, while in China the rate increased from 1.7% in 2000 to 36.3% in 2011
(Internet World Stats, 2011).
The degree of student use of new technologies varies widely. However, according to a 2005
study in the USA (Lenhardt & Madden, 2005), more than half of all teens who used the Internet
could be considered to be ‘media creators’. A media creator ‘is someone who created a blog or
webpage, posted original artwork, photography, stories or videos online or remixed online content
into their own new creations’ (Jenkins et al, 2006, p. 6). Several case studies demonstrate how
English language learners have extended their linguistic skills by participating in online affinity
spaces as media creators. Lam (2000) describes the case of Almon, a Hong Kong Chinese teenager
who set up a J-pop website and began to communicate with a number of ‘pen pals’ worldwide. As a
result of his website Almon overcame his awkwardness in learning English and boosted his
confidence in using the language in other social and learning contexts. Black (2006) reports on
another Chinese Internet user who at 14 years of age, and after only two and a half years of
learning English, began posting anime-based stories on Fanfiction.net. ‘Nanako’ became something
of a celebrity for her stories and although she sometimes referred to her ‘poor English’ this did not
prevent her from engaging in media creation and interacting with online admirers of her fan fiction
writing. In fact, participating in this online affinity space provided her with opportunities to learn
English through the feedback she received on her writing, and also allowed her to develop a robust
multicultural identity as a writer of English.
From our own experiences as university tutors we find that our students have access to a
technology-rich learning environment. Our students communicate with us, their tutors, and their
classmates via the intranet and Internet; they use the university’s web-based learning management
system (Blackboard) to access information about their courses and find out what is happening in
the university; they find learning materials online; and they prepare presentations and submit
assignments with the use of new technologies. In their 2008 study, Conole et al (2008) concluded
that
One of the most striking features to emerge from the data is the extent to which students are
capitalizing on the social affordances of technologies ... in terms of peer support and
communication – the picture emerges of a networked, extended community of learners using a
range of communicative tools to exchange ideas, to query issues, to provide support, to check
progress. (p. 521)
Thus, students use new technologies to gain access to online learning communities, in which
participants provide their peers with guidance and support in pursuit of their mutually shared
interests.
Given the pervasiveness of new technologies in our students’ lives, we have to take heed of
the calls of other researchers and find space in our course designs to use new technologies to aid
our students’ learning (Warschauer, 2000). One way to go about this in EAP course design is to
adopt a project-based learning (PBL) approach, with students’ language learning driven by the need
to complete a meaningful project of some kind. Such an approach lends itself to the use of new
technologies because students can be encouraged to draw on a range of technological tools in order
to research, present and share their projects. For example, students can present their projects by
creating innovative digital texts, like the digital videos described in this article, and these texts can
in turn be shared within a peer-supported online learning community as well as a wider online
audience.
Project-based learning in a second language (L2) context has been well documented (see
Thomas, 2000; Stoller, 2002; Beckett & Miller, 2006), and has been used to enhance all four

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language skills: listening (Gardner, 1995); reading (Bosuwon & Woodrow, 2009); speaking
(Mennim, 2003); and writing (Yeh, 2009). PBL is useful for language learners for a variety of
reasons, some of which are:
• It integrates the use of the four language skills;
• Learners can use a variety of skills other than language skills to communicate (drawings, models,
photographs etc.);
• It allows learners who are strong in one area (language, technical, management) but weak in
others to contribute to a project;
• It encourages cooperation between learners;
• Learners become more autonomous of their teachers and take responsibility for their own
learning;
• It creates real-life links with learners’ experiences inside and outside of the classroom.
PBL has been used in many learning contexts over the past twenty or so years: business, law, and
architecture (Savey & Duffy, 1995), medicine (Barrows, 1996), management (Ayas, & Zenuik 2001),
and engineering (Mills & Treagust, 2003). One of the main reasons for using PBL is to take the
focus off surface-based learning (i.e. rote learning to pass a test) and place it on mastery-based
learning (i.e. deep learning in order to understand a topic or issue more). Thomas (2000) outlines a
list of five criteria in determining if language learning work can be considered as PBL. These
criteria may act as a definition of sorts. They are:
1. PBL projects are central, not peripheral to the curriculum;
2. PBL projects are focused on questions or problems that ‘drive’ students to encounter (and
struggle with) the central concepts and principles of a discipline;
3. Projects involve students in a constructive investigation;
4. Projects are student-driven to some significant degree;
5. Projects are realistic, not school-like.
The digital video project described in this article illustrates the integration of PBL with new
technologies in an attempt to cater to the increasing technical sophistication of our students. After
outlining the project we present the students’ perceptions of their experience of this ‘new’ form of
language learning.

Background
The course discussed in this article is an existing university English course offered to science
students at an English-medium university in Hong Kong. The course is a core course and the
credits gained form part of the students’ overall Grade Point Average (GPA) at the end of their
degree programme. As such, the course has high stakes for the students. The course aims to
‘develop students’ ability to read a variety of scientific texts, and appropriately communicate
(through speaking and writing) the findings of scientific projects in an academic context’ (course
documentation). It is a 39-hour course offered in teaching blocks of three hours per week over a
thirteen-week semester. The students taking this course all belong to the biology, chemistry, and
mathematics departments and are around twenty years old. The majority of students are Hong
Kong Chinese with Cantonese as their first language. Others are from Mainland China and have
Mandarin as their first language. Three experienced tutors in the English department (who also
formed the research team) are responsible for teaching the course.
The data reported on in this article come from one student cohort of 67 students and include:
students’ written responses to an in-class administered questionnaire about their experiences of
taking part in the digital video project (59 students), students’ comments on a course weblog
incorporated in the course design (62 students), and semi-structured focus group interviews (21
students).

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Course Development
In restructuring an existing EAP course for science and mathematics students we introduced a
digital video project to replace the existing oral presentation. There were a number of reasons why
we wanted the students to take part in a digital video project:
1. We wanted the second language students to move away from the read-out-loud syndrome
they had become used to when giving presentations in class.
2. We wanted to give students an opportunity to experience the digital video medium,
incorporating new technologies and new forms of multimodal representation into their
learning.
3. We wanted to capitalize on the students’ existing technological expertise.
4. We wanted students to use the video feedback in order to notice, and then correct,
shortcomings in their presentation skills (concerning both language and content).
In order to involve students in the kinds of multimodal participatory media practices that they
engage in in their everyday lives, we asked our students to prepare a 10-minute scientific
documentary in the form of a digital video which would be uploaded to YouTube and shared
through a publically accessible course weblog (see below). Students were encouraged to make the
presentation of their documentaries as creative and entertaining as possible.
As we had students from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, we opted for topics which
required no in-depth specialist subject knowledge and which would be accessible to the students as
well as to the English tutors teaching the course. We offered a choice of two different topics: a
study of the blind spot in the human eye; a study of the senses of smell and taste in humans. The
two topics were generic enough for the English tutors to support, but also had strong scientific
underpinnings, requiring students to do background research, formulate hypotheses, collect and
interpret data. When they were complete, all videos were viewed in a class sharing session and oral
feedback was given by both classmates and tutors. An example of the introductory worksheet given
to students to guide them in their project can be seen in the Appendix. More information about the
course including materials, rubrics used and a detailed evaluation of the new EAP course design
can be found at the project website (http://www1.english.cityu.edu.hk/acadlit).

Structure of the Technological Learning Environment

In order to support student learning, we created a ‘technological learning environment’, with a full
range of technological tools and resources to help students plan, construct and share their digital
scientific documentaries. The design of this technological learning environment was based on a
modular system, with a number of loosely connected technological platforms and devices used to
support student learning. Students and tutors used the university’s online learning management
system for course administration, a course weblog for reflective discussions on coursework and
learning, digital video cameras and editing software for video production, an online resource
website for video editing support (in the form of ‘how-to’ screencasts), and the YouTube platform
for video sharing (videos were also embedded in the course weblog). Figure 1 shows the structure
of the technological learning environment and how the technology supported different stages of
the digital video project.

Stage 1: Planning
(a) As an in-class activity we introduced students to an example of a scientific documentary.
Students watched a short BBC documentary about the benefits of drinking water
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK2b6UtVW70), and then discussed how the information
had been presented. We wanted to sensitize our students to the way science can be presented in a
less formal or academic way (this was later contrasted in the course with the lab reports students
wrote, and so they became more aware of issues of genre, audience and purpose in their writing).
Areas covered included:
(i) What was the style of the speakers in the video? What was the speaker trying to achieve?
(ii) What level of audience was the video aimed at? Was it too technical or too simple?

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(iii) What was the mixture of pictures, text, narration, video?

(iv) What type of language was used in the video?
(v) What specific vocabulary was introduced in the video? Was it technical vocabulary? If so, how
was it exemplified?
(b) We held a classroom discussion based on the video in (a), pointing out to students that the
scientific documentary viewed both conformed to scientific conventions for structure
(introduction, methods, results, and discussion) and at the same time contained elements of
narrative, interviews, visuals and interesting facts in order to maintain audience interest.
(c) We introduced students to Photostory 3 for Windows which they could use when making their
videos (see Stage 2(c) for more technology tools which were introduced). This freely downloadable
software allows the user to create a ‘digital story’ from images, with an audio narration.
(d) Important aspects of running the project included project management and teamwork. We had
group discussions about who would be responsible for which aspect of the project. Some of the
different possible roles we discussed with students were:
(i) Researcher: co-ordinates the necessary background research, and helps interpret findings
(ii) Fieldworker: co-ordinates the collection of data, enlisting participants
(iii) Director: co-ordinates the script and storyboard for the video
(iv) Camera operator: co-ordinates the filming and photographs, and the necessary equipment
(v) Editor: co-ordinates the final editing and production of the video
Students were asked to discuss what roles they would be best at, and then form a team which
included people with diverse interests and skills, able to support one another in different aspects of
the complex video production task. It was stressed that they should work as a team throughout the
project.

Figure 1. Structure of the technological learning environment (from Hafner & Miller, 2011).

Stage 2: Filming and Editing

(a) The students were given the following prompt to guide them in preparing their video
documentaries:
Working in groups of 3, create a documentary of your English for Science Project, which
documents the process and findings of your experiment. You should include:

– A description of your topic of exploration

– An introduction with some background theory

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– Details of the procedure used

– Explanation of your results
– A discussion of your results
– A brief conclusion
– Any other relevant material needed to better understand your experiment and results.

Your documentary must include a range of media (e.g. video, audio, images, text, diagrams), and
all members of the project team must be involved in the narration of the documentary. Extra
credit will be given for creative presentation of the information (e.g. use of interesting locations,
interesting presentation techniques).
(b) As part of this project we made available to the students hand-held video cameras with
microphones. Students could borrow the cameras from us for a day at a time.
(c) In-class activities consisted of having students write a storyboard to guide them when filming
their projects. We also introduced support for additional video-editing tools (Windows
MovieMaker and iMovie), for students to use in their project. In their project groups students
wrote up their storyboards and explored the technical tools in class using their laptop computers.
(d) Students then worked out of class to conduct their experiments and record the results on video.

Stage 3: Sharing
In the last stage of the project, students were required to upload their digital video documentaries
onto YouTube and these were embedded in posts to the course weblog. This made the projects
available to a wide Internet audience.
In week seven, all videos were viewed by the class and peer feedback was given. The students
were asked to give feedback on: ‘Organization & Content’; ‘Multimedia & Visual Effects’, and
‘Language’.

Students’ Perceptions
In this section we present a summary of our students’ responses to participation in the digital video
project. We use selected comments from the students as representative examples of the general
findings for each section, and use pseudonyms, following standard reporting practice in qualitative
inquiry. In the evaluation of the project we wanted to investigate the following three questions:
1. What is the potential of the digital video task to meet the disciplinary language learning needs
of our students?
2. What problems did the students encounter while completing the digital video project?
3. How could the digital video task be improved in future?
In general, students enjoyed presenting the findings of their English for science projects through
the digital video medium. They found preparing their digital video scientific documentaries to be
‘exciting’ and ‘different’ compared to the ways in which they usually presented projects. Filming
themselves and sharing their coursework presentations in this way was a novel process which
provided students with plentiful opportunities to review their work and reflect on strengths and
weaknesses in terms of their language and presentation skills:
Yeah, I also enjoyed because this is a new kind of learning. So we never met such challenging in
high school, so maybe it was a new approach for us to learn how to apply our knowledge in this
– making a video in this aspect was very special and this is a new challenge and I think it’s
interesting, yeah. (Focus Group: Dan)

Question 1. What is the Potential of the Digital Video Task to Meet the Disciplinary Language
Learning Needs of our Students?
The objective of most English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses is to engage students in
authentic communicative practices that can also be found in specific disciplinary contexts in the

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academy and workplace. The main idea is to provide students with opportunities to develop the
necessary literacies for the specific English language tasks that they encounter in the disciplinary
domain (e.g. reading and writing in the discipline). In this regard, the questionnaire results and
focus group interviews highlighted three areas of interest: 1. Authenticity; 2. Language skills; 3.
Teamwork, collaboration and community.

Authenticity. The task of orally presenting a project is something students have to do in a number of
their university courses. As such, they were familiar with the concept of being assessed in this way.
What made their presentation on this course different was the fact that they were required to
present in the form of a scientific documentary through the digital video medium. Students
thought this novel and suggested that it was a more interesting way to present their work. Sharing
the documentaries publically through YouTube also alerted the students to the possibility that a
‘real’ audience might view their work. Many students felt motivated to engage with this Internet
audience and put a great deal of effort into polishing their work as a result. In addition, a number of
students reported sharing their videos with their own social networks through websites like
Facebook.
It was fascinating when we record the video together during an English project. Different to a
normal presentation, sometimes it’s too boring if it’s just a presentation, so videos are quite
fascinating. (Questionnaire: ID20)

I think our audience is my classmate as well as the public. Um, my classmate because we – we
have to show the video during the class, so our classmates definitely our audience. And because
we upload the video on YouTube and everyone can search for our video so that public is also our
audience. (Focus Group: Angel)
Students were generally positive about the digital video task, and commented that the ability to
present their work through the digital video medium was a useful skill for students in the twenty-
first century. On the other hand, students tended not to be able to see any direct link between the
digital video project and disciplinary tasks or future workplace needs. This is perhaps not
surprising, considering that the topics used were rather broad and not aimed at any particular
discipline, and the students had little or no work experience. In spite of this limitation, a few
students pointed out that the skills they were practising were transferrable to their disciplinary
courses. First, they commented that the project provided them with the opportunity to experience
a process of scientific investigation. Second, they noted that the task gave them the opportunity to
consider how to incorporate elements of multimedia in presentations, and said that they would pay
greater attention to this aspect in future.
There are many elective courses and for small tutorial class students are required to present
more frequently and so this is useful for study and especially in electives. (Focus Group: Yau)
Language skills. From the questionnaire data many of the students indicated that they felt they had
improved their general English language skills by completing the project: oral skills, including
presentation skills (73%) and pronunciation (67%), were ranked as being areas that students felt
that they had improved on most. Students commented that, in the process of recording the video,
they frequently reviewed their performances and re-recorded sections of their videos many times in
order to get as good a production as they could:
By doing research and expressing your idea in English, it also trains your English skills. So, I
mean in a sense, it is an integrated work. (Focus Group: Xen)

And pronunciation is sure ... we record our script then we can hear our record and know that
how our pronunciation is good or bad, yes. (Focus Group: Cath)
In addition to these oral skills being developed, we were also interested to see if students felt that
they had improved any other language skill areas. The questionnaire results indicate that a number
of them did and the results show a perceived improvement in grammar (43%), reading (44%),
writing (44%) and listening skills (51%). These findings reflect the integrated nature of the project,
which involved students in a process of finding and evaluating disciplinary texts, collecting and
interpreting data, as well as composing and presenting their main findings. Several students also

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made the connection that in taking part in the project they improved their overall communication
skills, a finding which is related to the following comments on teamwork, collaboration and
community.
So actually, I think this project did not only train my English. It also trains my some other skills
such as social interactive skills because I have to interview different people and because they are
strangers and I have to sort out a way to communicate with. (Focus Group: Xen)
Teamwork, collaboration and community. Working as a team was often mentioned as the most
enjoyable aspect of the project. As the students spent a lot of time outside of class working together
on the project, they were able to develop personal relationships over and above those that
normally develop during the English class. Students reported that this teamwork translated into
peer support on many occasions, with members of the team providing one another with assistance
with issues of language and IT use.
It was stressed in class that all students had to take part as presenters in the video production.
In addition, at the beginning of the project, students were asked to consider which other role(s)
they were most suited to or most interested in: director, scriptwriter, editor, technology expert,
actor, researcher, fieldworker. Getting students to volunteer for specific roles as well as identifying
team mates with complementary skills and interests in this way may have helped with the team
cohesion, and also engaged them all in the task. However, one of the most important aspects for
the success of producing the video seemed to be the need for a team leader, and most students
commented on the need to have a good team leader who would coordinate the tasks each team
member was responsible for.
[So what did you guys like the most about the project?] I think the most important thing we learned is
still the video shooting techniques that’s more useful. And we also learn ... collaborations and
teamwork and we break it into parts so everybody could take part – be responsible for one part
and we at the end, we compile all the works together. So make sure the process is smooth and
everything is going better, going well. (Focus Group: Terry)

A leader should make a decision and give jobs to the other members and so the whole project
can run smoothly. (Focus Group: Yau)
PBL often results in small learning communities being formed, and we can see that the teamwork
element was strong for our project teams. However, the aspect of community went beyond
working with a small group of classmates. As the students interacted with all their classmates via
the course blog a wider ‘community of cooperative learners’ (Hodges, 1998) evolved, and once the
students posted their projects on YouTube a number of them extended the project community
further by sharing the link with their peers, who provided feedback through informal online
channels like Facebook.
My friends also see the other students’ video (on YouTube). And to be honest, compare with my
video is not good and it’s not very well done. And but my friends give me some feedback, how
can I make it more interesting, how the flow can not be that boring. And they give some
comments for me. (Focus Group: Cath)

Question 2. What Problems Did the Students Encounter while Completing the Digital Video Project?
Although the students’ comments about the digital video project collected in the questionnaire and
focus group interviews were mostly positive, they did mention two areas where they had
problems: time management and technology.

Time management. One area which seemed to cause concern to the students was time management.
By this, they meant that they did not feel that there was enough time to complete the project up to
the standard they aspired to. Partly, this was because of the difficulty students had in meeting to
film and edit the video owing to timetable clashes, and partly because they had to spend a lot of
time learning to use the software required to complete the project. Several students felt that if they
had more time they would have produced a better video. The task was a complex one which

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required students to spend time doing background research, collecting data, writing a script,
filming and editing. All these activities required team coordination and time management.
The major problem was the lack of time. It’s difficult for us to take the video as we have different
timetables. Also, loads of time was required for video editing as we were not familiar with the
softwares at the beginning. (Questionnaire: ID07)

It is quite hard to finish it in such short period of time, I wish I was given more time, then maybe
our video project be even better. (Questionnaire: ID15)
Technology. Although students felt that they learnt a lot about using the technology during the
video-making process they also said that learning to use the software was an area of difficulty for
many of them. To overcome some of their difficulties in using the software and produce a final
version of their video, students got help from each other or consulted online user manuals. Several
students also mentioned that the shooting part of the production was not free of problems. Trying
to find suitable background locations and shoot a video on a crowded and noisy campus were the
main issues mentioned by the students as challenges.
Editing the video is the most challenging part in the project. Since all the things which include
the scene, the audio and statistics must be synchronised. We’ve spent a lot of time in
synchronization. (Questionnaire: ID02)

Technical problems ... I cannot use Windows Movie Maker well when I am editing the video. It
took me nearly 6 to 7 hours to finish a part only within 3 minutes. (Questionnaire: ID45)

Question 3. How Could the Digital Video Task be Improved in Future?

Quality-assurance procedures in universities nowadays often ask staff to gather feedback from their
students as a way of improving the courses. We agree with this concept, and it relates closely to
ongoing EAP needs analysis and course design. Therefore, as part of the evaluation we asked our
students what advice they might give to other students who were about to embark on such a
project, and we also asked for their suggestions on how to improve the project in the future.

Advice. The students were not short in offering advice to other students who may do a similar type
of digital video project. Their advice included:
1. Watch some documentary videos to get more ideas before you begin;
2. Do not wait till the last minute to edit your work;
3. Try to be as creative as you can;
4. Use the Internet to get help;
5. Take more shots so you have more visuals to work with;
6. Try to use animation to catch the viewers’ attention;
7. Get your team mates’ contact details ASAP, and keep in contact;
8. Communicate with your team mates if you need any help;
9. Divide up the tasks for each team member;
10. Practise with the video camera before you try to use it for your project work.
Suggestions. When we asked the students how the project might be improved, two areas stood out
in the data: having greater choice of topics for the video production, and having more technical
support.
Although the course designers felt that the two topics presented to the students were easy to
handle and interesting (investigating the blind spot, the interaction of smell and taste), several
students complained that they did not like these topics and that they would have preferred to
choose the topic themselves. Not surprisingly, many students felt that as they were science
students they could find more interesting scientific topics. At the same time some other students
commented that they would prefer to choose non-scientific topics for their projects. Perhaps the
issue was not whether the project topics were scientific or non-scientific, but just a wider choice of
topics.

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Uh, for me, I will choose some topic as I’m studying biology. I will choose some topic about
some animals. So I may do some research on some habitat of the animals and make a video.
(Focus Group: Ian)

As I am a science student, I would like to take video that is not related to science. Instead, maybe
something that about art or music, I think this will be much more interesting. (Questionnaire:
ID03)
As tutors on the course we felt that we had given the students a lot of in-class and online technical
support in order to learn the software needed to complete the project. Nevertheless, a number of
students suggested that they would have liked even more IT support. This suggestion was not,
though, because they were unable to complete the project, but so that they could make a better
video product.
Yes. I think besides providing us a digital video, some technician should teach us about how to
use the video better. (Focus Group: Jim)

I suggest the department should provide the computer for the student to edit the video because
the computer used for the editing is need to be advanced. (Focus Group: Colin)

Conclusion
Project work within an EAP course is not a new idea. What is new about the project described
above is the way that it integrates new media, new technologies and language learning in order to
engage our second language students within an online learning community (the course weblog) in
new forms of multimodal representation and share their finished works to a wide audience on
YouTube. In their own lives, students are increasingly engaged in new literacy practices that draw
on new technologies. In view of this we believe that it is now necessary to consider how EAP
courses can integrate new technologies and develop peer-supported learning communities within
online affinity spaces that better reflect the everyday new literacy practices of our students.
The PBL project reported on here adhered to the five criteria outlined by Thomas (2000): it
was a central part of the students’ learning; the projects were problem driven; the students were
involved in a constructive investigation; they took responsibility for their learning; and the final
product was a realistic digital video documentary for an authentic audience.
Students on our course created multimodal scientific documentaries which they seemed
proud of and invested heavily in. They were prepared to share their work not only with their tutor
or other classmates, but with a wider online audience. By empowering our students as media
creators we faced the challenge of how to cater to our EAP students as members of the ‘net
generation’. As the students’ comments indicate, the experience for them was a positive one, and
one which engaged them in their learning on a variety of levels – both technically and linguistically.
Our students not only produced completed digital videos for assessment but, on the way,
participated in a wider community of language learners and technology users (classmates and
friends whom they engaged with online out of class time about their project) and discovered ways
to enhance their own language and technical skills. As digital media becomes increasingly pervasive
in our lives, it is important that we, as educators, face the challenge of making our university
courses more meaningful to the lives of our students – the digital video project described here is
one attempt to do this.

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Lindsay Miller et al

APPENDIX
Tutorial 3: Webquest 1 – Sense of sight
INTRODUCTION
One of our most important senses is our sense of sight. But how exactly does our sense of sight
work? And how good is our sense of sight anyway? The aim of this webquest is to use the Internet
and related resources to obtain the best information possible in order to find out.

TASK
Search the Web and find answers to the following guiding questions related to pulse:
• How exactly does our sense of sight work?
• How does our sense of sight compare to that of animals?
• What conditions can affect our sense of sight?
• Can you define the ‘blind spot’ in humans?
• What causes this blind spot?
• Are men and women equally affected by the blind spot?
Take careful notes on the information that you find, and be prepared to explain the concepts that you discover
to other members of the class.

RESOURCES
You may use any or all of the following resources and any other resources that you use to search
the Web in order to locate reliable information on this topic. You must evaluate all the information
that you find, according to the following criteria:
1. Authorship
a. Who wrote the text?
b. How expert are they?
2. Procedures
a. Of research
b. Of publication
3. Primary or secondary source?
4. Best available information?
Yahoo http://yahoo.com/
Google http://google.com
Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com
Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org/
Delicious http://delicious.com
en2251 Edublogs links http://en2251.edublogs.org

EXTENSION
Use the information you find from this webquest as a basis for the theory section of your scientific
presentation.

LINDSAY MILLER is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the City University of
Hong Kong. He teaches on a variety of courses at BA and MA level and researches in self-access
language learning, ESP, and academic listening. In addition to his many publications, Lindsay has
published Establishing Self-Access: from theory to practice (with D. Gardner), and Second Language
Listening (with J. Flowerdew). Both these books are published by Cambridge University Press.
Correspondence: enlinds@cityu.edu.hk

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CHRISTOPH A. HAFNER is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the City

University of Hong Kong. His research interests include academic and professional literacy,
educational technology and legal discourse. In addition to his other publications, he has co-
authored a book (with Rodney H. Jones) entitled Understanding Digital Literacies: a practical
introduction (Routledge, 2012). Correspondence: c.hafner@cityu.edu.hk

CONNIE NG KWAI FUN is a Research Fellow in the Department of English at the City University
of Hong Kong. She has been teaching ESP/EAP courses for over 10 years and currently coordinates
discipline-specific English courses for science and engineering students. She acted as co-investigator
on a Teaching Development Grant (TDG) funded research project on the development of
multiliteracies through English for science with Christoph Hafner and Lindsay Miller. Currently,
she is co-investigator for another TDG project on the creation of corpus-based online materials and
resources for engineering students. Her research interests are in the areas of ESP/EAP,
multiliteracies, professional communication, L2 teacher cognition and identity. Correspondence:
enconnie@cityu.edu.hk

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