Content Authoring for Online Language Learning Courses through Articulate Storyline Software: Implications for Asynchronous Classrooms

As the number of online courses delivered via the learning management systems (LMSs) is growing in Iranian higher education context, demands increase for appropriatedesign and development of content for such programs. While synchronous courses are being widely offered in almost every college and university across the country, asynchronous classrooms have just begun to capture attentions. This is in part attributed to the growing interests in anytime anyplace learning opportunities for potential learners who find it difficult to attend scheduled face-to-face and/or online synchronous courses due to their rigid and inflexible occupational requirements. In addition,designing interactive content for asynchronous courses has long been a challenge for course designers and curriculum developers given that asynchronous classrooms heavily rely on multimedia and interactive content designed and developed following Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) standards and do not require the real-time presence of the teacher. The emergence of new content authoring software over the past few years has opened up new horizons for design and development of content for asynchronous classrooms. The present study reports on the potentials of Articulate Storyline software for designing interactive content for online language learning purposes. It elaborates on the constraints imposed by and the implications of the asynchronous mode of delivery for authoring language learning content with a focus on the task types and language skills that can be better addressed asynchronously

Keywords:

SCORM , learning langement lystems , lsynchronous courses , Articulate Storyline