VICTORY Author & VICTORY

This software program allows the instructor to create and edit video-based lessons very quickly. It has templates for five engaging exercise formats described in detail below. Once lessons are created, your students can use a companion software program called VICTORY to have the lessons presented to them.

Highlights

• Has been used to create commercial packages for Business Chinese and Paroles (French)
• Allows creation of custom video-based lessons
• Easy template-based operation (like word-processing)
• With a video clip ready, it only takes approximately 30 minutes to create a lesson with five exercises
• Five pedagogically sound, highly interactive exercises formats
• Multilingual (In addition to languages that use the Roman alphabet, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese are supported.)
• The roleplay exercise simulates traditional language labs with enhancements (video and timing control)
• The reconstruction exercise, an implementation of "jigsaw listening", trains students' discourse understanding and construction skills

Hardware requirements

• Windows PC
• Pentium III or better
• Windows XP
• 64 MB of free RAM
• moitor resolution 1024x768 or larger
• A sound card
• A microphone (needed for VICTORY)

Detailed descriptions

Exercise format 1: Subtitle

First, let's look at what the student would see when a lesson is presented to them in VICTORY. In this exercise, the screen presents four segments from a dialogue. Each segment can be played independently. At the bottom of the screen are 8 script panels. The learner is to listen to each segment and find the script panel that matches the segment, drag it and place it right underneath the segment.

To author an exercise in this format using VICTORY Author, you would use the following screen. Fill in correct scripts in the first row and distractors in the second row.

To cut the video into smaller segments, you would use the following screen. Stop at the beginning of of a segment, click "In". Stop at the end of the segment, and click "Out".

Exercise format 2: Comprehension

This is a familiar multiple-choice question format to check on the learner's comprehension. Questions can address not only the language used, but actions and things shown in the video. The learner can play the video clip as many times as he/she wishes to answer the questions.

To author this portion of the lesson, you only need to fill in a form like the following for each question.

Exercise format 3: Role-play

The learner has an opportunity to practice speaking as well. The learner can choose a role and perform the dialogue with the other people in the video. In the screen shot below, the role of Mr. Li is selected. When the "Role-Play" button is clicked, the video starts playing but Mr. Li's lines are muted, so you can play his role. Your performance can be recorded optionally, so that you can compare yours with the model pronunciations. If you cannot keep up with the other people in the video, you can slow down the pace when it's your time to speak. You can have the program give you 1.5 to 3 times more time to speak your lines.

For authoring, you would define each line (=video segment), specify whose line it is, and type in the line. If you want to re-use the segments you've already defined in Subtitle, you can simply paste them.

Exercise format 4: Cloze dictation

In this exercise the learner is to view the video clip and try to fill in the blanks in the script. This activity is intended to foster accuracy. Again, the learner can play the video clip as many times as he/she wishes.

To author this portion, you would use the following screen. Type in the script in the large box, highlight a word(s) you'd like the learner to guess, click "Make this blank".

Exercise format 5: Reconstruction

As a wrap-up activity, "Reconstruction" is provided. The video clip is segmented into four pieces. Each of the videotapes on the screen contains one segment, but the order of the videotapes is jumbled up. The learner's task is to listen to each tape and figure out the correct order. He/She can move the videotapes around the screen for this activity.

For authoring, you only need to define four segments. This is done using the following screen.

Demo versions

A demo version is available for both VICTORY and VICTORY Author. A demo version of VICTORY can only play sample lessons bundled in the package. A demo version of VICTORY Author is functional for evaluation purposes only. A registered version of VICTORY is required to play lessons authored with VICTORY Author.

Licensing

VICTORY	US$15	For computer lab use, purchase as many licenses as the number of simulataneous users
VICTORY Author	US$300	includes a registered version of VICTORY

The Center for Technology-Enhanced Language Learning and Instruction is a research and development unit of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Purdue University.