Course Design in the Digital Age: Learning through Interaction with News Based Materials

The use of digital media as a mode of delivering course materials has become increasingly common in the field of language education. The aim of language educators has therefore been to discover suitable ways of using digital media to enable learners to engage with materials effectively and enhance their learning experience. This paper describes a collaborative syllabus between teachers at two Japanese universities which shares the same mode of delivery: a website of news-based materials. Students are asked to read an authentic and current news story each week and, after a classroom session, write their reactions to the story by adding their comments on the website. By using an online mode of delivery, students are motivated to build their confidence in expressing themselves in English away from the classroom and begin to engage fully with the course materials as their opinions become topics in the developing online discussions.