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Below is a video demo of the iPhone Application we created for The Open University. I previously posted some screenshots of this application.

Learnosity has been working with The Open University in the UK for the past few months. We did a pilot using the Learnosity Voice platform to deliver spoken language learning in the Intermediate French L120 course.

This iPhone application has been developed to replace/ augment the Learnosity Voice student web-interface. The application allows students review their answers, receive teacher feedback, and listen to sample answers using an iPhone or an iPod Touch.

Download the app from the iTunes App store. Note: Learnosity/OU login is required.

Learnosity / Open University iPhone App demo on Vimeo.com.

For those of you interested, this video created with the iPhone Simulator from the iPhone SDK, iSimulate, Jing, Soundflower and Quicktime Pro.

We were thrilled to learn that Learnosity Voice has been nominated for a Handheld Learning Award. We were nominated in the Secondary category for the Innovation award, defined as "An initiative, project or product that has had the most positive impact within category".

Please vote for us by text LEARNOSITY to +44 7786 205 637. One vote per phone. Voting closes at midnight UK time on Monday 28th September.

All the very best to the others nominated: Studywiz and Creative Learning Lab / Waag Society. I look forward to seeing you at the Awards Ceremony at the conference in October.

We are excited to see Learnosity nominated for two illustrious e-Learning Age awards. We have been shortlisted from almost 200 entries from organisations worldwide.

Learnosity Voice has been shortlisted in two categories:

• Best Use of Mobile Learning
• Most Innovative New Product or Tool in E-learning

We're in super company with some great products shortlisted in our categories. Best of luck to all those shortlisted. I look forward to meeting you all at the awards dinner on November 12th.

More information about the e-Learning Age awards.

I previously blogged about some medical applications for Learnosity Voice, which we are working on with the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin.

Voice Response as a medical training application

The "Voice Response Patient Roleplay" involves a student speaking to the system, leaving voice responses. These responses are later reviewed by a tutor.

The following is a recording of a sample call to the system. This call is also available to download in MP3 format (mp3, 1.7mb).

In this example, we modeled the taking of a patient history with prompts and responses in the following areas:

1. Presenting Complaint
2. History of Presenting Complaint
3. Medical History
4. Social History
5. Family History
6. Review of Systems

At each stage the student is given a response from the patient and told what to ask about next. This should prompt the students to ask certain questions at each stage. A sample marking scheme is included in the voice response script.

Sample Question Script

Questions Script and Sample Marking Scheme (pdf, 2 pages, 100kb)

The Learnosity Voice documentation is now available on the Learnosity Documentation website. Feel free to browse through demonstration and how-to videos on Voice Response and Voice Chat. This includes some video demos of the system in action. Also available are Voice Response user manuals which you read online, or print off for reference.

Demonstration / How-to Videos

Voice Response

• Search Sessions
• Mark Sessions
• Create New Questions
• Create Exams

Voice Chat

• Mark Sessions
• Create New Questions
• Inviting other classes

General

• Interface Customisation

Example Voice Response Conversations

• The Open University Project (Intermediate French)
• The Le@rning Federation Project (Indonesian Language)

User Manuals

Voice Response

• Finding and Marking Sessions
• Creating and updating Exams
• Creating New Questions
• Sample Answers

Keep an eye on the documentation website for more videos in the coming days and weeks.

I will be speaking at the Handheld Learning 2009 on Monday October 5th 2009. My presentation is part of the "Best Practice in Action" strand from 11am to 5pm in the Upper Sugar Room. The seminars will be chaired by all-around-good-guy Andy Black from Becta.

The good news is that Monday is a public open day with free entry to Handheld Learning. It is free of charge and open to the general public, Teachers, school governors, parents, employers, accompanied minors and anybody who is interested in the positive impact that mobile, always-on computing is having on the quality of learning and teaching experience.

The following is an overview of the session from the conference website:

Time permitting, I'll be giving a demo of the iPhone Application we built for the Open University.

If you're going to to be there, please drop me a line. I'll be on +353 857 111 222 (Call or SMS). You can also get me on Twitter (@gcooney) or email gavin [at] learnosity [dot] com.

I'm delighted to have been invited by the The Department of Foreign Languages at Poznan University of Technology to speak at the 18th International IATEFL Poland Conference on September 11th 2009 in Poznan, Poland.

IATEFL Poland is an annual conference bringing together both English teachers and researchers in the field of language teaching methodology to freely communicate ideas, exchange views and share experiences. This year's conference is planned to be centrally concerned with examining the concepts of new technologies in foreign language teaching as well as of fresh challenges to teaching in the globalised world.

I'll be speaking on Friday at 13:15 in a session entitled "Use of mobile phones for spoken language learning". I'll be speaking about our projects in Ireland, UK and Australia.

If you're going to the conference, please get in touch and we can meet for a coffee. I'll be on +353 857 111 222 (Call or SMS) while I'm in Poland. You can also get me on Twitter (@gcooney) or email gavin [at] learnosity [dot] com.

We're delighted to announce that Learnosity Voice has been fully integrated with Skype. This means that students anywhere can use skype to call the system from their computer, completely free of charge. Students call a Skype name as opposed to dialing a phone number. We have already implemented this in the UK, USA and Australia.

Feel free to test it out by calling learnosity_vdemo from your Skype.

In this video, I will explain how the Learnosity Voice interface is easily customisable. This includes the language of the web and voice interfaces, and how all features can be turned on and off as required.

For example, when a student or teacher logs into the Irish government installation of Learnosity Voice, the entire interface is in the Irish language. The interface can be changed to English is required by the user.

Every single text item in the student, teacher and administration interfaces come from a language file that we call a resource bundle. To create a new language here, we simply edit this file in a spreadsheet.

Resource bundles are also useful for changing terminology in English language interface. For example:

• For the Learning Federation in Australia, we used the word “conversation”.
• For the Open University we use the word “session”.
• In New South Wales we use the word test.

The video also shows how in various installations, certain items are enabled and disabled as required, so that students and teachers never have to see an item that is irrelevant to them.

Also, fully customisable is the voice interface. We simply record each prompt in the language and accent we require.

The video includes excerpts from calls from some of Learnosity’s installations. For example, The Le@rning Federation voice interface was recorded in English with an Australian accent. The Irish project is an example of the same interface in the Irish language. Another English language example is the Open University in the UK.

More Learnosity Demo/ How-to Videos.