Progress on the ICOSA Phase 2 Project for Developing and Sharing Online Self-Access English Language Learning Materials

This presentation reports the progress of the Inter-university Collaborative Online Self-Access (ICOSA) project: a project for sharing and developing online self-access English language learning materials. It covers the symposium topic of Developing & using online and multi-modal materials. The project started in early 2012, and the second phase began in 2014. The five participating Hong Kong tertiary institutions spent the first months of the project conducting an analysis of the needs of their students for online self-access materials. This was followed by a survey of existing materials to find out what was already available to fulfil these needs, and what materials could be modified in order to do so. Needs which are not met by suitable materials have been prioritized and materials are in development. Project materials are collected and shared in a repository. In addition, a tagging and indexing system is used in order to help project participants find materials in this repository. The finished materials are being utilised by various institutions to assist students with their independent learning. In the presentation the results of the first phase, and the second phases’ needs analysis and development of materials including multi-modal materials, as well as future plans, will be discussed. The presentation should be of interest to academics in need of e-learning self-access materials to recommend to their students.