Evaluating a Second Language Learning Course Management System

This paper describes the design and evaluation of BRIX, an environment for developing online courses for second language learning. Commercial course management systems fail to meet the specific requirements of second language learning. For this reason, educators at the National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) of the University of Hawaii have hand-crafted several online language learning systems. However, hand-crafting is too expensive to be sustainable and scaleable. BRIX was developed to address the need for a more generic language learning environment that fulfills language educators’ requirements focusing on reading, writing, and listening activities and can easily be customized for different language courses. The design of BRIX is based on pedagogic approaches and theories of teaching and learning second languages used at NFLRC. After describing the design of BRIX, we present an evaluation that compares the use and usability of a Chinese course in BRIX to a previous, hand-crafted version of the same