Mellon-NWLC

University of Puget Sound

French

Michel Rocchi
Professor, Foreign Languages and Literature (French)
rocchi@ups.edu

Course Web Pages

Date Awarded:

Description of Project:

French 250 and FL 390: I transformed my courses on Culture and Civilization, and Modern French Theatre into fully integrated multimedia courses, using web-based material and multimedia. These courses used to be traditional courses with standard take-home assignments. Their redesign effectively enhanced students' experiences, and added to the pool of available courses on the shared Mellon site. The French culture course now comprises four units on history and key historical figures; society; culture and ideas; and the arts. Each of the units is fully integrated and available to be taught by fellow Mellonites in a variety of ways suitable to each professor's pedagogical needs. The Theatre course includes comprehensive self-contained units on the playwrights and texts studied in the semester. These units could be imported and taught in a variety of French literature courses on the Twentieth Century. The on-line work on the above courses includes informational content such as biographical, bibliographical, Internet links, study questions, tests, and cross cultural material.

French 321: I am currently in the process of developing a web-based course on Francophone Literature with a fully integrated multimedia component. The course would not only enhance students' experiences, but also expand the range of course material offered in the French program. The course should be completed by the summer of 2001. The Francophone literature course would comprise units on the French Antilles, French Africa, Canada, and European countries such as Belgium and Luxembourg. Each of the units would be fully integrated, and the on-line work would include informational content such as biographical, bibliographical, interactive map of the Francophone world, Internet links, study guides, tests, cross cultural material, etc.

Outcomes:

The generosity of the Mellon Foundation and the collaboration with Middlebury's CET have been immeasurably beneficial to my professional growth over the last four years. During this period, I have moved from fountain pen to power books; from assigned handwritten compositions to list servs and WebBoards. Every aspect of my pedagogy has been affected, and my conception of any academic project has been influenced and improved by my participation in the Mellon project. Not only have I revised all my language, culture, and literature courses, but also moved beyond courses to enhance our department study-abroad experience in France with technology-enhanced programs.