The ESL at Home pilot offers optional f2f study session times, one afternoon, one evening each week, and students who are able to attend are the most successful.  We use volunteers (two to four per study session) to work 1:1 or small groups with students studying the same episode of Crossroads Cafe, to answer questions,  listening as students practice speaking and pronunciation exercises.   These sessions are wild times!   Students may be reviewing, reading transcripts, (for any of the 26 episodes... because it's ongoing enrollment and self-paced, students are NOT all in the same place of the curriculum!), waiting for a speaking test, watching a review test tape for listening questions, taking written tests, picking up work, exchanging borrowed DVDs and VHS tapes, more!   Some students cannot attend these sessions.   Once a month I meet some on a Saturday morning at a local library across town.   Others I make appointments for sporadically as they complete work (there is a reveiw test given after each episode).   For two students, we're experimenting with telephone and/or recorded  speaking tests, and snail-mail or drop-off for their completed work.    As a pilot, we're experimenting with various options.   
Evaluating all aspects and working towad the cost effectiveness will be a strong component of the next phase of our pilot effort.
Holly

"No matter what our attempts to inform, it is our ability to inspire that will turn the tides."
Holly Dilatush
ESL distance learning, Dialogue Cafe, Volunteer coordinator
Charlottesville City Schools Adult Learning Center
1000 Preston Ave., Suite D
Charlottesville  VA  22903
(434) 245.2815 office
(434) 960.7177 cell/mobile
http://theHsmile.org  ['home' to several Moodle CMS (course management systems/virtual classrooms)]
http://www.Charlottesville-ESL.org 
"Live with intention. Share inside~out smiles, inspire hope, seek awe and nurture in nature."


>>> julie_mcKinney at worlded.org 05/15/06 1:01 PM >>>

Thanks Katrina, Diana (through Steve), Jennifer, Holly and others for
your accounts of out-of-school study options for your students! Please
keep these coming. It is great to hear what people are doing, and maybe
some of these ideas will be appropriate for the corrections people
looking for distance education options.

It seems like there is always a component of some human contact (as
there should be), and I'm curious how your programs have managed this in
terms of staffing and funding. For those without special grants for this
purpose, what is the most cost-effective way to build this in?

Julie