Printed with permission of the Ohio Articulation and Transfer Network, Ohio Board of Regents

Great progress was made on the development of statewide learning outcomes for beginning and intermediate language courses I and II during the Academic Year 2013-2014. Ohio has statewide learning outcomes for American Sign Language, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Endorsed learning outcomes and course alignment guides for these languages are available on the Ohio Foreign Language Initiative website at https://www.ohiohighered.org/transfer/foreign_language_initiative_documents.

During fall 2014, statewide faculty review panels were formed based on the nominations by University System of Ohio institutions. These faculty reviewers have been undergoing a series of training sessions offered by the Ohio Articulation and Transfer Network (OATN).  During early spring 2015, the training will continue; hopefully, all panel reviewers will soon be ready to begin their first reviews, as institutions have already begun submitting their courses to the statewide panels.  The review panels will ensure that courses align to the endorsed learning outcomes so that uniform performance expectations undergird the first four courses and ease transfer for the many students who do so each year.

In addition to this exciting news, the faculty lead experts and the faculty writing panel have been busy researching the potential for additional foreign language Transfer Assurance Guides (TAGs). A statewide survey was sent out for a potential new TAG in Arabic in November 2014. The survey results are currently under analysis. A statewide survey was sent out in January 2015 to University System of Ohio institutions for proposed TAG courses in Chinese. A survey will be forthcoming for TAG courses in Japanese during spring 2015.

There will be a conference workshop for postsecondary educators regarding the implementation of the endorsed learning outcomes during the OFLA Spring 2015 Conference. Dr. Debbie Robinson (OATN Consultant), Dr. Jan Macián (OATN Consultant), Dr. Kirsten Halling (Wright State University), and Hideo Tsuchida (OATN) will be co-presenting. Hope you can join them at their session.

Without the diligent and progressive work completed by Dr. Robinson, Dr. Macián, and all of the institutional representatives who responded to the endorsement surveys, this initiative could not have gotten this far.  Thanks to everyone for continuing to be involved and for providing support for this important initiative.

Questions about the Ohio Foreign Language Initiative may be directed to Hideo Tsuchida at htsuchida@regents.state.oh.us, or to Michelle Blaney at mblaney@regents.state.oh.us.