Hi Lada! Thanks for getting started on developing your project!
I like the project goal, it fits with the need well.
In the objectives, can you be a bit more SMART? :-)
e.g. 1. What exactly do you mean by "design" here? How extensive do you imagine it being? When will it be done by (do you hope)?
2. How many? How many subjects? etc etc.

Does that make sense?

Thanks!
Andy H

Dear Lada,
First of all, thanks for sharing your project ideas!I do have a minor question to ask thinking of the objectives you have set:
Are you sure moodle is your best choice if your goal is communication? Just wondering.. wouldn't creating a closed group in a social network do the same and with less effort in the design?Maybe when you can put into words what you include in "communication" in this specific project you may have more options to select from..

Thanks for sharing your ideas Lada. I just want to comment on the idea of student ages. Which age group are you targeting? Communication can be defined at different levels so for the project to achieve its objectives wouldn't it be realistic to have a focus on age group to be more specific?
Overall thank you once again for sharing your project.
fualuga

Hi Andy, Marina Fualuga and all,
First of all thank you very much for your feedback, I’ve found it very helpful and decided to rewrite my objectives. I’ll try to address the issues you, Fualuga and Marina have raised while scrutinising my new objectives through the lenses of Andy’s SMART framework.
So, my objectives, how they sound now:
1. To choose a VLE which meets the needs of my students in terms of availability and functionality, which meets the set of criteria like easy to monitor, manage and fine tune by the end of January 2014.
2. To design the platform chosen for people of different age (children, young adults, adults) and different level of English (A1 - C2, CEFR) with a variety of self-paced courses, and on a variety of subjects (history, geography, chemistry, social studies, physics etc.) by June 2014.

Then, try to sound SMART, Andy ;-)
Objective 1
S – ‘availability’: it’s taken into account what Bax calls ‘normalisation’: students should easily get used to working there;
‘functionality' - availability of different means like chat, forum, wiki for cooperative work and communication
M- we can easily get whether the platform has all those means above or not, lets monitor what is going on there or not, who logs in and what they do there i.e. whether meets the set of criteria or not.
A – sys admin and courses manager are aware how to do their job in the VLE setting.
R – as soon as we’re choosing between well-known VLEs as Moodle, Blackboard, eFront, Desire2Learn and Second Life it seems quite realistic to come to the agreement in one month.
T – time bound – yes, it is.

Objective 2
S – age, level, area of interest are taken into account
M – we can see how the VLE is organised by categories of courses
A – yes
R – we have a half of a year!
T - yes, it is.
Would be happy to get anything from you ☺
Cheers
Lada

Great Lada. Really clear. Thanks!

Thanks Andy for your input and feedback, will you have a look at my Stakeholder Analysis? Thank you in advance. Btw, was trying to enter the live chat in BBCol today, but turned out to be the only there :-(

Dear Lada,
your project ideas sound very interesting. Will it be organized on a volunteer basis or you are going to introduce some fees for students to take some course? How are you planning to motivate tutors to work for the project? Elena Iarkova

Hi Elena, thanks for dropping in!
At present I'm thinking of Freemium as a business model so that learners will pay for some content (e.g. tests, personal tutorial, etc.) while all the rest will be free for students.
Re tutor work - since it's an advanced feature of the project I see three ways: 1. Paid work (resources: tuition fees - see above) 2. Volunteer work (e.g. for newly qualified instructors who want to get practice) 3. Social exchange - when they learn Russian there and teach their own language. Not sure which model is more robust though :-)

Dear LAda,
when I read your stakeholder's chart a question came to my mind and in a way you are referring to it in this comment as regards tutor models. When you mark "no involvement" from teachers, there is an underlying amtter to consider. This does not act in itself but is the expression either of fear, lack of knowledge, unclear communication as regards the project and all these can create more obstacles to the project than lack of involvement. Is volunteer work a welcome concept among your staff? Which are the professional "work codes" in your area?
Also, if you are considering a platform that will imply you do collect some money, is there any of it that could go to tutors? What kind of support would the paltform provide you with: only content access or class generation, group control and registration?
All the best,

Dear Lada,
I liked the idea of social exchange, but who will teach Russian to those foreigners? These tutors should also be motivated somehow. We have tried to attract former graduates to join our English Discussion Club, which was organized on a volunteer basis by teachers of English and native speakers, but it was alive not on-line. The main challenge we faced is the lack of time for participants to participate regularly and attracting foreigners as spekers, since they were not always available and ready to join us. We still carry out the club's discussions, but not as often as want to. This might be a good idea of organizing another project.