The Hotel School was experiencing a number of international students arriving with low levels of written and spoken English. This resulted in high fail rates, poor attendance and high attrition. 

Many of the students had never written in English before, let alone produced academic assessments.

A need was identified to provide students with a basic guide to writing in an academic style, that they would actually want to engage with.

I produced a module to help students learn the basic features of academic writing style. This is aimed at students with an IELTS equivalent of 5.0 so that it is accessible to students with low levels of English. 

It also draws on motivational strategies such as ARCS and MUSIC to promote engagement while drawing on principles of UDL to increase accessibility. 

This module was placed in the orientation module for new students and was also used in class as part of the core communication modules for both Undergraduate and Postgraduate students. This resulted in an increase of 15% in the pass rates for both these classes.

This module supplies the learner with multiple types of interactive activities such as drag and drop, gap fills and multiple choice questions. This supplies multiple means of action and expression in line with UDL principles and also aligns with Allen's CCAF framework. It also supplies multiple means of engagement to sustain effort and persistance.

The initial activities in the module are rather simple and build in success at early stages, thus building confidence for students with low levels of English. This reflects elements of both ARCs and MUSIC. However, as the module progresses the challenge level also increases and scaffolding is gradually removed, gradually expanding the learner's Zone of Proximal Development.