Idea dump: how to get more learners to succeed?

Welsh Million Speakers Project
#21

Diolch, Warren - that’s a really comprehensive set of points, and I hugely appreciate you taking the time to go into such detail. I’m sure we can get some of those things done - maybe starting with Google Analytics so that we’ve got a clearer picture of what’s happening at the moment… :slight_smile:

1 Like
#22

SSiW is recommended by a couple of sites that come higher in the search than SSiW itself, but I found it via word of mouth a few years ago. I have no idea how the friend found it originally.

2 Likes
#23

Yes, SSiW was on page 5 of Google results for me too. Have clicked through in case it helps. Hope you can do some tweaks to push it up the rankings a bit.

1 Like
#24

I may regret admitting this but I find myself temporarily covering a digital marketing class at work with a unit on SEO and now know more about it than I really wish to.

@aran D 'you want me to have a go at working those rankings? It may require wording alterations on the site itself.

@warrendavies’s 2, 4, 6 and 7 are important. But be careful with 1 as my understaning is that less weight is now placed on that and I’m given to understand that 9 is actively penalised if Google catch you at it! (bear in mind I’ve learned this stuf fonly recently and in a hurry and Google change their ranking algorithm all the time)

Here’s Google’s own advice on it
http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

Incidentally if there’s an SEO problem it mighgt also be why the Spanish course isn’t getting the traffic you hope for?

4 Likes
#25

Thanks @leiafee, this is a great document :slight_smile:

It’s so easy to do though (not pick the terms, just adding them), it’s probably worth 5 minutes effort to get something in.[quote=“leiafee, post:24, topic:8746”]
9 is actively penalised if Google catch you at it!
[/quote]

Yes I agree. If this route is chosen you shouldn’t be too blazen. Better to have an associated site that actually offers some content or useful info, rather than just a redirect page. Better that way for Google, but also the user.

2 Likes
#26

That would be enormously fantastic - ti’n seren aur pur! - perhaps with the cut-off line that we only do things that are either helpful or neutral to the searcher - so not, I think, one page sites etc… :slight_smile:

1 Like
#27

1 is used by Google for categorisation, though the Google algorithms will also check the site content to ensure that you are being honest and punish you for trying to game the system if you are caught stuffing in irrelevant tags. As far as I understand it is used to very little or no extent for ranking purposes.

1 Like
#29

[I don’t know why this popped up among “newest” if last post was one year ago, but since it’s here…]

In my Google searches SSiW never appears before page 3 and the preview is not exactly one of the most effective clearest and appealing (in case you may want to check it out):

57
571366×210 33.1 KB

1 Like
#30

A spam post from this morning - now deleted.

2 Likes
#31

Ia, diolch ti boi :slight_smile:

#32

My wife and I have been trying to learn Welsh over many years and not found that the teaching was consistent and drop out rates were higher where the buildings had bad acoustics or rooms were cold or badly lit. and it was always difficult to find the next course up, anywhere near where you lived. There seems to be a disconnect between the education system and learning the Welsh language for adults and those who are outside of it ie: In days gone past the Schools were used as evening teaching centres for adults with the professional teachers all working to the same syllabus. A friend who has worked through the main current system offered by Aberystwyth to an advanced level still is not capable of holding a conversation with a Welsh person. It is a total waste of money if the system does not allow people to learn without having to plough through ten years of text books (none of which can be understood without a tutor explaining how to use the text itself) Now we have started the new SSIW course which is not easy but there is consistent method of teaching similar to what was used in my own school daysand at last i am managing to spreak some basic Welsh to my friends and visit a coffee morning in my local town. This is where the funding needs to be focussed so that learners can have access within their local communities rather than a 30 mile round trip every week and wade through loads of grammar . If the Welsh government wants a million Welsh Speakers they need to fund the development of localised teaching centres across Wales with a consistent methodology of teaching it (as they do in the schools). I love the Welsh language and hope to learn it to a reasonable level of competence but we must get away from the Ad hoc system where a student does not know where the next years class will be running if at all and who will be teaching it. This is not rocket science Diolch yn fawr iawn

1 Like
#33

I’d have a basic learner’s course permanently added to the box set section on the S4C website. There have been a few such series made in the past - Talk About Welsh springs to mind.

1 Like
#34

That’s an excellent idea - tagging @sara-peacock-1 who I know is already thinking about things like this :slightly_smiling_face:

#35

Thanks, Aran! The issue is, I’m afraid, one of cost - we would have to continue to pay the original producers of the programmes the whole time they were available (and it’s a lot more than you would expect…) However, I am working on getting something set up behind the “paywall” of the National Centre for Learning Welsh’s website - if it’s in a closed environment for learners we would be able to show it because of an educational exemption in the licensing agreement.

So in short - yes, really good idea, and I’m working on it!

1 Like
#36

That sounds promising!

Also, if S4C ever wanted to do a lo-fi set of video lessons with SSi - aka me freestyling for the first few seed sentences, with live learners - we’d be able to let you host those without recurring payments… :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
#37

Would be nice to see it. Especially as S4C is the most high profile exposure to the language service for many people. Even though there are some very basic programmes on there (thinking of the kids stuff) I imagine even some of them might be intimidating for newcomers so to have some kind of here’s some basic help before you get going element would feel like a good thing.

2 Likes
#38

Thanks Stuart :slight_smile: I’m also working on a website with some more basic introductory information (how to find your way around the programmes, suggestions on how to use subtitles, etc), which I hope will go live in September…

2 Likes