Our courses are fully accessible to all. However, if you are an external learner (ie you are not a member of Oxford University and therefore do not have a University user account, known as a Single Sign On) we will need to set you up in our virtual learning environment, Canvas, as an external user. If you are intending to enrol on an online course with us, you will also need to download Microsoft Teams. This page guides you through these processes.
Canvas (our VLE, virtual learning environment)
We recommend that before enrolling on a course with us, you take our Language Level Evaluation Test. You can take the test online via the Virtual Language Centre in Canvas. We will need to give you access to this site, so please send an email to admin@lang.ox.ac.uk to ask for access to the Language Level Evaluation Tests, making sure to include your name and surname as well as the email address you will be using.
If you are a continuing student with us or if you are a beginner in the language you wish to study, you will not need to take a Language Level Evaluation Test, so we will set up your access to Canvas when you have enrolled on and paid for your course.
Once we have created your external Canvas user account, you will receive an email asking you to activate your account and set your own password. It is very important that you action this request promptly. The video below shows you what happens next.
VIDEO: HOW TO ACTIVATE YOUR CANVAS ACCOUNT
Microsoft Teams
If you enrol on one of our online courses, you will need to use Microsoft Teams (MS Teams). For the best configuration, download the app and use it from a PC or a laptop so that you have easy access to all the tools included.
The video below shows you how to download MS Teams and how to then join your class – it also provides a short overview of some of the functionalities we use in MS Teams.
As an external user, you will be a ‘guest’ in MS Teams. This means that you will not have access to the chat function or to the class recording directly from MS Teams. Your tutor knows this and they will download the class recording and upload it to Canvas for you to have access to the replay. They will also save and share the chat notes.
VIDEO: HOW TO JOIN AN ONLINE CLASS
Technical Guidance
Whether you are joining us for an in-person course or for an online course, you will be working a lot with Canvas and using all its multimodality to support your learning and your practice. For this purpose, you will need to make sure that you have access to fast broadband and a good headset with a microphone. We recommend that you access Canvas via Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome; some functionalities do not work with some other browsers such as Safari, Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge.
