Multimodal explorations in the humanities: e-learning in a Faculty of Modern Languages

This paper discusses some theoretical principles and ideas about e-learning in the humanities. These principles and ideas have been informed by the authors’ fieldwork experience, respectively as teacher, project designer and tutor, in the Faculty of Modern Languages, University of Bologna. The first part of the paper introduces the rationale behind the implementation of the Almachannel platform and illustrates consequences, good and bad, of the decisions made in the realisation of the e-courses developed. The second part bridges the experience-dictated remarks made in the first and third parts by providing more theoretical considerations on the nature of learning when using this platform and the educational genres involved. The third part deals with the role of the tutor in a multimedia/multimodal environment and makes some specific remarks on the forum, i.e the set of potential interactions created through and around the platform in question. Finally, some conclusions and suggestions are put forward regarding future developments.