Insta Spanish - Virtual Classroom, Forum, and Podcast

Hola all - I've done a major upgrade of the software that runs this website as well as the server - for any of you tech geeks, I upgraded to PHP 5, as well as the new Joomla 1.5. I had to do this in order to accommodate the new Members Zone, which is fully integrated into the Moodle e-learning system, allowing for things like virtual classrooms for teachers and homeschoolers, as well as progress tracking for individual students throughout our programs and the 2 courses I'm developing - the Beginning Spanish through Music, and the Spanish Verbs Made Easy. The Members Zone is under heavy development but the same programs you found in the old Members Zone are all still there under the Self Study Programs menu.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR MEMBERS ZONE SUBSCRIBERS: You have to login on your right, THEN click on the Members Zone link to enter the Members Zone. I'll be fixing this soon so if you aren't logged in the system takes you to a proper login page - but for now please do just login first.

ALSO: if you don't get logged into Moodle when you click on Members Zone, and instead get told you are logged in as a GUEST - then try resetting your PASSWORD here in the main system. You can do that by going to the Forum, then click on "MY PROFILE" on the top menu - then "EDIT YOUR DETAILS" on the left menu. Reset your password to whatever you like - then try logging in again.

I'll also be adding back the info page for people who want to learn about our subscription option. If you find any glitches in there don't worry as I'll be working on that asap now that the new system is in place. This all has been mucho trabajo - you'll have to pardon my absence from the forum and private messaging this week :)

If anybody has any problems logging in, posting to the forum, etc - don't hesitate to let me know!

As I did a poll with comment box for last week's letter - many people wrote with great ideas and helpful comments for me. I'm going to post them here so you can get a look at them, and add to them if you wish! Thanks so much to all who submitted, this is going to be very helpful for Maite and I when we sit down to brainstorm a map for the upcoming newsletters.

I'm sorry I haven't been as active developing the online classes lately - but as those who get my newsletter know, I pulled a muscle in my back several weeks ago - and have had a very slow recovery. I do hope in the next couple of weeks I'll get some energy back - I am still monitoring the forums and will try to get a newsletter posted this week.

One cool development is that we're working on incorporating an additional payment option OTHER than Paypal for the Members Zone - Amazon Payments, which allows for a trial with subscription. As quite a few people have emailed that they don't want to use Paypal, I'm glad to finally be able to offer at least 1 alternative. This should be live sometime this week.

I changed the Moodle format for the 2 classes today, from a date based (1 month long,etc) to based on chapter or unit type thing. I did this for a couple of reasons. First is that these courses aren't meant to be completed in any certain timeframe - actually people can take them as fast or slow as they want. Since they are actively in production however, at the moment you can only take one as fast as I can finish it. But that won't be the case once the course is completed - at that point members will be able to access the archived classes, and begin taking them whenever, going at their own pace for finishing the material as well.

Also I think this format better suits the material itself - as all my programs are sort of chapter based rather than time based. It may take a couple of months to get them completed - but once done, each class will be online forever which is nice.