Textbook Heroes

Oleksandra Wallo

Assistant Professor
Slavic Languages & Literature

OER created: 

“Dobra forma (Good Form),” an open-education web-based overview of basic Ukrainian grammar

Course(s): 

UKRA 104: Elementary Ukrainian I and UKRA 108: Elementary Ukrainian II

A self-study tool: 

“I have been teaching Ukrainian in the United States for 13 years and have always had to supplement existing textbooks with additional activities that would give students meaningful practice with the grammar, which they always find to be the most difficult aspect of Ukrainian. Because “Dobra forma” consists of accessible explanations in English and numerous machine-graded activities — and because it works on all mobile devices – students find it easy to use this resource on their own.

A rich resource: 

“’Dobra forma’ is one of nine foreign language OERs developed in partnership with KU's Open Language Resource Center, funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.” One of my goals in creating this OER was to make Ukrainian grammar accessible and fun, so we have used many authentic photographs and some videos from Ukraine, which place language form into a rich cultural context."