FAQ
1. How much time will it take to do the course?
That will depend on your own situation. Students who want to improve their academic readings skills significantly and on all levels are advised to work with DigiTALENT at least three times a week for two hours over a twelve week period. The intake assessment as well as the final assessment are included in this time allocation.
2. Can you tell me more about the intake and the final assessment?
The intake assessment consist of two parts: Part 1 will test your academic reading skills: Skimming, Previewing, Scanning, Bringing in what you already know. Part 2 will test your academic reading skills: Reading to learn, Expanding your vocabulary, Reading to summarize, Reading to compare and Reading to criticize. You can go to the demo to see how an assessment works. The final assessment consist of one part and will take two and a half hours. There are about nine texts and 36 questions.
3. I took the intake assessment. What do I do next?
The outcome of the assessment will tell you which reading skills have to be improved and, consequently, which course modules you will have to concentrate on. If you scored under 80% for both parts of your intake assessment, you will have to do all the nine modules.
If you scored under 80% for part 1 you concentrate on Modules 1, 2, 3 and 4. If you scored over 80% for part 1 and under 80% for part 2, you concentrate on Modules 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
If you scored over 80% for both parts, you reading skills are good enough. But maybe you want to practise more.
4. Will I receive a certificate of completion after I complete the course?
You will receive a certificate of completion when you pass the final assessment. It will be sent to your home address.
5. What should I do before I begin to do the course exercises?
Make sure you read very carefully. It is important to answer all the questions correctly, perhaps after repeated attempts. Otherwise the score for the exercise will not be recorded in the database. Your score for the exercise is calculated on the basis of the number of attempts you needed to give the correct answers. Before going to the next exercise press the button: save now.
6. How does the feedback work?
After answering a question of an exercise feedback may be given. The feedback gives you a clue about the right answer. However, there are questions which don't have feedback. After finishing an exercise there is always a score between 0% - 100%.
7. When can I take the final assessment?
You can try again the intake assessment to learn more about your reading level after having practised.
8. When and where is the final assessment?
Your teacher will give you further details. If you are an individual user of DigiTALENT and you are ready for the final assessment, please send an e-mail to info@taalcentrum-vu.nl.
9. How do I get a DigiTALENT account?
Go to login. There you will find the sign up button. You have to fill in all the fields. After that you can pay with iDEAL.
10. How long will I have access to DigiTALENT after I have paid?
You have access as long as you want. But, the system will remove your account if there is no activity for more than 120 days. Before that happens you will receive an e-mail.
11. Which browser should I use?
Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer both support DigiTALENT.
12. How can I resume the course if I have to exit it before completing it?
You can resume DigiTALENT whenever you want.
13. In a number of cases, an article is only partially quoted. Where can I find the complete article?
As a student, you have access to www.picarta.nl. Most sources used in DigiTALENT can be found by using this search engine.
14. What should I do if I have further questions?
Send a short, but clear description of the issue by email to info@taalcentrum-vu.nl and we'll try to help you as soon as possible. Don't forget to include your username.