The Pustulka Project

Developing Online Testing Software for English for Specific Purposes.

Aleksandra Łuczak
Kozminski University Warsaw, Poland
aluczak@alk.edu.pl

PUSTULKA (pustulka.edu.pl/) is a new web-based testing software, developed especially for the ESP (English for Specific Purposes) context, and created by an ESP  teacher, together with a software developer. It emerged when the quest for ideal testing software for FLT (Facilitator-Led Training) turned out to be unsuccessful.

With PUSTULKA, teachers can create a variety of exercises (including cloze texts, multiple-choice, drop-down lists, checkboxes, short and long answers), build tests out of the exercises, assign them online or print as Microsoft Word documents. Exercises are easily and quickly parsed (i.e. transferred) from plain text editors (e.g. Word or Notepad) to PUSTULKA and teachers do not need to have any knowledge of HTML or programming to manage.

PUSTULKA works in all browsers and on all devices and students do not need to create accounts to take the tests. They can view their scores and answers immediately after submission. They can also e-learn with PUSTULKA by performing the exercises that teachers make public. There is already a collection of public exercises for you to test: pustulka.edu.pl/PublicExercise/PublicExercisesList.

Student satisfaction surveys prove that PUSTULKA fulfills its task of developing a user-friendly application. 91% of users had definitely or rather positive experience with this application.

The hidden agenda of the Project is to build a teacher Community of Practice by providing the means for them to collaborate. Ideally, teachers will contribute high quality content to the application.

1. Pustulka means kestrel (the bird) in English. 
2. Communities of Practice (CoPs) refer to groups of people who genuinely care about the same real-life problems or hot topics, and who on that basis interact regularly to learn together and from each other.
3. Teachers share some of their exercises with other contributors. Teachers can comment on the exercises of other teachers, suggest changes, correct mistakes, etc. In this way, teachers will benefit from a growing database of exercises, simplify their own and one another’s work, save time on designing and evaluating tests, and develop their digital competence.

If you are interested in learning more about how to create exercises, assign tests, see a sample test or set up a free trial account, go to the PUSTULKA Help section on: http://pustulka.edu.pl/Home/Help.

We welcome your feedback. You can contact us via PUSTULKA web page or directly on info@pustulka.edu.pl.

Aleksandra Łuczak (M.A., Ph.D.), an ESP teacher and the Head of Legilinguistics Section at Kozminski University in Warsaw, runs official English classes and seminars at the tertiary level. including TOLES preparation courses at all levels. She is a teacher trainer, an ELT consultant, and the author of numerous articles on teaching ESP/ELP and book reviews. Her interests also include the use of the latest technologies in Facilitator-Led Training (FLT). She also runs her own online language school and publishing house. More information  can be found on luczak.edu.pl.