An in-depth look at the BOGA program

As I stated in a previous entry, the BOGA program, created by HABE (Institute for the teaching of Basque and Basque Language Literacy to adults), is my main method for learning Euskara. Seeing as I intend to blog about my experiences with the program, among other things, I feel like I should at least give a more thorough explanation.

When I started using the BOGA program a few months ago, I did so by sending an email to the Basque Museum in Boise, Idaho. I chose it quite randomly from a list at the original website for the BOGA program. After getting into contact with the Basque Museum, I mailed a cheque for $20, which was the cost of the four activation discs as at that time, the program was accessible only through CD-rom.

As I was starting the 2nd strata, the program conked out completely and I was left without it for at least two months up until the new and completely online BOGA program was launched. This new program, as far as I can tell, includes all the same content as its predecessor only this time, every quiz the student takes is viewable by the assigned teacher, making it easier for the latter to pinpoint areas wherein the student needs more help. Also, instead of a one-time fee of $20 for the activation discs, this new program costs $50 per semester.

One of the great things about BOGA is that it makes use of a number of sketches in order to present certain grammatical concepts. For instance, in the 1st saio, we meet Andoni and Mikel, two friends who have just arrived at Bilbo (Bilbao) and as they spend time there taking in the sights, they come across Andoni's friend Ixabel and her co-worker Ainhoa. As they spend time together, Andoni pairs off with Ixabel and Mikel with Ainhoa and... well, I think I'd rather not ruin the surprise ending for this particular storyline.

Aside from the sketches there is a virtual teacher (with a photo of a woman and the cartoon body of a genie) who explains some of the grammatical concepts. In a very nit-picky way, I must admit I don't particularly like the virtual teacher-genie. I find her voice quite distracting as she manages to mispronounce words in Euskara and English and I know this because there is another voice within the program that sometimes says the exact same words except she does so correctly.

Also, within each saio, there are about 15 or so mini-quizzes. These are quite easy and are usually fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice. However, at the end of each saio, there are three difficult evaluation tests. It is my experience that sometimes, these tests include concepts that were not discusses or that were glossed-over in the preceding saio, which is why I feel like there are still changes that need to be made to the BOGA program.

All in all, I would give the program a rating of 7/10. I took off points for errors in the program, its propensity for crashing (apparently the database is susceptible to overloading) whilst I'm in the middle of a saio and also for its incomplete lessons as I find myself having to turn to other resources to fully understand some concepts.