eSpok - Company blog

When talking with our clients, it doesn’t always seem clear whether or not they consider blended learning to be a mature and effective option, or if indeed there is a real need and potential market for it. We hear all too often that “it is interesting, but I am not sure that it’s a priority of ours”, or “my clients are not really demanding it.” Some take the standpoint that it is largely an investment in time and that the current climate demands a stricter focus on the acquisition of new customers. Others state that having tried e-Learning as a solution in the past, they found that the students lacked motivation and enthusiasm.

There are some un-truths and oversights regarding this issue, which I hope to highlight here. I am going to try to demonstrate briefly in this article using, as a case study, the successful French company, Telelangue.

1. E-Learning has led to an error of conclusions. Effectively, pure e-Learning which I would define as learning with a computer and a computer only has led to poor results in the past. It doesn’t mean however that blending courses with a computer and a real professor doesn’t work. The tutor is actually extremely necessary in the process of learning and is a source of motivation for the student. Here is an extract of a Telelangue press release in French which has been translated into English:

“Telelangue est la seule société de formation a avoir intégré la présence du tuteur/professeur dès la conception de son outil elearning. Cela lui a permis d‘éviter l’absentéisme et l’échec des solutions d’auto-apprentissage de première génération”

Telelangue is the only language training company that integrates the presence of a tutor/professor right from the conception of e-learning. It allows the company to avoid the usual slow participation of the students and failure of self-learning”.

At eSpok we believe as well that this is a contentious point that needs addressing and that is why so many have failed in developing self-learning methods which work independently from learning with tutors.

2. The market of distant learning is expanding extremely quickly. Soon it will be necessary for all schools to offer a distant learning solution to their customers. As an example, Telelangue has, for the fourth consecutive year, had a growth of more than 25%. Lots of language schools would be happy to have such a growth.

Telelangue, however, is not the only one to propose this. Naturally, English First, as one of the world leaders, has invested more than 45 millions dollars into their online platform Englishtown.com.

It seems that the majority of language schools isn’t focusing on this crucial selling point and is simply content to leave this market open for the world leaders or for those few companies who understand the demands of this market and that distant learning is a more convenient and cost effective option. Telelangue mentions that their blending learning system is up to five times cheaper than normal training solutions. When put like this, it makes a lot of sense.

Our thoughts and advice

It is important to move now:

We are surprised to see how slowly schools are reacting to this issue. The market opportunity is there and we believe that a significant part of the actual market for language learning will transfer to online courses within the next two to three years. It is important from now on to prepare for the future.

Not all schools have the ability to invest 45 million dollars in an online system, but our goal is to provide all schools with the opportunity to start small, where the investment is small and the risks are smaller.

The solution is not to buy another self-learning solution to be sold additionally to the students besides the online courses:

Some of the schools with which we are in contact with are looking for self-learning teaching material, which would be offered to their students as a supplementary learning tool, in addition to tutor-led courses. Doing this would be ignoring the lessons of the past and would in most cases lead to lower student participation. Again I lay emphasis on the fact that to be effective, learning must be blended; the tutor-led courses must be integrated with student-led, self-learning activities.

About Telelangue

Telelangue had a turnover of 27 million euros in 2008. Their growth is increasing by 25% each year. They are expanding very quickly in Europe and now in the US and Asia.

If you want to know more, and you read French, please follow this link: http://www.cursus.edu/?module=directory&subMod=COM&pclass=1&action=getMod&type=1&subject=0&uid=69

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