Does online learning even work?
It’s time we give you our take (=opinion) on online learning. After all, English For IT has been creating online courses since 2019, and we have a new one launching very soon (something we’re very excited about, and we’ll say more about that later in the article).
So we hope we know what we’re doing when it comes to online education.
See, we believe that online courses are the single most effective and efficient way to learn. They’re convenient and easily available, there is a huge variety of them to choose from, and they’re generally not as expensive as offline courses.
So imagine our surprise when we learned that the completion rate for online courses is about 10% on average.
Then we looked at the stats (=statistics) for our course English For Tech. The completion rate came out at 20% which is higher than average. And we don’t mean to toot our own horn (=brag) but the feedback we got from the students that completed the course was overwhelmingly positive. Just take a look at this piece of feedback, for example:
Over the span of (=during) two years since we launched English For Tech we also got a lot of constructive feedback, students talking about their struggles on the course, and giving suggestions and ideas.
We took all of those learnings and used them to develop a brand-new course English For Tech 2.0 that features completely new content, tasks, and course structure.
Our grand vision for English For Tech 2.0 was to create a course that makes learning English your daily habit that is easy and fun to maintain. This way, you will WANT to spend time practicing English every day and therefore will finish the course.
We have identified 3 key reasons why learners don’t finish online courses and tried to find ways to address (=deal with) them.
#1 Scheduling
Some of our students reported that certain lessons and tasks took them too long to complete. While they wanted to improve their English, spending over 1 hour on a single task was demotivating and tiring.
That’s why for English For Tech 2.0, we have used the principle of bite-sized learning. Tasks can be completed in under 20 minutes, giving you the feeling of progress and achievement. There are longer tasks, of course, but they are optional and can be done at a later time. What’s more, we tell you exactly what tasks you need to do every day so that you never even have to think about it.
#2 Motivation
When you start a new course, you’re usually pretty pumped (=excited, happy). But in 1–2 weeks the excitement wears off, especially if you come across (=face) a task that is difficult or unclear, or too time-consuming.
What happens next is you walk away from the course and never come back to it.
Our solution to this is to help you make English your habit. It’s very simple. Pick (=choose) a time. Set a timer for 30 minutes and start the lesson! Lessons in English For Tech 2.0 are built in such a way that you will be able to finish 1 lesson every day by studying for no more than 30 minutes.
Of course, we also worked on making the course content relevant to you.
After finishing English For Tech 2.0, you will have:
1. Email templates for different situations
2. Phrases for meetings, team discussions, etc.
3. Networking and polite communication strategies for successful career development
4. A professional resume in English
5. A professional cover letter and LinkedIn profile in English
6.Templates for answering common job interview questions
#3 Engagement
So many courses work like this — you buy the course, you take it at your own pace, and if you get stuck, need help or motivation — there is no one you can reach out to. So many people never finish online courses just because they lack interaction and engagement.
That has never been the case at English For IT. We have a thriving (=living an active life) community of students and alumni (=former students) that currently has over 1 thousand members. If you ask a question in the community chat, it will get answered either by a mentor or by another community participant.
The community aspect is very important to us, and it’s something we tried to build on in English For Tech 2.0. Here’s what’s new:
1. We’ve launched a brand-new feature “speaking practice in the Metaverse”. These are virtual Metaverse meetings with community members and English For IT mentors where you can chat and learn English in a gamified, interactive way.
2. We’ve added networking activities that require you to connect with another community member. No worries, there’s no pressure on you to complete any tasks here. We just want you to reach out to people and practice your soft skills, as this is key to your professional success.
We are so excited to be launching this course! In fact, we believe in it so much that we guarantee you will like it too (as long as your goal is to improve your communication skills for working in tech).
And the awesome news is that English For Tech 2.0 is developed on our own in-house learning platform. That means we are now fully in charge (= in control) of the learning experience and can realize new features and respond to your requests much faster.
Do you want us to show you that online learning works? Use the promo code HUNT50 to get our brand new English For Tech 2.0 Course with 50% OFF.
