Customer Stories 归档 | ClassIn

Trinity Schools of Uganda: Breaking Ground with the Online Holiday Program

yanglin — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 10:05:09 +0000

Early this year, Uganda announced the end to its 22-month school closure and a full transition back to in-person learning. Trinity Schools, a leading private K-12 institution in Uganda, adopted ClassIn-supported online learning during the pandemic. Now, the school moves forward by continuing to leverage EdTech tools for successful holiday programs and more innovations ahead.

We had the privilege to speak again with Areebabyona Kanyonyore, Administrator of Trinity Schools, to explore the school’s latest developments. What are the long-term benefits of online learning the school has witnessed? How does Trinity arrange its holiday programs, incorporating online as well as hybrid instruction? How does the learning community–students, teachers, and parents–evaluate the new program?

Uninterrupted Learning amid Covid Policy Changes

After nearly two years of school closure in Uganda, returning to the classroom is full of challenges. Kanyonyore described a rather hectic move to in-person learning with short notice. Many schools experienced staffing problems as most teachers have changed professions, and some students have opted for international schools that are not subject to the limitations of local curriculums.

While learning came to a halt for many pupils in the country, Trinity Schools kept students and teachers on track during the lockdown. “The good thing is that because we have this e-learning program running, we were able to maintain our teachers…We were also able to promote our children because when they got into the ClassIn program, we kept teaching them and promoting them during the two years they were stuck at home,” Kanyonyore said.

Students of Trinity Schools attending a Mathematics Class

“So by the time school reopened…we also received quite some new students who were transferring from other schools because of the program and innovations we put in on ClassIn,” he recalled.

However, getting every student with different learning backgrounds up to speed is not an easy task. Kanyonyore explained that “The main challenge is that the majority of them had online programs, but they weren’t as engaging as ours was. They were run on Zoom, Teams, Class or Google Chat…You can’t have post-class follow-up. You can’t have statistics on how long the class is and how they are performing in the program.”

With the intention of bridging learning gaps for students, the holiday program kicked in.

An Innovative Business Model with the Holiday Program

Introducing current learning habits and landscape in the country, Kanyonyore explained why the holiday program is rooted in local demands.

“In Uganda, what most parents do during the holiday is that they get a private tutor to come and take the children through their school work, but the challenge with that is that most tutors are masters of only one subject. However, with an online program, we have teachers who are masters in different subjects, so this is a better option for them because children get more teachers to come and assist them at a fairly cheaper cost,” he said.

Students of Trinity Schools attending a geography class

With rather urgent and long-term learning needs at hand, Trinity Schools know the right tool to deliver the best results. “ClassIn has those extra tools that teachers need when they are teaching,” Kanyonyore told us, highlighting functions like roster, homework, screen sharing, learning reports and analytics. “This is the one most teachers are accustomed to, and most students also know how to go about it. It’s very user-friendly.”

“We told the parents about the program we wanted to run during the holiday. At first, we had 50 students in the first three days, which went up to 160 by the end of the first week,” he recalled.

How do you set up an all-subject holiday learning program for 160 students across different grades? Kanyonyore patiently introduced the arrangements for kids at various levels.

For classes P1 to P3, students were having two online lessons from 8am till mid-day.
For classes P4 to P6, students were having four online lessons from 8am to 2pm.
For P7, students had Online-Merge-Offline classes the entire day.

As Kanyonyore explained, P7 is a candidate class where students are preparing for the national exam in November to move from primary to secondary level. “We created a special class for them, and they remained in school,” Kanyonyore was excited to introduce the school’s trial with the Online-Merge-Offline (OMO) model. “There were parents who were not able to bring the children in school…so what would happen is that during the physical classes, we switch on the camera, facing the blackboard, and start the lesson. And teachers would teach while attending to the children in the classroom and those logged in online.”

Looking at three term breaks in a school year, Kanyonyore is encouraged to keep conducting and expanding the holiday program after getting positive feedback all around.

Students of Trinity Schools attending an English lesson

“When I sat with the students, they definitely love the program. They explored so many features [of ClassIn] better than any of us. The parents love the program because the accountability factor. Parents have the log-in to the students’ account, and they can quickly see if the child attended the class. They can see how long the child was in class. They can see any assessments that have not been submitted,” Kanyonyore told us.

The holiday program was applauded by teachers as well. “One thing they keep saying is that teaching online is way better than teaching in class for various reasons,” Kanyonyore reported, highlighting how teachers enjoyed a quick onboarding process and being able to project learning materials and finish marking assessments in the virtual classroom.

Students of Trinity Schools attending a general knowledge class

Future Growth: The OMO Model and Adult Education

In addition to delivering great learning improvements, the holiday program was a successful first step for Trinity Schools to explore the Online-Merge-Offline model, an emerging hybrid approach with open educational practices for a seamless and flexible learning experience.

“We are considering projecting the screen instead of having the camera face the blackboard for better picture quality for students,” Kanyonyore proposed adjustments to better apply the model. “I’ll be glad to see how the OMO model turns out because it’s something we are looking at going into and seeing how it benefits education even beyond.”

Besides equipping the campuses with more advanced technologies, Kanyonyore expected to extend learning opportunities to more in Uganda. “So one of the things we are looking at coming up is a distance learning program for adults,” he shared. “There are so many citizens of Uganda out there who would not have education degrees and certifications…We schedule classes for them after 5 when they are done at work. From wherever they are in the country, they will be able to log in and attend classes and get assessments. At the end of the year, they will have the opportunity to sit for the national examinations to get a certificate.”

Trinity Schools of Uganda: Breaking Ground with the Online Holiday Program最先出现在ClassIn。

Teacher Sav Presents Ready-to-teach Online ESL Lessons and EDBs for ClassIn

yanglin — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 08:56:27 +0000

I am 26 years old, and December 2022 will be my ninth anniversary of teaching ESL online. When I turned eighteen, I went by myself to Taiwan. I’ve always been very adventurous, and I decided I wanted to stay and live in Asia, so I got my first ESL job after being there for two weeks and have continued teaching ever since. Since then, I have traveled and taught ESL in more than ten countries. My current titles: I am the Founder and Curriculum Director for ESLedb.com.

For many online ESL teachers, 2021 presented new and unique challenges after China’s tutoring policy shift. Firms cannot hire tutors based inside and outside of China. Many famous Chinese teaching platforms either significantly reduced their pay rates or shut their schools down. This uncertainty led many teachers to quit teaching altogether.

Many online ESL teachers took this as an opportunity to start their own online tutoring businesses. I was one of these teachers. Fortunately, I had several eager students to follow me to independent classes.

Kickstart My Career as an ESL Independent Teacher

Everyone is scared and nervous at first. It won’t be easy, and there is a learning curve. But I promise it isn’t as hard as you think. When I taught for large teaching companies, I used to get very burned out teaching. That no longer happens. I am a much happier teacher and a person teaching independently.

However, making fun and practical lessons by oneself can be challenging. An English teacher’s tool kit can consist of many tools, such as pre-made lesson plans, useful exercises, homework sheets, and more.

I researched every platform and booked demos with multiple platforms. ClassIn has the most versatile online classroom components, in my opinion. Also, it was created with education as its sole purpose, which shines through to students and parents. It provides a fun learning environment that is also structured and professional. In contrast, other online meeting platforms either lack interactivity, a classroom feeling, or due to over-gamification, lacks professionalism.

Create Online ESL Curriculum

When I was looking for an engaging ESL curriculum, I soon discovered that there were no available online teaching curricula – especially those that were dynamic and interactive and could be used on virtual platforms such as ClassIn.

To engage our students with better lessons, I decided to team up with other teachers and content creators to create a simple, intuitive, and user-friendly online ESL curriculum. Since February 2022, our team and I have created this NoPrep ESL curriculum on ESLedb.com.

By May 2022, the site has over 140 individual 25-minute lessons to produce upwards of 600 individual classes. These thoughtfully organized lessons are grouped by proficiency level/theme and help cut down on teacher prep time by including suggested homework for every lesson from Level 1 and up.

We also provide stand-alone activity lessons for students of all levels. Each single lesson could be used as a one-off class or supplement existing curriculums.

Keep Interactivity in an ESL Class through EDB Materials

The curriculum is available in EDB format, which offers interactivity and further customization in a relatively small file size and can be used on the ClassIn teaching platform. EDB files are designed to be interactive, engaging, and fun and aren’t hard to make. The lessons are also available in PDF format for use on platforms that do not allow for as much interactivity as ClassIn.

The best long-term benefit of being a part of a teacher community is the support between teachers. Whether you’re having difficulty with something technical, with payments, game ideas, class topics, or how to assist a student with something particular, someone out there has gone through what you’re going through and is willing to help you figure it out.

I love assisting new teachers in making the jump to become independent as well as established independent teachers. An essential part of being a teacher is learning, and I’m so grateful to the teachers who assisted me when I needed it and taught me how to do something new and valuable to help my students better.

Teacher Sav Presents Ready-to-teach Online ESL Lessons and EDBs for ClassIn最先出现在ClassIn。

How to Build Your Community as an Independent ESL Teacher

yanglin — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 08:49:40 +0000

I am Jade Lucille Abundiente, an independent ESL teacher based in the Philippines with almost 4 years of teaching experience. Once a manager at one of the biggest fast-food companies in the country, I quit my job to pursue my passion through online teaching. Now an independent teacher to more than 50 students, I have been able to save up and build a small house for me and my kid.

Teaching independently doesn’t mean you have to take the journey alone. From teaching at a company to figuring it out on my own, I am grateful that I have built up communities of Filipino teachers where we support and drive each other. For those who are on the same path, I’d like to share why it’s important to have a network like this, and how you can grow your own community!

Teacher Jadey showing a slide deck and a video in class

Getting Started as an Independent ESL Teacher

The last few months of 2021 were a depressing time–ESL companies and foreign teachers took a great hit as China announced a sudden ban on tutoring. Amid the chaos, I had the chance to communicate privately with one adult regular student and one parent of my regular kid student who gave me the idea to teach them directly instead. Therefore, in November 2021, I took the first step in my English private tutoring career.

At the moment, I have 55 students and counting. My usual schedule is from 8am-12pm, 1-5pm, 6-8pm fully booked 5 or 6 days a week.

Building a Community for Support and Growth

Since I started teaching privately, I was of course working alone without any support, and I realized how difficult it was. To have teaching resources, I used to purchase textbooks at very high prices. Hence, here I am, offering assistance to all the private teachers in need, especially those who are still starting out in their teaching careers. Having support and a community where you can give tips, offer assistance, and share lesson materials all for free with other teachers is such a great help. And I am very much honored to provide these opportunities for my fellow Filipino teachers, who are undoubtedly one of the most passionate and best tutors in this industry.

Teacher Jadey conducting a writing exercise

How do I manage to make the community grow? It is quite easy. As a private tutor myself, I know the resources I need. I know what the teachers need. I know what they need to know, especially in a ClassIn virtual classroom, for them to be able to conduct fun and successful lessons. Sharing and caring.

I share with them my knowledge by making short tutorial videosabout the basic ClassIn tools.
I share free lesson materials, which are one of the vital resources in private teaching.
I may be working the whole day but whenever I have the time to answer queries, I spare some time for them. That is what a community is all about.

Knowing the Right Tool for You

From the moment I decided to teach privately, ClassIn was and has always been my chosen tool. The platform was introduced to me by the former company I was affiliated with, which was used in combination with their own teaching tool. Although there were many platforms to choose from, I stuck with ClassIn for its user-friendliness and so many exciting features that can make classes fun and interactive, especially for the kids.

Teacher Jadey introducing vowels in class

More importantly, ClassIn has helped me attract more students through tools and functions that make my classes more interesting and fun. I can make customized backgrounds like my students’ faces, their favorite cartoon characters and anything related to our topics they find amusing. I can make background/ClassIn skins while the classes are ongoing! I just love how easy it is to bring sparkle to my classes every day.

For those aspiring Filipino private ESL teachers, never give up. Your rate does not reflect your worth. You may be offered a low rate, but do not be discouraged. Give it your best shot and teach with all your heart. Improve your skills. Be knowledgeable and flexible. Your time will come. Be patient as patience is a virtue.

How to Build Your Community as an Independent ESL Teacher最先出现在ClassIn。

Embracing Change: My Transition from Offline to Online Teaching

zhengyangcui — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 03:37:16 +0000

Change. Some fear it. Some embrace it, and others just roll with it. When I first made the change to teaching online, I thought that I wouldn’t like it, but, as is usually the case, I was wrong.

Before I made the move online, I taught ESL for 7 years at various schools in Korea, Taiwan, and China. I was never an amazing teacher, but I had gotten the hang of it. I learned how to read the room, to watch the faces and make the adjustments subtle or otherwise to keep the class marching forward. So, when I began teaching online two years ago, I realized that things had changed. The feel was different; I was in a new space. Many basic teaching skills carried over well enough, but I had to learn to embrace the medium in order to be a better teacher.

In a physical classroom, it’s easy enough to rearrange desks and chairs however you want. Different configurations of the classroom allow for different kinds of activities: board races, table-based group activities, find someone who [blank], turn to your neighbor and [blank], and so forth. Many of these movement-based activities are difficult or impossible to pull off online because students and teachers are tethered to their computer screens and confined to their seats. This can especially be a challenge for younger students, who shouldn’t be sitting down for long periods of time.

At first, I can admit that I was at a bit of a loss. I worried that my classes would be boring. I feared that my students would sleep, or, even worse, just stand up and walk away from their computers. So, what did I do? Well, I did all that I could think to do: I leaned in to the visual nature of the medium.

If the classroom is limited to a screen, then that screen better be the most interesting thing in the room.

I did this in a number of ways. Some of them might be helpful to you as well:

I chose images that were striking and resonated with students.
I used short video clips to demonstrate concepts that are difficult to express over a webcam.
I made activities where students could move things on the screen with their mouse, so they could experience a virtual sensation of movement.
I made practice activities into games with visual rewards.
I took breaks and encouraged students to get up and move around during them

It surprised me how well these simple adjustments worked, but I suppose it shouldn’t have. I taught a younger crowd (5–10 years old) who had grown up being entertained by screens. It wasn’t a leap for them to go from playing games to having class on their iPads. It helped that the teaching platform I used, ClassIn, has interactive features. As long as students have a way to collaborate with their teacher and classmates, you can make engaging classes.

Me and the girls playing some Tic Tac Toez!

While these actions certainly helped, I must admit that I ran into some other issues. One such issue was privacy. Any comment that a student or teacher makes online is public. I once had a new student join my class halfway through a semester. He was the only boy in a class full of girls, and his speaking ability was well behind the rest of the class. The girls, well, they were less welcoming than they should have been, to the point where they would groan whenever he did or said anything. So, I had to talk to them as a class and explain the need to be kind to and accepting of our new students. I couldn’t ignore the problem, but the new student had to sit and listen to me protect him. Needless to say, he was embarrassed, and the girls were ashamed. He asked his mom to leave the class shortly after that.

In a physical classroom, it’s simple to have private conversations with students and avoid unnecessarily embarrassing your students. It can still be done online, but you need to add a step or two. To begin with, as soon as a new class starts, you need to make sure everyone recognizes the need to be respectful. You should take time out of the first few classes to preach tolerance and acceptance, then you should enforce it as a rule. If you still have a problem with a student or students, you should try to discuss it with them either after class or in a different, private method to avoid shaming them in front of everyone.

I continued to learn as I went, and I continued to be surprised by my students. When I began teaching online, I worried about establishing rapport with my students. I didn’t care for the distance separating me and the students. I missed the high fives and fist bumps, and I worried that my face alone couldn’t deliver the nonverbal cues needed to establish a fun, healthy classroom environment.

Despite these limitations, I was surprised at how quickly we began to build tiny communities. Perhaps I underestimated the ease with which digital natives can establish relationships online, or perhaps I underestimated the human need for community.

Whatever the case, I realized that my small classes turned into small learning families. This is something that I think is missing in asynchronous classes. I’ve taken a few online college courses before and am currently working towards a new degree completely online. I have not made a single lasting relationship after several years of classes. Live, face-to-face classes make a huge difference here. Discussion boards are good for sharing ideas, but it is much more difficult to establish connections and friendships with others. If you want to build an online learning community and not just disseminate information, live online classes are hard to beat.

I will admit that in some ways I was fortunate. I taught small classes (4–6 students). Had I taught twenty or fifty or a hundred or more, I doubt that we could have formed as tight of a community as we did. One particularly interesting thing came out of establishing little learning families. A handful of my shy students became bold and outspoken (This is especially important as I was teaching ESL). Their online personas were different than their offline selves.

I had the opportunity to meet many of my students at a party our school held at our office. When meeting me in person, some of my younger students were intimidated by me (I’m a fairly large dude), and they were too embarrassed to speak to me in English. However, they would communicate with me openly online. We are all the same size online. Students were much more outspoken and friendlier in the relative safety of their own homes. While I think that they would have eventually come around if we met regularly in a physical classroom, some of them may have had more difficulty coming out of their shells. Since my students usually had class from home, they were more comfortable and more willing to share things about themselves. As a language teacher, there are few better feelings than walking in, or signing in, to a class full of students eager to communicate with you in a target language.

Online education is much more engaging when you can interact directly with your peers.

I don’t think online classrooms will ever completely replace traditional ones for the same reason that I don’t think AI will ever completely replace actual teachers. There is still a tribal need for people to gather physically that isn’t going anywhere. However, education is changing and will continue to change as technology improves. The convenience and cost-effectiveness of online education and the potential of blended learning are truths that we can’t ignore. But, maybe we need to adjust our thinking a bit.

Asynchronicity in online education works great in some circumstances, but we shouldn’t forget the impact of community on education. We don’t just learn from well-crafted modules and video lectures; we also learn from each other. That is why I think tools like ClassIn are so important. ClassIn provides an online space where students can meet face-to-face to not only learn but also build lasting relationships with their teachers and classmates.

If we don’t design online tools that help learning communities form naturally, then we are limiting the potential of online education.

Paul Chatham has been an ESL teacher for 9 years. For the last two years, he has been teaching online. He also works as a product marketer for ClassIn, an online teaching platform. For more information about ClassIn, check out our YouTube page here.

Embracing Change: My Transition from Offline to Online Teaching最先出现在ClassIn。

When EdTech Meets Oil and Gas Well Drilling: How We Use ClassIn for Drilling Training

yanglin — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 09:16:56 +0000

Ahmed El-Maraghi is an expert petroleum engineer with more than 15 years of experience in geoscience reservoir and production technology. He has experience in well test and production data analysis and has performed several sophisticated geoscience research projects in the field of fluid flow in porous media simulation. In 2015, Ahmed founded THINK Engineering holding company to provide several industrial services and technologies.

In over a decade of exploring and advancing petroleum engineering, I have been an avid proponent of technology, especially the creative uses of pioneering technologies. While one would not normally associate ClassIn, an EdTech platform commonly adopted in online learning, with oil and gas well drilling, the virtual classroom software is the only tool to enable effective delivery of interactive drilling training remotely. With this article, I look to share my professional journey and how I expanded the possibilities of my business with the right technology.

From Research to Entrepreneurship: A Journey of Innovation

Innovation is the main driving force behind my enthusiasm in this field. As many know, oil and natural gas are major industries in the energy market, playing an influential role in the global economy. As challenging as the job is, there’s never a boring moment – it requires and brings a combination of innovation, exploration, and expansion.

Practical Training facilities UAE

In my opinion, identifying a problem in your region is the first step for being an entrepreneur. In my domain of work, there were always problems related to machine connectivity or what we call: a machine talk network, in addition to working in remote areas with no coverage of any conventional networks.

This was the primary trigger for founding THINK – to introduce such efficient services of a specially designed network for the purpose of machine talk i.e. IoT and get the coverage through satellite networks.

As the pandemic gave rise to a strong need for remote teaching, we were also dedicated to transferring our knowledge to places of work where we can’t reach physically.

A Commitment to Continuous Training in the Pandemic

Delivering virtual simulator training with the THINK technology – sophisticated mathematical and interactive models – has been invaluable during the pandemic. It has helped us continue educating our workforce across the globe and ensure competency and compliance.

We believe an effective training program is one that adheres to established practices and systematic processes while addressing the needs of an individual and the company.

We also make it a mission to partner with our customers to provide their valuable workforce with learning opportunities, promoting individual growth as well as driving organizational success.

Delivering Effective Remote Training with the Right Tool

We have fully adopted ClassIn to support the training and education services at THINK. The sharing functions, especially remote control during screensharing, are the most awesome features we use. It enables our experts to share the interactive simulator panels and dashboards in a perfectly smooth manner. More importantly, ClassIn lets students operate remote simulators in the same way they did in physical classrooms.

Training session on ClassIn

The sophisticated training programs at THINK require limitless interactivity and collaboration among the group of students and their instructors. We find that ClassIn is the only tool equipped with the required functions to satisfy the training operation needs.

Following the success of the system, we are now planning to continue using the ClassIn System with the Drilling Simulator for internal Well Control training delivery when appropriate even after the pandemic.

The accurate representation of a conventional rig floor and 3D graphics create a highly realistic and immersive simulation environment, bringing the rig to the trainee. ClassIn System enables the trainee to get the real feeling of such 3D graphics. Both simple and highly complex tasks for land and offshore operations can be recreated to verify skills and competency in real-world situations. ClassIn System is used to deliver interactive training which includes (but not limited to):

Oil-based mud, bubble point, and gas flash out
Gas expansion and migration
Dynamic pressures during well control
Lost circulation, loss zones, and leak-off testing
Wellbore ballooning/breathing
Horizontal and deviated wells
Hole cleaning, turbulent, laminar flow
Drilling on junk, pipe twist-off, stuck pipe
Sloughing, differential sticking, key seating, pack-off
High-pressure High-temperature (HPHT) wells operations
Managed pressure drilling (MPD)
Drilling and tripping

Practical Training facilities KSA

To learn more about THINK:

In 2015, Ahmed El-Maraghi founded THINK Engineering holding company to provide several industrial services and technologies. In addition to education services for industrial services, THINK is providing High-speed, low latency broadband internet through satellite communication. THINK is the LoRaWAN (Low Power, Wide Area (LPWA) networking) operator in Egypt, LoRaWAN protocol is designed to wirelessly connect battery operated ‘things’ to the internet in regional, national, or global networks, and targets key Internet of Things (IoT) requirements such as bi-directional communication, end-to-end security, mobility and localization services.

THINK has another division for Oil and Gas technological solutions and services that provides a state of art innovative solutions for the energy industry. In THINK, we create amazing technology that unlocks access to energy for the benefit of all.

On top of the telecommunication and O&G services, THINK created positive IMPACT through the excellence of execution for industrial training services.

Implement solutions that accelerate skill application.
Maximize the return on your training investment.
Partner with customers to enhance workforce capability.
Address the unique needs of each learner, team, and organization.
Connected effective and engaging learning experience.
Technical talent synchronization with business strategy.

Our learning solutions are designed to reduce operational complexity, accelerate the usage of technical capabilities, and ultimately deliver quantifiable business impact. With a global reach in more than 85 countries coupled with strong local experience and diversity in thought, background, and knowledge, the THINK team of technical and technology experts is committed to excellence.

When EdTech Meets Oil and Gas Well Drilling: How We Use ClassIn for Drilling Training最先出现在ClassIn。

Sony Global Education became ClassIn’s new global partner

yanglin — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 10:12:59 +0000

In recent days, Sony Global Education and ClassIn signed a cooperation agreement to jointly develop an interactive online course platform for Japanese educational institutions. Based on ClassIn online education, the platform will provide high-quality online education support for Japanese institutions during the current pandemic and isolation period. The collaboration will simultaneously explore the in-depth application of online education after the pandemic and into the future, establishing a bridge between China and Japan in online education.

ClassIn cooperated with sony global education

Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, Japanese schools have been closed. Now, using the online course platform collaboratively developed by Sony Global Education and ClassIn, teachers and students can still communicate and participate in multiple interactive courses. The platform allows students to answer in-class questions posed by the teacher through simple online operations such as the “raise hand” feature. Teachers can then send “trophy” encouragement to students who answer correctly or perform well. The interactive learning platform has allowed the Japanese education system to function during an extraordinary period, maintaining the benefits of a traditional offline teaching experience but utilizing the augmented features of a digital classroom to stimulate students’ enthusiasm, allow them to learn with confidence, and causing minimal disruption to the Japanese educational year.

Japanese having class on ClassIn

Sony Global Education believes that the platform they have jointly built with ClassIn can provide a world-class distance learning program to Japanese educational institutions. The new platform will not only help students overcome the barriers to learning during this extraordinary time but will also assist in addressing problems such as insufficient educational institutions or imbalanced teacher resources after the epidemic.

Since its establishment in 2014, ClassIn has served the education market in China and around the world. Since March 2020, its online classroom platform ClassIn has served tens of thousands of schools from 70 countries, with more than 12 million students worldwide studying an average of 4.3 hours per month. ClassIn is used by Peking University, the University of Science and Technology of China, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, New Oriental, Good Future, and other well-known domestic universities and educational institutions, as well as world-renowned universities such as Roland University and Alcala University, and international education companies such as Udacity and Pearson. ClassIn will continue to focus on technology and product development, maintaining innovation as its products evolve and using technology to improve online and offline teaching efficiency and the learning experience.

Japanese having class on ClassIn

The current pandemic is not just a problem of one country, but one faced by the entire world, and it requires educators from all over the world to approach new ways of working with an open mind. ClassIn is working closely with educational organizations around the world to reduce the impact of the pandemic on the operation of the wider education system.

Sony Global Education became ClassIn’s new global partner最先出现在ClassIn。

My Journey of Becoming an Independent Online Teacher

yanglin — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 08:03:49 +0000

Yolande (Yo) de Klerk, an online educator, and content creation specialist, has been teaching ESL, mostly part-time, since 2008. Although language studies have always been her passion, she found herself in the corporate world for many years, working in various countries such as the USA, the Netherlands Antilles, and the UK. Now living in Cape Town with her family, she is back to doing what she loves: teaching English online and creating content.

The past two years have been a rollercoaster ride for everyone, especially teachers in China’s private sector. From bracing a heavy workload in the pandemic to figuring out new paths in education, we have held on to our passion for teaching despite the circumstances. And as I transitioned to the career of an independent ESL teacher, I’d like to share my experiences and tips with fellow educators.

A Surge in Demand for Online Tutoring in the Pandemic

At the start of 2020, many English teachers were working as freelancers, teaching students in various countries through some of the big ESL companies. The arrival of Covid rocked the world. It was an awful time as schools across the globe turned to online learning. In addition, parents were desperately trying to ensure that their children were not falling behind academically, so they signed them up for more online classes.

As an educator, my teaching schedule was jam-packed. Throughout my own bout of Covid, I taught many back-to-back classes, trying to keep up with the demand for English lessons. I felt almost guilty at the time to be benefitting from the pandemic even though that was what the students needed.

On the other hand, as a mother of two children, I was also trying to figure out if their school’s online offering was sufficient. I enrolled my children in private online French and Spanish classes, which was incredibly helpful for their language skills to not become rusty.

An Unexpected Turn for ESL Teachers in China

Fast-forward two years, and a whole lot has changed – the online education industry in China witnessed an overhaul. Teachers who were primarily teaching in China panicked as we saw big companies shut their doors. Many of us lost our source of income overnight, while some could hold on a little longer. Ultimately though, we knew that it was all ending. Teachers had to become creative with finding alternative sources of income.

Yolande becoming an independent English teacher on ClassIn

As a member of many social media groups for ESL teachers, I have been astounded by the grit and determination of teachers who have tenaciously taken on a career in independent teaching. Of course, there have had to be some major changes. But this is what we do, right? We tuck and roll. We navigate the changes, and we make it work somehow.

5 Things to Consider as an Independent Teacher

I started to teach independent ESL classes in April last year. I only had two students, but it was enough for me to dip my toe in and test the water. Oh wow, what a new world I discovered! I was able to be a real teacher again on my terms. I could teach using my own style, and I didn’t have to conform to particular rules and ways of teaching that a company dictated. It was liberating, so I decided to put in some real efforts to expand these lessons.

Luckily, independent teaching was not an untreaded path. I came across a few experienced independent teachers and mentors who I admired for their strength, courage, high-quality teaching methods, and business acumen. I followed their videos and posts on social media and gained so much inspiration. I am eternally grateful for this.

Yolande conducting learning activities with her students

At a time when I was confused about how to tackle this big project, I received so much support. Of course, teachers and mentors have their own approach, and I didn’t agree with everything everyone said. But I listened with an open mind, eager to take in as much information as I could. Over the course of a few weeks, I put together my own plan on how to kickstart my career as an independent teacher. I had to consider various things:

1. Curriculum

This was probably one of the toughest decisions to make. I spent hours exploring books and web-based curricula that had been recommended by other teachers. When I worked for an ESL company, they had a structured approach to teaching and learning, which the parents of my students appreciated. I needed to find something that was similar.

Yolande teaching English on ClassIn

2. Pricing

The amounts that teachers charge for online lessons vary hugely, and those who target a niche seem to be able to charge more. In addition to figuring out how much my lessons are worth realistically, I had to take into account the time I spend on creating slides, doing administrative work, and more. In the end, it had to make sense for me to do this financially.

3. Payment

Independent ESL teacher groups are always full of questions on how to receive payments. Generally speaking, I need my parents to be able to pay easily, but at the same time, I’m not willing to give a high percentage of my earnings to a company for helping me collect payments.

4. Platform

Over the years, I have used most of the big, popular platforms for video conferencing. For business purposes, the features were good and met all my needs. However, when I started to use this for teaching students, I realized there were certainly some shortcomings. I needed a platform that was specifically tailored toward teaching and learning. My research led me to some great online reviews for ClassIn from other teachers, so I decided to give it a go. I downloaded the app to my computer and signed up for a free account at the start. I was impressed. It has proven to be a professional and reliable platform to this day, and my students love it too.

5. Marketing

Marketing may be a strange concept for many teachers, but here are the questions we can ask ourselves: If I become a fully independent teacher, would I have enough students? Where would I find them? How do I go about it?

While teachers have different methods to recruit students, the main avenue that has worked for me has definitely been word of mouth. I put a lot of effort into creating a high-quality introduction video with translated subtitles – I explained what I do, my approach to teaching, and what my classroom environment is like. Of course, the video contains all my contact information too for potential students as well as parents who want to recommend me.

Yolande conducting learning activities on ClassIn

We’re all etching out our own paths here. At times, it can feel a little overwhelming, but we don’t have to do it alone. Through the Facebook group I created for ClassIn teachers, I have met quite a few teachers online and personally. In this community, there is a camaraderie amongst independent teachers that I have never experienced before. Sharing resources, tips and tricks as well as a whole lot of humor, we continue to hold each other up down the road of teaching.

My Journey of Becoming an Independent Online Teacher最先出现在ClassIn。

PKU Global Open Courses Program: OMO Technologies to Connect International Learners

yanglin — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 07:15:06 +0000

September 20th, 2021 marked the launch of Peking University’s Global Open Courses Program in partnership with a list of distinguished institutions, including Cornell University, The Australian National University, and Waseda University. In the past Fall semester, with the support of ClassIn technologies, close to 200 students from five continents enrolled in a total of 287 classes.

Wang Bo, Vice Principal of Peking University, believed that “The Online-Merge-Offline approach is not just a solution for learning in the pandemic but the new normal of education. With the program, PKU makes quality educational resources accessible to students across the globe…PKU will join hands with international partners to provide more OMO courses in the future.”

Other school leaders expressed similar wishes for long-term cooperation on OMO instruction. “The pandemic gave rise to the realization that we can benefit from technology-prompted academic resources sharing…and we hope to keep expanding collaboration in this regard,” according to Dorothy Kelly, Vice Principal of Universidad de Granada.

Dorothy Kelly, Vice Principal of Universidad de Granada, delivering remarks at the opening ceremony of the Global Open Courses Program

OMO learning, a method that incorporates hybrid technologies and open educational practices, has witnessed increasing adoption in K12 and higher ed institutions globally. Teaching Economics as part of the Global Open Courses Program, Professor Huang Yiping successfully engaged students in the classroom and those joining virtually with group discussions and activities.

https://st2.classin.com/files/wp/2023/04/20230427162553405.mp4

“Our professor came up with eight topics for discussion, encouraging us to form groups with students overseas. And we have been keeping in close touch with students online as well,” Li Yipin, a student in Professor Huang’s class, reported.

For many, the program’s OMO courses placed vast learning resources within reach. Attending China and Africa: A Global Meeting with Professor Xu Liang, Peter of Waseda University described the experience as “eye-opening”. In particular, Peter enjoyed exploring emerging topics of International Relations and Politics in class.

Students attending classes of the Global Open Courses Program onsite at Peking University

With the OMO approach, students also observed shifting dynamics in the classroom, where learners themselves can play a bigger role. She Yixuan, a PKU student enrolling in the class Global Development Policies, reflected on how her peers inspired greater understanding of the subject matter.

“I’m impressed by the diverse cultures and educational backgrounds we can see in our interaction,” She commented on how international students of Linguistics, International Relations, and even Medicine came together for extensive group discussions.

An Online-Merge-Offline (OMO) class of China’s Commerce

PKU Global Open Courses Program: OMO Technologies to Connect International Learners最先出现在ClassIn。

Professional Development in Emerging Tech: Of Tugboats and Speedboats

zhengyangcui — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 10:21:51 +0000

Lee Pin Qi, COO & Chief Learning Officer of edm8ker, is a social entrepreneur in the design thinking and empathy sector. A professional who wears multiple hats, Pin Qi is also a certified EQ practitioner, a YSEALI professional fellow, and a global facilitator and changemaker at ChangemakerXchange.

Terence Tan, Product Manager of edm8ker, is a former educator who was previously involved in the long-term planning of Singapore’s higher education sector involving ~100k students. He has also been seconded to teach in primary and secondary schools.

As educators who have spent the past six years working with teachers around the world on professional development (PD) programmes, we’ve seen how teaching and learning have evolved over the years. In 2020, as the pandemic evolved and gained momentum, we noticed an urgent shift in our client requests towards helping their students use technology. Towards digital making and. higher-order digital literacy. What do we make of all of this?

Changing Demands for Graduates in the Workplace

Some say this is just part of the changing nature of work: McKinsey reports that the time spent using technological skills in the workplace will increase by 60% from 2016 to 2030, while the time spent using physical and manual skills is forecast to decrease 11-14% within the same period. As new technologies emerge (or so the story goes), companies who want to stay competitive will need employees who can harness these emerging technologies in their work. This narrative often ends with a bold indictment: employers and students both don’t feel that graduates are prepared to enter the world of work. Surely the education system and our teaching pipeline require an overhaul!

Companies increasingly value the use of emerging technologies

Yet across the world, teachers are simply not sufficiently supported to develop their students’ higher-order digital literacy skills. According to the 2018 TALIS survey, a relatively high proportion (61%) of teachers in OECD countries acknowledge that information and communication technologies (ICT) use is covered as part of their PD. At the same time, the use of ICT for teaching is the second highest area of professional development (18%) that teachers report a high need for. This means that teachers are getting PD on ICT use, but for many, it isn’t enough. If teachers aren’t adequately trained to bring higher-order digital literacy into the classroom, why should they be held to task when the system falls short?

Our Current Teacher PD System Doesn’t Work. Why?

Instead, we suggest that the current teacher PD system is ripe for disruption. The current system in the US and various parts of the world, where teachers attend workshops and conferences, chalking up PD credits along the way, served us well in the past. It even served us well in the emerging days of edtech. Teachers are now familiar with Google Docs, Padlet and Kahoot – powerful tools in their own right. But existing PD structures are slow-moving tugboats, making them ill-suited for chasing the fast, nimble speedboats of emerging tech.

The old ways of teacher PD are not working anymore

Here’s why current PD systems aren’t fit for purpose:

Emerging tech moves quickly. The rapid evolution of emerging tech makes it impossible for most people to keep up. The constant changes in the market have led many teachers to get frustrated and give up on incorporating technology into their classrooms. Existing PD offerings can’t change quickly enough to keep up.
Unfriendly user interfaces. With recent developments in Generative AI being an exception, much of emerging tech appears intimidating and unapproachable to teachers. They assume it’ll take a steep learning curve to understand. Existing PD offerings have trouble simplifying the user interfaces of emerging tech and getting teachers quickly acquainted with its potential.
Understanding emerging tech, like any specialized subject, takes technical depth. Technical depth takes time to achieve. Most teachers don’t have the time to reach technical depth, and neither should we expect them to. They’re pedagogical experts, not AI engineers. HOWEVER, a certain degree of technical understanding is necessary for teachers to infuse emerging technology into their classrooms. Existing PD offerings struggle to achieve a balance between technical depth and conceptual simplicity.

Three Ways to Improve the Teacher PD System

So how should we prepare our teachers for the brave new world of emerging tech – for AI, blockchain, AR/VR, and countless other technologies which haven’t been invented yet? Any PD solution that attempts to do so needs to take into account the following considerations:

Recency and relevance. Teachers want information that’s accurate and relevant. Software that’s free one month might be subscription-only the next; promising technologies might be shunned without warning due to security breaches. PD solutions need to be kept up-to-date and abreast of the latest shifts in emerging technology.
Leveraging community. PD solutions should allow teachers to collaborate freely and “remix” ideas on using emerging technology in the classroom. ClassIn’s new PD solution, TeacherIn, allows teachers to do so across borders, enhancing their professional knowledge exponentially. Teachers who are early adopters are particularly useful in helping to spread the word about valuable emerging technology. On a related point…

TeacherIn’s mockup view of teachers collaborating on a curriculum
Meet teachers where they are. Some teachers are confident users of emerging tech. Others are just starting out. They might feel anxious and even afraid. PD solutions need to serve both equally. They need to provide teachers with resources calibrated to their readiness, and offer on-demand support as teachers access and tinker with these resources. For example, TeacherIn provides teachers with a range of material from world-renowned publishers – and guides them through accessing material that’s best for their needs.

The speedboats of emerging tech are here to stay; we need new ways of introducing teachers to them. At edm8ker, we’re looking forward to being part of the solution. In the coming months, we’ll be launching Eddy, a new platform with resources to help teachers infuse emerging tech into their lessons, every day.

Early signup for the beta release of Eddy is open now!

Click here to sign up for the beta release of Eddy – limited slots are available!

Related Resources

About edm8ker: https://edm8ker.com/

Webinar Recap: Thoughtful Leadership–Higher Education Reimagined through Microcredentials

Teachers as Lifelong Learners: Things You Must Know

Best Online Teaching Platforms for Teachers

Professional Development in Emerging Tech: Of Tugboats and Speedboats最先出现在ClassIn。

Meet Inspirational ESL Teacher Kendal from the U.S.

zhengyangcui — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 10:38:50 +0000

My name is Kendal, and I believe that most know me for my YouTube Channel (Online ESL Teacher Tutorials). I wanted to share more about my personal journey as an online ESL teacher and why I started my YouTube channel.

Becoming an Online ESL Teacher

I was an elementary school teacher in the United States before switching to teaching ESL. I was teaching for roughly five years before my relocation to another state and my kid’s birth. Then I decided to become a stay-at-home mom.

I loved being a mom, but I always yearned to be a teacher. When my son started elementary school, I decided it was time to get back into teaching. I considered returning to an elementary school. Going back into the classroom gave me a lot of anxiety since I had been out of the classroom for so long.

That is when I discovered online ESL tutoring with a company in China. I spent 3 ½ years with that company and thoroughly enjoyed it. The connections I made and learning about Chinese culture were the icing on the cake. I was able to do what I loved and still be there for my son when needed.

Then, the online ESL industry then started to decline when the “double reduction policy” happened unexpectedly. The ability to tutor online was slipping away, and I was devastated, along with thousands of other ESL tutors.

Starting My Independent ESL Journey

After leaving the online ESL company, I could have just found another type of job in my community, but I didn’t want to give up on something that I loved.

Luckily, I had a student that was eager to continue learning English from me. I began considering the possibility of working as a private, independent ESL tutor, but I had no idea where to start.

I used my free time to study the payment, curriculum, and platform I would need. With the help and support of other teachers also starting out with private tutoring, and the help of the Chinese families, I was able to start my journey into becoming an Independent ESL tutor.

After a lot of trial and error, I found ClassIn. I tested every possible teaching platform I could find, and ClassIn had everything I wanted and more. I then needed a curriculum. I tried to create my own but found this more difficult than I could have imagined. That’s when I found Learnaling. Learnaling is an excellent curriculum designed specifically for online ESL teaching.

（Playing an online game with a student using the ClassIn Browser)

Creating My YouTube Channel

Once I started my private tutoring, I realized there needed to be more information to help other teachers get started. Since I got a head start in starting my tutoring business, many teachers have been coming to me with questions.

So I decided to start my own YouTube Channel (Online ESL Teacher Tutorials) to give those teachers a way to feel more confident in finding and using all the great resources available. I decided just to be myself and make videos the way I would want a tutorial video to look – no fancy animations, just the information people want and need.

ClassIn is becoming very popular as a teaching platform with many great features, but this can be overwhelming for some teachers just starting out. Many of my videos show teachers how to use all the great tools ClassIn offers, explaining it in a way that makes it easy for them to learn and use in their classrooms. One year later, my channel had over 900 subscribers. Just like I enjoy teaching my students, I enjoy making these videos to help other teachers.

Teaching is more than just a job. There are many moments that remind me why teaching is worth it. What inspires me most to become a teacher is to help unlock talents and improve people’s lives. Right now, I am happy with where I am and proud of what I have accomplished.