Teaching Chinese Online

 Hello everyone, 

Last week we discussed schools and the question of – will the school disappear in the age of distance learning. This week I want to talk about the virtual school, what it’s made up of and what really matters.  

Our school is located on the computer, or to be more precise – on many computers located in different locations around the world. I am not a computer programmer and my understanding of how all this really works is limited. As a CEO I can tell you that we spend a lot of money on maintaining various types of servers (powerful computers). These are dozens of computers with different functions on which we store our websites, databases various applications and technologies that make up the learning environment and through which the lessons are carried out. 

This learning environment was developed over the past 10 years by a team of dedicated software engineers working here at eTeacher. It consists of and combines many technologies including original software that we developed and continue to develop in-house. This software connects the different human factors involved in the school: students, teachers, managers, sales reps, finance, support and service personnel, campus managers, human resources and content writers. 

The software allows us to manage a class schedule for students around the globe located on different continents and indifferent time zones. It can also tell us exactly how each student reached us, which search term he or she used to find us or which online ad they clicked on before reaching us and signing up. And so on. 

What’s being done on the technology side is really impressive, and even though I have accompanied the whole process, I am still impressed. However, I know today that it is not as impressive for our clients, and his or her decision whether to sign up to one of our courses or not depends on an entirely different consideration: the teacher. 

This seems obvious, but it took us a while to realize that at the end of the day, in spite of the great investment in technology that bridges distances and connects students and teachers from different corners of the earth, what really matters in a virtual school is what really matters in the traditional school: the teaching quality. 

That is why our registration advisers, who speak to hundreds of customers from all over the world, put an emphasis on our teacher’s profile and on the unique learning experience that combines the comforts of home and a professional and experienced teacher that (usually) teaches from another country. The student understands that his learning process is affected primarily by the teacher and only secondarily by the technology. 

The technology simply enables us to bring the best teachers we can find in the world to our students, by overcoming geographical boundaries and limitations. 

So that’s it for today, next week we will continue talking about the virtual teacher, what is required of him or her and why I believe that virtual teaching is more challenging than frontal teaching in a classroom. 

See you then.