Best practice interview with the owners of inlingua Mexico City

In our latest survey with learners on my.inlingua, 144 complete responses came from a single center: inlingua Mexico City. Of those 144 my.inlingua learners from Mexico City, nearly 98 % were satisfied with the training they received through Virtual Classroom and guided self-study on my.lab during the COVID-19-lockdown (see picture below).

We wanted to know, how inlingua Mexico City managed to reach such an outstanding degree of learner satisfaction. Read our best practice interview with Isabel Carranza Schulenburg and Leonardo Cortés Bertrand (Owners of inlingua Mexico City) to learn about best practices which can help you establish your center as a blended learning super power in your local market.

1. Your customers seem to be very satisfied with the remote training that they have received during the lockdown. How do you feel about such a high level of learner satisfaction and what is your interpretation of the survey results?

Of course, we are very proud of what the survey revealed about our work. When we opened our center in 2010, we decided to offer all our courses in a blended format.  Therefore, inlingua’s online learning platforms have been an integral part of our product mix ever since. About eight years ago, when the first inlingua Virtual Classroom platform became available, it was immediately integrated into our range of programs. Without knowing it, we have been preparing for such a situation for more than a decade. Thus, we are not entirely surprised about the positive result.

2. You mentioned your product mix, how do you integrate my.inlingua in the training you provide to your customers?

As we mentioned before, all the courses we offer are in a blended format. This means my.inlingua is part of every language course which we sell to customers. This was also the case before the pandemic. When we enroll a new learner, the learner automatically receives a my.inlingua account with my.lab access and the appropriate course assigned.  They are aware that one third of the course will be online. Our trainers and academic team constantly monitor the advancement and completion of the online course. Similarly, if a corporate client enrolls employees, the HR-representative of the client company automatically receives an account which allows him or her to monitor the progress of the enrolled employees.

3. To what degree is my.lab part of your courses?

Actual trainer led instruction makes up two thirds of the course and one third of any of our programs is guided online study on my.lab. This means that trainers establish clear goals for their learners or learner groups to which they assign tasks. The progress is closely monitored by our trainers. The learners and/or their employers are informed of the my.lab completion, especially if they are behind, on a monthly basis. Corporate clients take my.lab fulfillment as seriously as attendance in face-to-face or remote sessions. Our recommendation is a minimum requirement of 80 to 85% my.lab completion for a corporate learner, in the same timeframe as the live course.

4. What has changed since the pandemic hit your country?

It feels like a lot has changed. But concerning our training, not much is different. Before the pandemic a smaller part of our training, about 10% was delivered through Virtual Classroom on my.inlingua. Since all of our learners already had a my.inlingua account, it was not very difficult to switch the remaining learners to Virtual Classroom as well. And that is where we are now; 100% of our usual number of classes are on Virtual Classroom— not much else has changed.

5. You received a flattering amount of positive feedback form learners¹. How do you ensure that trainers deliver high quality language training online?

We know that it really comes down to the trainers. In this profession, employee fluctuation is traditionally high. Having that in mind, we originally implemented a sophisticated circular process, managing all aspects of hiring, training, developing, coaching and re-employing trainers if they want to come back after a leave. We have a specific development plan for every freelance trainer working for us. Thereby we ensure that our trainers are 100% familiar with the inlingua method, material, and e-learning technology.

We now have mandatory weekly trainer development sessions. They are continuous training sessions, where we can remind trainers of important methodical aspects, further develop their training skills and encourage group discussions on pedagogical best practices. During these sessions, our academic team also makes sure that our teaching staff is kept motivated and focused on their tasks.

Where does your center excel? Contact [email protected] if you want to share your best practices with the inlingua network.