Case study 05
From classroom to three continents
Moving an in-person English programme online, and keeping it running season after season
Before
I joined Mediapro and Atresmedia in 2013 as an in-house English trainer, preparing employees for Cambridge exams and general English. I added speaking classes and English for the media industry, and moved from teaching to owning the annual planning and curriculum for every track. Everything ran in person, in Madrid and Barcelona.
In 2017 leadership decided to move language training online, for cost and to reach employees beyond Madrid and Barcelona. The platforms were set: Moodle for courses, Webex for live classes. How to convert nearly five years of classroom curriculum without losing quality was up to us.
Decisions
One unit per course, per month.
With two fellow trainers, I converted 10 course tracks of 9 units each over three terms, on a cadence everyone could plan around.
Split the work by complexity.
From 2018, as an independent consultant leading two freelancers, I built the 4 most complex units each month (higher levels, harder design), and they split the other 6.
Review before anything goes live.
Each cycle ran as a build sprint, then a full sprint of peer review, then five days to export and publish.
Keep speaking practice going online.
On top of live classes, each course plan had teachers run a chat group where learners sent voice notes and got corrections back.
- 01Build sprint
- 02Peer review sprintNothing goes live unreviewed
- 03Export and publish5 days
Then the next month’s units, on the same cycle
10 units a month
- 4 most complex units, built by me
- 6 split between two freelancers
What I built
- 10 course tracks of 9 units each, first in Moodle, then rebuilt in Articulate Rise and Storyline.
- Two seasons of new units and a third season refreshing existing courses, at 10 units a month from September to June.
- A full year of planning and materials that teachers built their classes around.
Results
Measured
- About 400 learners a year, counted from enrolments, across Spain, Latin America, North America and the Middle East.
- No missed delivery dates and no budget overruns in three seasons, on the same budget each year, with every payment to the team on time.
- Attendance and completion became trackable for the first time, through Webex and Moodle.
Observed
- Teachers were glad to have the materials and the year’s plan. They built their classes around the topics instead of preparing everything from scratch.
- When a team member needed reduced hours, we redistributed the work without missing a monthly cycle.
- When the project ended, Mediapro took over the complete catalogue to run and improve in-house.
Recreated for Meridia Health, a fictional medical-device company, with invented data.
Try it
English for support calls is a short language unit for Meridia Health’s support agents, built with Clix Studio.