Teaching less

How we help our students to learn more by teaching them less

Nick Robinson recently posted that ‘content is no longer king’ – and he’s right! ELT coursebooks tend to result in content-driven courses and teaching. But by switching our focus away from content and towards the overall learning experience, we’ve been able to slash our syllabus by 40% and, in doing so, improve the relevance and quality of learning without adding to teachers’ workload.

Guest post from James Hoyle of Go English.

we need to talk about learner experience design

We need to talk about LX

Frustration, anger, confusion, boredom and repetition are all hallmarks of bad user experience (UX); unfortunately, they’re often hallmarks of language learning too, especially when it takes place digitally. But bad UX is not the only reason digital language learning products fail – sometimes it’s the content, sometimes it’s the pedagogy, sometimes it’s the lack of human interaction. Bad UX alone fails to address the complexities of language learning. We need to start talking about bad learner experience (LX). Bad LX could be defined in a number of ways, but at its most basic it’s this: not only did you fail to learn something; you had a horrible time trying.

ELTjam’s top 5 posts of 2015

As 2015 draws to a close, we look back at our most popular posts of the year. As ever, we’ve had some gems this year, so here’s your chance to make sure you haven’t missed out. And this year’s number one post was also the most-read ELTjam post ever.

So here, in reverse order, are the TOP 5 posts of 2015. Can you guess what #1 is?

product

It’s not about Content or UX, it’s about Product

Publishers often seem to struggle to look beyond content as the primary driver of their products, while for tech companies it’s often not much more than an afterthought. End result? Products that fall flat, create poor experiences and don’t live up to their full potential. How can we move towards a more unified product-driven approach?