10239 306 Delta3 ELTM 1213.Doc

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DELTA MODULE THREE ALT

Centre: The Distance DELTA 10239 Candidate Number: 306 ELTM Specialism: Academic Management Topic Chosen: Development of Skype Lessons Word Count: 4349 (Microsoft Word 2013)

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Contents

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1. Introduction 1.1 My interest in Academic Management 1.2 The Role of Academic Manager 1.3 Staff Development 1.4 Product Development 2. Situation Analysis 2.1 Description of the LTO 2.2 Area of Investigation 2.3 Means of Analysis 2.4 Stakeholder Analysis 2.5 Interview with the Director 2.6 Teachers’ Survey 2.7 Force Field Analysis 2.8 Conclusion 3. Proposal 3.1 Change 3.2 Objectives 3.3 Vision and Strategy 3.4 Raising awareness about the Skype programme 3.5 Raising awareness and providing training on possible computer tools that can replace or enhance traditional techniques 3.6 Creating a bank of computer based resources 3.7 Establishing a Procedure of Delivering Skype lessons 3.8 Organisational Constraints 4. Implementation Plan 4.1 Unfreeze 4.2 Change 4.3 Re-freeze 4.4 My Approach and Management of People 4.5 Evaluation of Outcomes 5. Conclusion Bibliography Appendix 1: Situation Analysis Results 1.A Comparative Evaluation 1.B Extended Teachers’ Survey 1.C Questionnaire for Skype Teachers 1.D Questionnaire for Skype Students

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1.E Focus Group 1.F Stakeholder Analysis 1.G SWOT Analysis Appendix 2: Implementation Plan

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PART 1 Introduction My Interest in Academic Management The choice of the specialism is determined by my interest and some experience in the role of DOS and the necessity to continue my development in this area so that I can pursue my career growth. I worked as a DOS for several years in a language school in Russia. I was promoted to this position from a teacher, I had no knowledge or experience in management, but I had a lot of enthusiasm and determination and was finding my way by making mistakes and learning from them. Most challenging aspect of my work was managing teachers, as I had been one of them and had to re-establish relations, and in general, managing people was very different from managing a class. Therefore I hope to take the opportunity and to study this aspect closer in this work. To begin with, it is essential to provide a definition of management in general, and academic in particular. To make it simple, Mullin’s definition can be borrowed, who says that basically management is “making things happen” (Mullins 2007:411). It would be appropriate though to extend this definition by main elements of management identified by Brech (Mullin, 2007), which are: 1) 2) 3) 4)

Planning, Control, Co-ordination and Motivation.

Speaking about academic management specifically, as a DOS I always had a clash of commercial and professional interests, and I was far not the first to experience this. In From Teacher to Manager by Ron White (2008) we find the following speculation: “What probably makes LTO management unique is the tension between meeting both educational and commercial interests, and professional and managerial concerns”. Among various aspects of academic management I would like to focus on  The role of academic manager;  Staff development;  Product development. Evgeniya Astrakhantseva. Development of Skype Lessons.

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The Role of Academic Manager The role of an academic manager, according to Ron White (1991), can be performed by Principal or Head of LTO, Subject leader or DOS and Class teacher as well, though with various levels and scope of responsibilities. But it is usually both a manager and a professional. If we adapt White’s classification of responsibilities and turn them into roles that an academic manager can play in an LTO, they will be the following: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9)

Academic manager; Business manager; Resources manager; Entrepreneur and Customer Assistant Human Resources manager; Administrator; Professional leader; LTO Representative; Corporate Leader.

In my job I performed almost all the roles and functions, apart from Business manager and Corporate leader, which was done by the owner of the school. I believe it is important to know about the roles and their functions described above for the following reasons:  To have a detailed job description for the academic manager (DOS, for example);  For the teachers and administrative staff to know the scope of authorities of the DOS;  In case there is a need for two managers, to divide responsibilities by allocated roles. For instance, one is in charge of academic, professional sides and resources matters, whereas the other is in charge of administration, working with customers and liaising. Staff Development As R. White rightly states, “Principal, Director of Studies, teachers and administrative staff should see that one of the major responsibilities is the growth and development of all people within the organization” (White 1991:61). Also the following comment will be valuable: “Staff

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development should be largely determined by the values, objectives and curriculum development plans of the school” (Everard 2004:93). R. White (1991) categorises training needs for staff as follows: Staff category New staff Newly promoted Existing staff Those facing change

Type of needs Induction training Skills training Continuous development Training for specific need

Induction training can involve:     

Induction manual; Teachers’ handbook; Job description; Guidance by a mentor; Probation period.

R. White argues that effective induction programme can help to reduce staff turnover. In his other book, “From Teacher to Manager” (2008), White speculates more on observations, both for new and existing staff, and on continuous development. Thus, he states that “teacher observation is not only part of quality assurance; it is also an important part of HRM” (White, 2008). There are certain requirements observations should meet:     

Involve agreed and clear criteria Be carried out by trained staff Include preparation and follow up Have provision for mentoring and support for teachers needing help Involve agreed records which are part of a teacher’s personal profile and professional portfolio.

In terms of continuous professional development (CPD), White argues that it is a part of total quality management (TQM) and it enables continuous quality improvement, as it has stretching and extending a teacher’s teaching repertoire as its core (White, 2008). Evgeniya Astrakhantseva. Development of Skype Lessons.

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The LTO in Russia I worked for had a compulsory training for new teachers in the school’s own teaching methods, which had been developed as its key feature and unique selling point. But apart from that there was not any established CPD scheme as teachers worked at different time in different premises and it is next to impossible to have all teachers in one place for a session. Observations are also not easy to conduct due to the same specifics – most of the lessons are one-to-one with corporate students on their territory. Though day-time and full-time LTOs, like colleges, language schools in the UK, seem to have no hindrances for such procedures. One of the UK schools I have worked for, successfully runs regular observations and CPD sessions. Product Development When speaking about product development, White differentiates between New Product Development (NPD) and “refreshing” existing courses (White, 2008), saying that the latter is more common in an LTO. Reasons for either of them can lie within the following:        

demand identified by market research declining uptake of an existing course launching a new course by competitor demand from new courses from existing clientele changes in or addition to examinations or tests publication of new textbooks, teaching materials availability of new teaching technology recruitment of staff with new ideas.

White describes a scheme of sequent stages, which are characteristic for NPD: 1 Idea generation

New ideas from internal or external resources 2 Idea screening Evaluating, sorting for pedagogical feasibility, financial viability, marketability, risk analysis 3 Concept development and Converting concept into tangible testing product and testing it with consumers (including agents) to find out of product appeals 4 Marketing strategy development Designing a marketing strategy for the new product; doing some formal Evgeniya Astrakhantseva. Development of Skype Lessons.

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5 Business analysis

6 Product development 7 Test marketing

8 Commercialization 9 Review

market research to assess product’s potential. Reviewing sales, cost and profit projections against LTO’s goals. Estimate potential sales, income, break-even point, profit and return on investment and new ideas. Designing and developing the new product Small-scale pilot of the new product to assess consumer reactions, and finetuning of product. Introducing new product to the market. Evaluating performance of new product against commercial and academic criteria as specified in costed proposal and marketing plan.

In small LTOs which gain their secure profit from existing products, as experience shows, launching a new course, rather carelessly, takes only a few stages, such as idea generating, very quick product development, advertising, enrolling students and delivering classes just to see whether it will work or not. This, of course, results in low customer interest, low viability and huge amount of stress and work put on the teacher.

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PART 2 Situation Analysis Description of the LTO The LTO under analysis is a private language school in Russia. It is situated in a city with the population of about 1.5 million people and developed manufacturing industries. The school provides courses for adults and children, it offers exam classes, TKT course for teachers, other languages, studying abroad and it has several Skype students. But its biggest market share is in corporate language training, which is mainly one-to-one classes. The school employs over 40 teachers and has the following structure: Director/the Owner; Corporate Clients Department with the head and sales assistants, Private Individuals Department with the head and a sales assistant, teachers and HR manager who carries out administrative functions of a DOS, but not academic ones. Currently my role in this LTO is a teacher working on Skype from England. Before moving to England I used to be DOS. The school has 3 branches in other big Russian cities. Area of Investigation The area of investigation is to grow and improve the school’s Skype market. The choice is influenced by the comparative evaluation of the LTO against 7 other largest schools in the city in terms of products and services they offer (see Appendix 1.A). The result showed that there are gaps in on-line courses and teacher training courses. The strategy of the School has always been to have a unique selling point (for example, having own methods and specially designed course books), therefore Director made a decision to develop Skype courses, in order to cover a bigger market share. This also supported by factors, such as:  Extremely highly competitive market (74 organisations offering any kind of language classes in the city);  Technology development;  Traffic situation;  Predominant part of clients is corporate one-to-one students, who often travel on business. Skype lessons during business trips could reduce teaching hours loss.

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Means of Analysis To justify the choice and assess its capacity, the current situation with Skype lessons at the LTO was analysed by the means of      

Stakeholder Analysis Interviews with stakeholders; Surveys; Focus Group; SWOT analysis; Force Field analysis.

Stakeholder Analysis In the respect of Skype lessons the key stakeholders will be: the director/owner, teachers, students, HR managers of client companies, the change agent (myself). The stakeholder analysis, which is based on stakeholder mapping described by M. Green (2007) (Appendix 1.F), shows that  The highest power and interest belong to the owner, because she will be the sponsor for the change and the main financial beneficiary;  The change agent has the same high interest, but less power, as key decisions must be approved by the owner;  The teachers have high interest as it will directly involve them, but little power, as they cannot influence decisions about the change. Motivation work will be required;  Private students have high power in whether they want to have this service or not, and because they have the choice, their interest is not highest and mainly concerns the quality of the service.  Corporate students are similar to private ones, though their power is less, because depending on their role in their company, HR managers can impose Skype type of language training;  HR managers of client companies have high level of power in decision making whether to use the new service or not, but their interest is low as it does not directly concern them. Profound selling work will be needed.

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Interview with the Director The interview with the Director has revealed the following issues: 1. There have been complaints from the students about the lack of formality on these lessons: teachers can be disturbed by their family or be drinking or eating while teaching. 2. If the teachers work from the school, it will not allow to make price Skype lessons less. 3. The school has to depend on the quality of the teachers’ equipment (computer and web-camera). 4. There is no strategy on how to promote Skype courses so that competitors cannot copy them quickly.

Teachers Surveys The aim of the survey was to reveal teachers’ attitude towards Skype lessons and the level of their motivation (Appendix 1.B). The questionnaire showed that the majority of teachers recognise advantages of Skype lesson, such as travel time economy (100% positive answers), travel cost economy (66% positive answers), possibility to have more lessons within the same period of time (83%), working from home (75%). 50% feel positive and 41,6% are neutral about possibility to use the Internet resources. At the same time there are certain concerns about the new teaching mode, in particular about not having direct contact with students (58,3% positive answers + 8 % not sure), not being able to use traditional tools and techniques (58,3% positive + 25 not sure). Teachers appear to be rather neutral or not sure about preferring Skype lessons to face-to-face ones. Taking into account that most all the respondents don’t have experience in teaching on Skype and can’t have a strong opinion, it seems vital to count on the teachers with such an experience, and they expressed their strong preference in favour of face-to-face classes (Appendix 1.C). In contrast to this, the students who are receiving Skype lessons, are either positive about them or neutral, but no negative response was given (Appendix 1.D).

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Force Field Analysis It appears to be the equal number of strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats (see SWOT Analysis, Appendix 1.G). Thus the Force Field Analysis (the procedure is described by various authors: K. B. Everard, 2004, M. Green, 2007) is aimed to identify the driving and restraining forces more specifically, and to see which can be influenced. Driving Forces: the need to stay competitive; the traffic situation and distances in the city (and other big cities); emergence of new technologies; all the opportunities; Restraining Forces: dependence on the Internet connection; teacher’s resistance; lack of resources; no computer rooms; people’s unawareness of this method. All of the restraining forces can be either eliminated or weakened (though, bad Internet connection not so easily), whereas the driving forces are supported by the strengths and opportunities. Conclusion The priority areas for the change will be: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Raising awareness among teachers Building their motivation Creating a bank of resources Developing standard requirements to teachers’ equipment to work from home.

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PART 3 Proposal Change The company is making a decision to extend Skype lessons practice and to start offering it as a new service to our current clients and to attract new ones. The proposal from the point of view of academic management is to enable the teachers to provide high-quality Skype lessons and to ensure that the school has sufficient methodological base for this. As concluded from the analysis of the surveys and the Force Field analysis (see Part 2), there is a need for changing the teachers’ attitude towards Skype lessons and for building methodological support for the new service. Objectives Based on the problems identified in the SWOT analysis (Appendix 1.G) and on the strategy, the objectives of the change will be the following:  Raising awareness about the Skype programme;  Raising awareness and providing training on possible computer tools that can replace or enhance traditional techniques;  Creating a bank of computer based resources;  Establishing a procedure of delivering Skype lessons. Vision and Strategy Currently the school is delivering Skype lessons to students who moved to another city but wished to keep us as a language course provider due to the price policy and quality. The vision is to remain the market leading position by including Skype lessons as a service to students who often travel on business trips, who are located in more remote places in the city as blended learning, and also to attract new students by offering fully on-line courses. According to the company culture and ethics, the teachers, who mostly work on our clients’ territory, are seen as the main tool of the company’s operation, as the face of the school. Therefore, it is vital that the teachers share the vision, are highly motivated and can deliver this service confidently. From the strategic point of view, this vision can supported by “maximising opportunities” and restricted by the threats seen as “limitation on actions” (Mullins 2007:540), which are established in the SWOT analysis (see Evgeniya Astrakhantseva. Development of Skype Lessons.

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Appendix Appendix 1.G). Thus, the strategy is to cover remote areas and maintain availability for students on the move; continue developing and providing unique courses and methods, ensure that the teachers deliver highquality lessons. Raising awareness about the Skype programme From motivation theories we know that people have needs to be satisfied, and security, we believe not only physical but also emotional, is a basic need (Maslow’s hierarchy of need in Everard, 2004). Changes and unknown things threaten people’s feeling of security. Therefore the first thing to be done is to raise awareness about the changed condition of work. The rationale for this is:  Even though teachers think they can use Skype, they might not know about all the features of the programme.  The teachers who are already working on Skype did not name Skype tools among those they are currently using (Appendix 1.C). The features in mind are: sharing screen, video conferencing with more than 1 student, board and others. This can be done in the form of a training and experience sharing seminar. I believe that this will allow to reduce adverse attitude to on-line teaching. Raising awareness and providing training on possible computer tools that can replace or enhance traditional techniques Similarly to the previous one, it is essential to build a secure feeling of confidence in using new tools. At the same time, here we can rely on the need for achievement which plays the most significant role in job satisfaction by Frederick Herzberg (described in Everard, 2004). Achievements “include the possibility for testing new and untried ideas” (Everard 2004:31). This coincides with and reflects the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as well. The need in professional development is supported by the results of the survey, where 41% of the teachers see Skype lessons as their development, the same number are neutral, and only 16% are negative in their answer (Appendix 1.B). At first, the training can be provided to those who are teaching currently online so that they can try the tools and techniques in practice and then share their expertise with others. This also can be delivered in the form of seminars and training. Evgeniya Astrakhantseva. Development of Skype Lessons.

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The possible tools are (taken from Teaching Online. Tools, Techniques and Opportunities. N. Hockly, L. Clandfield, 2010):          

Comic creator sites Mindmaps Movie creator sites Online music players Poster sites Shared whiteboards Slideshow sites Video sharing sites Voice boards Word clouds, etc

I expect that this will give the teachers confidence and motivation by achievement, as well as increase quality of their work and enable the LTO to be more competitive. Creating a bank of computer based resources Working conditions, according to Herzberg’s motivation and hygiene factors (Everard, 2004) can cause a lot of dissatisfaction. Thus, having to deliver lessons without sufficient materials and instruments can affect teachers’ attitude, motivation and quality of work. Favourable conditions for teachers, as seen, are when they can prepare interesting, motivating and effective lessons quickly and efficiently. Resources can include materials based on the mentioned above tools, plus  Grammar presentation made in Power Point, which can be used by students as a visual aid instead of board;  Copyable materials for course books can be scanned and accessed by students from the School’s website from designated area for printing out, instead of the teachers having to scan and send them beforehand. Obviously, there should be a person responsible for creating the resources. Scanning can be done by non-academic staff, whereas making presentations can be assigned to senior teachers.

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I believe that this will take the burden of searching for or creating their own computer based materials from the teachers, facilitate their work, reduce dissatisfaction factor and ensure quality. Establishing a Procedure of Delivering Skype Lessons Teachers who have no experience in Skype lessons will need to understand clearly how on-line lessons will differ from face-to-face ones, what to expect and how to deal with different situations. So, they should be confident in following a standard procedure, for example:      

How to regard late start and finish The dress code Influence of home environment Cancellation Keeping records Possibility to get company’s equipment for work, like a web-camera, head-set, etc

Having clear rules and company policy will give the feeling that even working from home, they still represent the company and work in its interest, which will also contribute into quality assurance. Organisational Constraints  The main constraint is that the School operates without a DOS, therefore for the control of the academic side of the proposal the School will need to assign a senior teacher or a temporary academic manager.  The school does not have a computer room, so for implementing Skype lessons it will have to rely on teachers’ easy access to the appropriate technology.  There might be some expense on purchasing web-cameras and headsets for teachers.  There will be expense on creating the pool of resources, i.e. the School will have to pay the most experienced teachers to create materials.

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PART 4 Implementation Plan Unfreeze (week 1) Using Kotter’s terminology (http://www.kotterinternational.com/ourprinciples/changesteps), at this stage I aim to  establish a sense of urgency by communicating the plan to School Director and obtaining her approval, which I can communicate later to the staff (task 1);  create a guiding coalition by getting on board the teachers who are currently teaching on Skype (task 2). Here I will be pursuing the following objectives: 1) At the moment they seem to be the main resisting force because they have experience which they are not willing to extend. Their negative attitude might influence other teachers. Involving them into research and training team will put them on the other side of the “conflict”. 2) Their expertise is very valuable, they should be encouraged to share it. 3) They have platform for piloting ideas (current Skype students)  develop a vision and strategy (task 2 and 5) – brainstorm tool and techniques together with the research team and design standard procedures myself.  communicate the change vision to the staff (task 6) – in the first training session. The objective here is start planting the idea of the new teaching mode and to prevent misunderstanding and misinterpretation on the teachers’ side. Change (Week 2 – 7) At this stage aims are:  to empower broad based action, i.e. to remove barriers and unleash people do their best work and  to generate short-term wins by: 1) having Skype teachers to pilot new tools and techniques (task 7). Wins and achievements are to ensure their positive attitude and raise their confidence; Evgeniya Astrakhantseva. Development of Skype Lessons.

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2) holding a training for teachers to raise their awareness and motivation and to reduce scepticism and resistance (task 12); 3) piloting Skype lessons by all teachers to build confidence and expertise, as well as to make students aware of the new service of the school (task 16). Re-freeze This stage will be for  consolidating gains and producing more change by collecting and analysing feedback from teachers and students (task 18, 19), identifying new problems (task 20, 21);  anchoring new approaches in the culture by setting and conducting regular CPD sessions to discuss the new mode and deal with question may arise (task 19). There might be expected some certain constraint for all the staff to attend trainings due to the specifics of the organisation of the teaching process. To ensure that all teachers receive the necessary information and training, detailed minutes of the meetings will be taken and e-mailed to those who cannot attend. Also, there should be a possibility to either duplicate training at a different time or to cover main issues individually, if necessary. My Approach and Management of People In terms of management style I will adopt motivational/problem solving, as it is more natural for me, but also I expect I will need to be assertive in standard procedure of lesson delivering and solicitous when the teachers start piloting their lessons (Everard, 2004) In order to raise teachers’ motivation I am going to rely on the following principles and techniques:  I will appeal to the teachers’ need for achievement and professional development (need theories described by Everard, 2004 and Handy and Atkien, 1986);  I will function as a role model (Everard, 2004);  I will try to keep School Director involved to show importance and significance of the change;

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 I will allow an extended period of time (8 weeks), so that the teachers start getting used to the idea of change and to reduce their resistance level. In the Force Field analysis (see Part 2) I identified that one of the institutional restrictions is the current Skype teacher’s resistance, who are vital for setting example. I aim to eliminate the resistance and turn them into a driving force by means of:  Raising their commitment and involving them into the research team;  Show the importance of their current expertise and create a further need for recognition and achievement (Everard, 2004);  Make them responsible for teacher training, this process is identified as Force collaboration mechanism by Everard. Evaluation of Outcomes To evaluate the outcomes the following actions will be taken: 1. Conducting survey among students and comparing the results with the initial ones. 2. Conducting survey among teachers and comparing the results with the initial ones. 3. Analysis of changing in the amount of teaching face-to-face and Skype hours. 4. Analysis of financial impact of the new teaching mode. 5. Adopting Deming’s PDCA circle.

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PART 5 Conclusion The aspects of academic management discussed in Part 1 have been applied in the proposal. Developing Skype lessons is mostly about switching to the on-line mode of teaching, possibly using the same course books, but it certainly has features of new product development. From the stages described as characteristic to NPD, the following are reflected in the implementation plan: idea generating, concept development and testing, product development, testmarketing and review. In terms of staff development, the concept of CTD is reflected in setting regular meeting to discuss adaptation of Skype classes. Also, the process of the implementation is studied from the point of view of staff motivation, which, as stated in Part 1, was a personal goal of the project. It is also possible to identify the roles that I, as a change agent, will adopt. They are: academic manager; resources manager; human resources manager; professional leader; corporate leader. The intended benefits for the LTO are to maintain the market leader position by integrating new technologies and constantly developing new courses and methods. However, the proposal may be constrained by the quality of the Internet connection or access to it – the main resource the whole project relies on.

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Bibliography 1. Everard, K.B., Morris, G. & Wilson, I. (2004, 4th edition). Effective School Management. London: Paul Chapman Publishing. 2. Green, M. 2007. Change Management Masterclass: a Step by Step Guide to Successful Change Management. Kogan Page Limited. 3. Handy, C., Aitken, R. (1986). Understanding Schools as Organisations. Penguin Books. 4. Hockly, N., Clandfield, L. (2010). Teaching Online. Tools, techniques, opportunities. Delta Publishing. 5. Mullins, J. L. (2007, 8th edition). Management and Organisational Behaviour. Pearson Education Limited. 6. Scott, G. (2003). Effective Change Management in Higher Education. Educause Review November/December 2003. 7. White, R. (2008). From Teacher to Manager. Managing Language Teaching Organisations. Cambridge University Press. 8. White, R. et el (1991). Management in English Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. 9. http://www.kotterinternational.com/our-principles/changesteps

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Appendix 1 Situation Analysis Results

Appendix 1.A Comparative Evaluation

School

Adult s

Childre n

Corporat e training

Exam s

Studyin g abroad

On lin e

Other language s

Teache r Trainin g

V

Numbe r of offices in the city 2

Speaking Planet MasterClas s

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

2

X

X

V

LSC

V

V

V

V

V

3

X

V

X

Oxford

V

V

V

V

V

7

V

X

X

EF

V

V

V

V

V

1

V

X

X

Langford

V

V

V

V

V

2

X

V

X

Lingvaacademy English Plus

V

V

V

V

V

2

X

V

X

V

V

V

V

X

1

X

V

X

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Appendix 1.B Extended Teachers’ Survey (number of answers out of 12 respondents) 1. Do you have experience in teaching on Skype? Yes 3

No 9

2. Which factors in favour of Skype lessons are important for you (in 1 – 5 scale) Travel time economy 1 2 3 4 5 0 0 0 2 10 Travel expense economy 1 2 1 1

3 2

4 2

5 6

Possibility to have more lessons on Skype in the same amount of time 1 2 3 4 5 0 0 2 4 6 Possibility to work from home 1 2 0 1

3 2

4 3

5 6

Possibility to use computer and the Internet resources 1 2 3 4 0 1 5 3

5 3

3. Which factors against Skype lessons are important for you (in 1 – 5 scale) No direct contact with students 1 2 3 4 5 1 3 1 1 6 No board 1

2

3

4

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3

1

7

1

Impossibility to use certain tools, techniques and resources 1 2 3 4 1 1 3 5

0

5 2

Necessity to prepare and scan and send copyable materials for printing out in advance 1 2 3 4 5 5 2 2 2 1 No working conditions at home 1 2 8 1

3 1

4 2

5 0

Poor Internet connection 1 2 3 2

3 2

4 3

5 2

4. To what extent do you agree with the following statements: I will never replace face-to-face lessons with Skype ones 1 2 3 4 1 3 5 2

5 2

For me there is no difference between Skype and face-to-face lessons 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 3 2 0 I see switching to Skype lessons as my professional development 1 2 3 4 5 1 1 5 3 2 With sufficient methodological support and favourable conditions I will prefer Skype lessons to face-to-face ones 1 2 3 4 5 1 3 6 0 2

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Appendix 1.C Questionnaire for teachers who are currently working on Skype (out of 3 respondents) The advantages of Skype lessons

The disadvantages of Skype lessons

Travel time and costs economy – 3 Relative flexibility of time – 1 Working from home – 1 Using the Internet resources and computer tools – 1

Unstable Internet connection – 3 No traditional tools –2 Having to prepare in advance to send materials to print out – 2 Difficult to check writing - 1

Which computer based tools do you use? Course Book2 Internet – 2 CD-Rom - 1

Do you prefer Skype or face-orface lessons? Face-to-face – 3

Appendix 1.D Questionnaire for students who are currently receiving Skype lessons (out of 8 respondents) The advantages of Skype lessons Time economy – 5 Relative flexibility of time – 1 Convenience – 1

The disadvantages of Skype lessons Unstable Internet connection - 6

Do you prefer Skype or face-or-face lessons? Skype – 4 No difference – 4

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Appendix 1.E Focus Group The advantages of Skype lessons  Time can be more flexible  Comfort of home  Wide choice of teachers due to no territorial constraints  Cheaper  Possibility to have a teacher from English speaking counties  Time economy  Possibility to record lessons

The disadvantages of Skype lessons  Unstable connection  Home environment prevents from concentrating  Dependence on equipment  No direct contact with the teacher

Appendix 1.F Stakeholder Analysis

High

HR Managers of Client Companies

Students

Owner

Corporate Students

Change agent

Power Teachers

Low

Interest

High

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Appendix 1.G SWOT Analysis      

    

Strengths Corporate culture of the school; Loyal, young, energetic teachers willing to develop; School’s reputation for having its own methods and its brand name; School offers a wide choice of languages; Already running Skype lessons; Current Skype students favour this method Opportunities To cover the region and other big cities; To attract more students within the city; To keep current students who move away or often have to travel; To become the leading provider of on-line courses in the city and the region; Attract native teachers for high-level students.

     

    

Weaknesses Currently there is no DOS to be in charge of the academic side; There are no computer rooms; There are no resources; Lack of awareness among teacher; There have been complaints about teaching quality; Skype courses are not being marketed at the moment

Threats Dependence on the Internet connection, which shows to be unstable; Teachers’ resistance; Teachers do not have tools to facilitate a smooth switch to Skype lessons; People are not aware about the Skype method yet, therefore not ready to trust; Other schools can copy

Evgeniya Astrakhantseva. Development of Skype Lessons.

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Appendix 2 Implementation Plan Tas kN 1. 2.

3. 4. 5. 6.

5.

6.

7. 8. 9.

Task Week 1 Have the plan approved by School Director Meeting with Skype teachers: -Formation of the team; -Brainstorm ideas for tools; -Allocate tasks for research; -Design 1st teacher training session Post date and time for the teacher training session Meeting with the School Director about requirements to equipment Design and approve a standard procedure for Skype lessons Holding the training session

Week 2 and 3 Start adopting and using new tools

Week 4 Meeting with the research team: -Feedback on the results; -Brainstorming ideas for the 2nd teacher training; -Designing training; -Allocating roles Post the date and time for the teacher training session. Preparing the training session Meeting with School Director -Giving feedback -Discuss the conditions of piloting Skype

Person responsible

Length

Myself Myself

1,5 h 1h

Myself

15 min

Myself

30min

Myself

1h

Myself Skype teachers

1,5 h

Skype teachers Myself

10 days

Myself

1,5 h

Myself

15 min

Skype teachers Myself

3 days

Evgeniya Astrakhantseva. Development of Skype Lessons.

1h

29

10.

11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

16 17. 18. 19. 20.

lessons with current students Week 5 -Holding the training session; -Discuss the possibility of piloting Skype lessons with current students; -Setting piloting targets and times Asking students involved to take part in piloting Preparing pilot lessons Design students’ feedback questionnaire Week 6 and 7 Piloting lessons Providing support

Week 8 Collecting feedback from students Meeting with teachers for the feedback Setting regular meeting Collating data Analysing data and identifying problems Meeting with School Director about the feedback and to develop further strategy

Skype teachers Myself

2h

Sales Assistants Teachers Myself

3 days

Teachers Myself Skype teachers

10 days 10 days

Myself Myself

5 days 1,5h

Myself Myself Myself

2h 1h 1h

Evgeniya Astrakhantseva. Development of Skype Lessons.

1 day 1h