MEC announces a new contract with Bell International

Macmillan English Campus (MEC) is delighted to announce the recent signing of a contract with Bell International. In February 2006 the English Campus became an integral option for partnerships and contracts that Bell has around the world.

Bell International is one of the best known and most prestigious English language teaching operations in the world. Every year, over 30,000 students from over 120 different nationalities learn English at a Bell school.

Why has Bell International chosen to adapt the English Campus?

To find out the answer, MEC made the pleasant trip up to the Bell School in Cambridge, UK. The school is an elegant manor house set in extensive gardens. There we spoke with Jim Kell (International Development Manager) to ask him a few key questions about the role the English Campus will play for Bell’s service provision in 2006 and beyond.

Bell Cambridge

How does Bell intend to use the English Campus?

First of all, Jim will be overseeing its implementation as part of Bell's offering to various corporate and government clients. These clients require bespoke English language training solutions even though they come from a variety of locations and have a number of different requirements for their language learning. According to Jim, the English Campus is ideally suited to meet the sheer complexity of the learning needs that this market presents.

“The key issue here is a sense of individualization," Jim comments. “The language learning requirements are never the same from one client to the next – different abilities, different learning levels and different attitudes are all brought to the table and Bell has to meet this challenge. The English Campus allows us to offer a customized solution, so that each client can be confident that they’re being treated individually.”
Students relaxing in the sun at Bell Cambridge
Why is Bell using the English Campus now?

Historically, Bell schools have used various kinds of multimedia activities in the classroom. These have included networked CDROMs, computer suites, interactive whiteboards and even a resources website of their own. With the English Campus, Bell can now expand their electronic resources absolutely in step with the courses that they already supply (of course this is a key requirement for any corporate or government client as well). Therefore, as Jim commented, there is an "immediate commercial viability" for the contract.

What features of the English Campus are most exciting to Bell?

The first thing Jim remarked upon was how often Bell was asked, as part of their English language services, to provide some kind of ‘out of hours’ service. That is, what could be provided to learners when they leave the four walls of the school at the end of the day?

The English Campus was an ideal solution. Its large database of learning resources can be set as homework and after-hours language practice. The learner can access this from anywhere with an internet connection – whether this is at home, in an internet café or in the school’s own computer room (in fact, anywhere with 56k or above dial-up connection). And of course all of these resources can be matched to the course or lesson that has just been taught in class. According to Jim, “This way we can have all the benefits of new technology without compromising our commitment to face-to-face teaching”.

Second, and just as important for Bell as ‘out-of-hours’ learning, is the potential for an ‘out-of-grounds’ service to the students. As Jim made clear, Bell International has always promoted the concept of learning a 'language for life' in all its various course offerings. For those students requiring only short, intensive teaching programmes (sometimes as little as only two weeks at a time) ongoing contact and support can be difficult. And of course, this applies equally to students whose courses might be divided into separate phases of the year, perhaps because of work or travel commitments. The idea of a learning solution that could follow learners outside the school and after they graduate was therefore immediately attractive to Bell.

And finally…

Bell International always uses technology to support face-to-face teaching - never to obstruct it. That's why the blended learning solution that the English Campus offers was so attractive. “Bell never uses technology just for the sake of it," Jim concluded. “For every e-learning solution, we carefully weigh up its real value for the student. In the case of the English Campus, we could see straight away that it was no gimmick.” Jim pointed to the simple interface, the ease of searching for resources and the simplicity of access in support of this. Or, to put it in his own words, “There are no unnecessary bells and whistles in the way of the student learning English”.

  


Jim Kell, International Development Manager for Bell, with Tim Howles, MEC Marketing Manager

To find out more about the Macmillan English Campus visit:
www.macmillanenglishcampus.com