A passion for MEC in Brazil

Last month, an intrepid team from Macmillan English Campus flew to Brazil to attend the biannual LABCI conference, held in São Paulo.

The theme of the conference was Learning Cultures: What Next? and the atmosphere was characterized by a fervour for all things ’e-learning’. And the name on everyone’s lips was the Macmillan English Campus (MEC).

MEC is currently being used by a number of customers in South America, including the Cultura Inglesa São Paulo (CISP). CISP is a chain of 27 language schools in São Paulo. They were the very first users of MEC, which they call the 'e-Campus'. They have been using MEC since 2003 and it is now used by 45,000 students and 750 teachers.

The Cultura schools have been very successful in incorporating e-Campus into their courses.

We caught up with Vilson Coimbra, e-learning manager for CISP, to find out more.

Supporting teachers

CISP has promoted the e-Campus to teachers energetically.

Vilson is clear that this is the best way to integrate the e-Campus into the working life of the school. He explains how ‘all new teachers are introduced to the e-Campus during our pre-service programme … and work on its inclusion in their lesson plans.' There are also 'regular sessions where teachers exchange ideas on how to use the e-Campus in class and as extra practice for the students at home.'

Indeed, at the LABCI conference, Vilson demonstrated in a presentation how effectively the e-Campus could be used with an interactive whiteboard, showing examples of creative activities that teachers could use.

All this really helps teachers to harness the potential of the e-Campus: 75% of teachers using it reported in a survey that they were ‘Satisfied’ or ‘Very Satisfied’ with its effectiveness.

Encouraging students

CISP continually encourage students to use the e-Campus at home as well as in the classroom. Research undertaken by CISP shows that 57% of students like using computers to learn English, and 71% say that MEC helps them to improve their English.

So how do they do it?

Crucially important is making sure that students are aware of what the e-Campus can offer. For example, the school's web portal offers sample resources and advertises new content that is published to the e-Campus by Macmillan. There have also been seasonal word games competitions for students to enter – which have proven to be very popular.

Vilson adds: 'Nowadays the e-Campus is part of the daily routine of students and staff. It is used in class, as part of the practice needed for a specific language item or skill, as an assessment tool at the beginning of a term - and the exercises can be assigned for remedial work and revision.'

 It is clear that CISP's 45,000 students are reaping the benefits of such an approach.

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