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Read full storyUT El Retoño – Higher Education – Mexico
Mexico
Using Off2Class, Universidad Tecnológica El Retoño (UTR) identifies ESL students who are at risk of failing to meet fluency goals and therefore exiting their university programs. With individualized support, students are able to achieve their fluency objectives and continue with their professional degrees.
What is the innovative BIS Model?
The new BIS University model in Mexico is designed to graduate students who are both proficient in their technical areas of study and fluent in English. This model is very ambitious. Many public university students have not had prior exposure to formal English language learning. Nevertheless, UTR students must gain English fluency in a short period of time to maintain enrollment and pursue their professional degrees.
UTR timelines are tight to get students to full fluency as quickly as possible:
- First four months – intensive preparatory training course totaling 525 hours. The English language immersion program leads students to gain A2 level certification.
- First academic term – students continue with seven hours of weekly English instruction. In addition, they have two courses of study delivered fully in English.
- Second academic term – students increase to four courses delivered in English.
- Third, through sixth terms – all courses of study are delivered fully in English. A minimum B1 (and B2 as the ideal) certification level is required before completing the program.
These ambitious timelines mean that students must move quickly to achieve their fluency goals. The number of classes that students attend in English increases each semester, so helping them achieve their required English proficiency levels is key to student success.
Challenges Faced with Ambitious Fluency Goals
As the first Mexican institution implementing this ambitious bilingual educational model in Mexico, UT El Retoño encountered several new challenges.
The first challenge was identifying at-risk students. Students who fail to achieve the required proficiency levels are therefore forced to leave the program. However, teachers were unable to easily assess student English proficiency at the very beginning and throughout the program. This meant it was difficult to implement proactive and corrective measures to provide students with the right support at the right time.
Another challenge UT El Retoño faced was during the intensive English term. This part of the course involves hundreds of hours of instruction and self-directed learning time. A lack of varied learning resources and interactive materials made it difficult to keep students (and teachers!) engaged.
Finally, ensuring that the correct number and level of course books were available for learners was a concern for UTR at the beginning of each semester. It was difficult to gain accurate knowledge of student levels prior to their first day on campus. Therefore, students were often left without access to the appropriate level of English learning resources for their first days or weeks of the program. With such tight timelines, every hour lost without the proper resources put students further at risk of not achieving their fluency requirements.
New Partnership Leads to New Solutions
UTR realized they needed to find new strategies to achieve their goal of developing bilingual professionals. After researching options, they decided Off2Class offered a unique solution to each of their challenges.
Identifying At-Risk ESL Student
Off2Class Placement Tests provide UTR teachers the ability to quickly assign comprehensive online pre-assessments. These tests are automatically graded and provide a complete snapshot of each student’s English level prior to the first day of classes.
Knowing student proficiency in advance allows teachers to create personalized learning paths for each learner. Teachers can reassess anyone at any time by administering the placement test quickly, without any additional cost. Therefore, they can quickly identify any students falling behind and deliver additional support at the right time.
Watch this recap of Off2Class co-founders, James & Kris’s visit to UT El Retoño
In January 2019, the school identified that 170 students were below their required proficiency level. UTR teachers provided each student with additional lessons and homework assignments through Off2Class. These personalized resources addressed each student’s specific areas of deficiency.
Following the completion of their targeted Off2Class lessons, students completed assessments. 117 of the 170 students achieved the required level and continued in the program accordingly.
"Looking for ways to help our students improve their level of English is an endless quest. I needed to find a platform that offered well-elaborated materials for teachers and good practice exercises for students. So far, I’ve had great results using Off2Class with students that need to improve their level of English. "
Gabriela Zamarron-Perez, Academic Director