Foreign language teachers who run online classes often feel that instead of teaching they are managing links, messengers and calendars. The story of Agnieszka, an experienced English teacher, shows how a teacher’s work changes when everything is moved into one system: DL PRO, specialized software for managing a language school and online lessons.
Below you will learn that…
- an online teacher can run 8 lessons a day without chaos when the schedule, virtual classroom, SMS reminders and teaching materials all work in one DL PRO system instead of in several different tools,
- automatic notifications, a one-click virtual classroom and notes in the student profile save the teacher up to dozens of minutes a day and reduce the number of no-shows,
- implementing DL PRO in a language school improves the learner experience (including for students 50+) and increases the professionalism of the brand, which translates into better student retention and a stronger online image for the school.
What did an online teacher’s day look like before DL PRO?
Agnieszka is a certified teacher with 12 years of experience who, after the pandemic, moved 100% to online lessons and runs 8 sessions a day with different students. Each lesson meant a separate Zoom room, a manually generated link sent to the student by SMS or WhatsApp, a separate event in Google Calendar and a separate email with materials.
In practice she used Zoom, WhatsApp, Google Calendar, Excel and email at the same time – five different tools that were not synchronized with each other.
The biggest problems Agnieszka faced before implementing an online lesson management system looked like this:
- manually creating a new Zoom link for each lesson and sending it individually to students,
- students who lost links, joined the wrong meeting or could not find the correct lesson at all,
- a Google calendar that was not consistent with the actual Zoom lessons and settlements in Excel,
- constant messages like “where is the link?”, “do we have a lesson today?”, “what time do we start?” on WhatsApp just before class,
- materials, coursebooks and homework scattered across emails and notes, hard to find before the next sessions.
From the online teacher’s perspective this meant a heavy organizational burden and stress, and from the school’s point of view: a risk of student no-shows, weaker reviews and lower effectiveness of courses.
DL PRO as the online teacher’s work hub
DL PRO is a language school management system that combines in one place the calendar, electronic class register, billing, virtual classroom and access to teaching materials, including DLLAB. In the DL PRO teacher panel the teacher has an organized schedule, lesson records, a virtual classroom and tools for working with the student in one place, also in the mobile DL PRO OFFICE app.
For Agnieszka the key was replacing five scattered tools with one system for online lessons:
- the DL PRO calendar and virtual classroom are integrated: each lesson has its date, status and assigned “online room” in the system,
- the teacher enters the virtual classroom with one click from the DL PRO calendar and the student does the same from the app without accounts on external platforms and without links,
- the system sends an automatic SMS reminder before the lesson, for example 30 minutes beforehand, which significantly reduces lateness and no-shows,
- the online coursebook and lesson materials are available in the same app where the video connection takes place: this works especially well with Direct Language Lab materials,
- lesson notes, session topics and homework are saved directly in the student profile, so it is easy to continue the course and show progress.
With 8 lessons a day Agnieszka saves up to 80 minutes daily on technical preparation, which translates into the possibility of teaching more lessons or simply having a calmer working day.
Agnieszka’s day with DL PRO: how does it work in practice?
Here is a simplified scenario you can adapt to your own language school:
- Thirty minutes before every lesson DL PRO automatically sends an SMS reminder to the student with the lesson time and a suggestion to open the DL PRO app and tap the camera icon.
- At the start time of the lesson Agnieszka opens DL PRO, selects the lesson and with one click launches the virtual classroom in the browser: with no Zoom, no extra accounts and no copying of links.
- On their own device the student sees the same lesson in the app with the course title, coursebook information and a note from the previous session and also joins the class with one click.
- After the session the teacher spends about a minute entering in the system the lesson topic, a short note on progress and the homework: for the next lesson the full history of cooperation is available instantly.
Thanks to DL PRO online lessons also become accessible for students aged 50 or 60 who have had problems with Zoom or other platforms. They only need one button in the app without having to fight with the technology.
What do teachers gain?
From the online teacher’s perspective:
- less stress and less switching between apps,
- more time for content-related preparation,
- a complete view of work with students in one place: calendar, attendance, materials, homework and billing,
- a consistent standard for running online lessons,
- better student retention and fewer dropouts caused by technical issues or organizational chaos,
- a professional, modern image of a school that cares about the comfort and convenience of its learners.
Agnieszka’s story is an example of how DL PRO, a system for managing a language school and running online lessons, organizes the teacher’s work and improves the learner experience from individual sessions to entire language courses.
If you run a language school or teach online you can implement a similar scenario by centralizing the calendar, virtual classroom and communication with students in one DL PRO system.
