TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Off2Class, provider of the leading software toolkit for English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers, has released the results of two surveys of ESL teachers in 80 countries and 30 U.S. states that are using the Off2Class platform. The first survey (551 respondents) gathered quantitative data on how important it is for teachers to save on lesson prep time and what tools helps ESL teachers accelerate student success and achieve fluency in English; and the second survey (373 respondents) focused on the time it typically takes for ESL lesson prep and how much time is saved when using the Off2Class method for ESL instruction. Complete survey insights are available for download.
One of the most significant survey findings addresses the global lesson prep time challenges shared by teachers across all subjects, grades, and student learning levels. While lesson prep time has always been a challenge for teachers, the demands of lesson preparation amid the pandemic have been magnified with teachers moving between online and physical learning environments and the increased use of hybrid learning models. According to the survey, without Off2Class, 83% of teachers spend more than 20 minutes preparing a typical lesson, and 1 in 10 teachers spend more than 90 minutes; with an average prep time of 44 minutes. With Off2Class, 92% of teachers reduce their lesson preparation time, with 1 in 4 teachers (25.5%) spending only 5 minutes preparing for a single lesson. Off2Class was shown to save teachers an average of 30 minutes of preparation time per lesson, a reduction of 68%; with an average time of 14 minutes to prepare a typical lesson using Off2Class.
The survey asked teachers to rank the importance of “access to a digital ESL ‘lesson library’ and other tools that save prep time and allow [teachers] to focus more on teaching, student engagement, and creating positive student outcomes.” 98% of respondents noted this as being the most important for student fluency, ahead of placement tests and regular assessments.
In commentary provided alongside survey responses, Darcy, a private ESL instructor based in San Francisco said, “I chose to use Off2Class because it allowed me to concentrate on teaching and not on creating materials or assessments. Off2Class saves hours and hours of preparation and material creation.” Ron Churion, Director of Business Operations at Santiago, Chile-based iSpeak Center said, “Off2Class has dramatically decreased lesson planning, allowing teachers to spend more time focusing on adapting to students’ specific needs before class and while teaching.”
Teaching is known to be a stressful profession with high turnover rates. Those teachers that consider leaving the profession often cite low pay and high stress as the most influential factors. According to survey insights, by reducing lesson prep time, Off2Class increases teaching capacity and consequently a teacher’s hourly pay. Of the teachers using the Off2Class method, 74% are able to increase the number of students they can teach due to the reduction in lesson prep time. On average, each teacher can add 3.6 additional students to their full-time teaching roster. By reducing lesson prep time by 30 minutes per lesson, a teacher who teaches 60-minute lessons can theoretically increase active student capacity by 50%, without working additional hours.
Reinforcing these survey insights, Lesa, an Associate ESL Instructor in Orlando, FL, said, “The Off2Class Placement Test and Lesson Library gave me the confidence to take on private online students to supplement my day job teaching at a language school. I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel! I could immediately start teaching.”
“Teacher Content designed for in-classroom teaching doesn’t translate well to online teaching, so the lesson prep burden has been taxing on teachers,” observes Kris Jagasia, co-founder and CEO, Off2Class. “Teachers are spending an inordinate amount of time cobbling together lessons and exercises using legacy tools. This makes it much more challenging for teachers to balance their time between planning for lesson delivery, teaching, student engagement, filing administrative reports, and taking care of their own families. The results of this survey show that Off2Class changes this dynamic for ESL teachers by giving them all the tools they need so they can focus more of their time on teaching and supporting students.”
Off2Class provides ESL teachers with access to prepared lessons, homework, and assessments needed to teach online and in screen-based classroom environments. Off2Class has long fostered a direct-to-teacher (B2C) model in tandem with a direct-to-institution (B2B) model. The company currently works with several hundred institutions across K12, Higher Education, NGOs, and private language institutions.
The sample size of this survey has a margin of error of +-3.3%.
About Off2Class
Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Off2Class was founded in 2014 by former English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers who saw the need to adapt traditional materials and software for the power of the 21st-century classroom. Off2Class is the first digitally native, teacher-led tool for language learning; active in more than 120 countries. It provides a complete e-learning curriculum that is adaptive and collaborative, making the language-learning experience better for teachers and students. To date, the Off2Class platform has been used to deliver more than one million ESL lessons across K12, higher education, NGOs, and private language institutions around the world. To learn more, visit www.off2class.com.
