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  • Gale Receives Platinum in 2025 Modern Library Awards from LibraryWorks for the Fourth Consecutive Year

    Gale Receives Platinum in 2025 Modern Library Awards from LibraryWorks for the Fourth Consecutive Year

    FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. – Gale, part of Cengage Group, is pleased to announce that it has received four platinum awards in LibraryWorks’ eleventh annual Modern Library Awards (MLAs) for its adult learning and youth large print resources. The MLAs were created to recognize the top products and services in the library industry in a truly unbiased format. This is the fourth consecutive year Gale has been recognized by the MLAs for product excellence.

    “Being recognized for the fourth year running is a testament to Gale’s unwavering commitment to innovative learning resources,” said Paul Gazzolo, senior vice president and general manager at Gale. “Customer motivation is at the heart of everything we do to provide the best accessible learning and reading experiences for learners of all ages. This recognition is more validation that our products continue to break barriers and reach new heights in education, and we are thrilled to receive such an honor.”

    Products and services were submitted to LibraryWorks in the fall of 2024 and sent to more than 90,000 librarians at public, K-12, academic and special libraries. Only customers experienced with these products/services in their facilities were permitted to judge them, resulting in a truly unbiased score. 

    Each judge scored the products on a numeric basis from 1-10, based on a series of questions regarding functionality, value, customer service experience and overall satisfaction.

    Gale’s 2025 MLA platinum award winners include:

    • Gale Presents: Peterson’s Test and Career Prep (platinum award): offers a comprehensive set of tools to support individuals on their educational and professional journeys. Whether for high school students preparing for standardized tests, working adults seeking career changes, or those pursuing further education, the platform provides resources for success.

    “This is the best database relating to college and career preparation for teens that we use at our library! It has so many resources and the patrons love it!” –MLA judge

    • Gale Presents: Excel Adult High School (platinum award): A 21.5-credit, self-paced online high school completion program that allows public libraries to offer accredited high school diplomas to adults who wish to prepare for entry into the workforce, further their careers, or attend college.

    “Our patrons have overcome significant challenges to achieve their goal of earning a high school diploma through the Gale Presents: Excel Adult High School. I cannot emphasize enough just how impactful this program is and how it improves the lives of our graduates. Gale has helped our library system further our mission to provide services that have a truly positive impact on our community.” –MLA judge

    • Thorndike Press – Youth Large Print (platinum award): A viable reading intervention tool, similar in size as standard print with the same cover art. These books have been proven to improve decoding, increase comprehension, and reduce anxiety in developing, below-grade-level, and emerging bilingual readers.

    “Thorndike Large Print books for youth have been instrumental in helping me reach students who are struggling with reading, students who don’t enjoy reading and students who have no issues with reading! These books are for ALL my students, and because they are so accessible, ALL students can enjoy them and reap the benefits. I couldn’t highly recommend them enough.” –MLA judge

    • Gale Presents: Udemy (platinum award): Public libraries can connect patrons to nearly 30,000 on-demand video courses for upskilling or reskilling in business, technology, and personal development. Thousands of courses are taught by native speakers in 14 different languages, helping libraries reach their diverse communities.

    “(Our) Public Library is proud to offer Udemy Business as a valuable resource for our community. It provides access to a wide range of professional development courses. It helps equip our patrons with educational tools so that they are able to be successful in their career and beyond.” –MLA judge

    Jenny Newman, publisher and MLA program manager noted, “It’s hardly a surprise that Gale continues to score high. The strong partnerships they have established with libraries are what differentiate and drive their industry leadership. The quality and innovation of their adult learning and youth large print resources are truly impacting and changing the lives of all learners, keeping the company at the forefront of the market.”

    About Cengage Group and Gale

    Cengage Group, an education technology company serving millions of learners in 165 countries, advances the way students learn through quality, digital experiences. The company currently serves the K-12, higher education, professional, library, English language teaching and workforce training markets worldwide. Gale, part of Cengage Group, provides libraries with original and curated content, as well as the modern research tools and technology that are crucial in connecting libraries to learning, and learners to libraries. For more than 65 years, Gale has partnered with libraries around the world to empower the discovery of knowledge and insights – where, when and how people need it. Gale has 500 employees globally with its main operations in Farmington Hills, Michigan. For more information, please visit  www.gale.com.

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    About LibraryWorks

    LibraryWorks helps administrators to make informed decisions about library technology, automation and software, collection development and management, facilities and furnishings, staffing, purchasing, and other areas that drive effective strategic planning and day-to-day operations. Our family of resources can enable you to identify best practices, monitor trends, evaluate new products and services, apply for grants and funding, post or find a job, and even enjoy some library humor. https://www.libraryworks.com/

    About the Modern Library Awards program The Modern Library Awards (MLAs) is a review program designed to recognize elite products and services in the market which can help library management personnel enhance the quality-of-experience for the library user and increase the performance of their library systems. https://www.modernlibraryawards.com/

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  • SCOTUS to hear case on LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum opt-outs

    SCOTUS to hear case on LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum opt-outs

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    The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday it will hear Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case that would determine whether school districts violate parents’ First Amendment religious rights when they don’t provide notice or a way to opt children out of curriculum related to gender and sexuality.

    The case was brought against Maryland’s Montgomery County Board of Education by a group of Christian and Muslim parents in reaction to a pre-K-5 LGBTQ+-inclusive language arts curriculum. With more than 159,000 students and 211 schools, Montgomery County Public Schools is Maryland’s largest school district.

    Though the school board initially offered parents a way to opt their children out of the curriculum, it later walked that policy back because “individual schools could not accommodate the growing number of opt out requests without causing significant disruptions to the classroom environment.” The board also attributed the reversal to the “unworkable burdens” that high opt-out volumes put on educators.

    In their Sept. 12 petition to the Supreme Court, the plaintiffs argued that parents’ ability to raise their children in accordance with their beliefs is particularly important for the pre-K-5 age group and particularly those with special needs “who are highly impressionable and instinctively trusting of authority figures like teachers.”

    The court is expected to hear the case in the spring.

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  • Biden administration opened ‘new chapter’ on college financing, Kvaal says

    Biden administration opened ‘new chapter’ on college financing, Kvaal says

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    James Kvaal is the outgoing U.S. under secretary of education. His tenure ends with the inauguration of Donald Trump on Jan. 20.

    After decades of an accelerating student debt crisis, Joe Biden is the first president to use every available tool to alleviate the burden of borrowing for college. He will be remembered for turning the page on the worst consequences of the country’s failed experiment with debt-financed college and beginning a new chapter on how to pay for higher education.

    For the past two generations, increasing reliance on student debt seemed like an easy solution to paying for college. Loan terms were set at no cost to the government, and students were expected to easily earn enough to pay the loans back following graduation.

    But it didn’t work out that way. One in three borrowers don’t graduate, leaving them with debt but no degree. Because interest piles up so fast, more than 20 million people owe more than they borrowed. Before the pandemic, more than a million people default on their college loans every year.

    Some critics say that student debt affects borrowers of all income levels equally. But hair stylists, massage therapists and other workers earning modest wages often went into debt to get the training, certificates or degrees needed for their jobs. And debt is not just a problem for the roughly 43 million people with student loans. It hurts their families and communities because it stands in the way of economic security, homeownership and potential new businesses.

    .

    James Kvaal, the U.S. under secretary of education under President Joe Biden

    Permission granted by U.S. Department of Education

     

    Others say we should eliminate student debt altogether. But until Congress and states invest in lower tuitions and larger scholarships — as President Biden has proposed — loans will remain essential for many low-income and middle-class students.

    The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these festering problems. Nearly 3 of every 5 students lacked adequate access to food or housing during the pandemic, putting them at risk of dropping out. And most borrowers of modest means expected they couldn’t afford loan payments.

    By pausing payments and interest on federal loans, the administration saved the average borrower in repayment more than $3,800 and helped them persevere through the national emergency. President Biden also fought partisan opponents in court for up to $20,000 in one-time relief for borrowers — all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

    While the pause gave borrowers a break, the U.S. Department of Education worked on long-term solutions.

    First, we focused on people who were owed forgiveness but were blocked by bureaucracy.

    For example, only 7,000 people had ever received Public Service Loan Forgiveness from the program’s creation in 2007 to when President Biden took office in 2021. Many public servants planned their careers around this benefit only to learn too late that they had the wrong type of loan or had spent years in the wrong repayment plan. Now, more than 1 million borrowers have received the relief they earned.

    We also kept promises to borrowers with permanent disabilities and those who were cheated by colleges. In total, we have approved more than 5 million people for loan relief. Many more borrowers are set to benefit in the years to come.

    I’ve heard countless stories about what this life-changing relief has meant for Americans. They say they are finally able to plan for retirement, pay off medical expenses, or even have more children.

    At the same time, not all of our efforts succeeded. Some 40 million borrowers and their families continue to feel the weight of both the Supreme Court decision to deny one-time relief and litigation hindering our ability to help borrowers experiencing hardship.

    Second, to help people with low incomes and high debts, the Biden administration created Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE — an income-driven repayment plan that could cut monthly payments in half for eligible borrowers. People making payments would finally see their balances going down, instead of up due to ballooning interest.

    SAVE served almost 8 million people before partisan lawsuits held it up, and it’s now under judicial review. The SAVE plan is similar to other repayment plans the department has created over the past 30 years, and we continue to defend it in court.

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  • Avoiding Marketing Pitfalls Pt. 3: Communicating to Everyone the Same Way 

    Avoiding Marketing Pitfalls Pt. 3: Communicating to Everyone the Same Way 

    In higher education marketing, effective communication starts with understanding that no single message fits every audience. Treating all prospects the same not only dilutes your messaging but also wastes valuable opportunities to engage meaningfully. From hyper-segmenting digital audiences to tailoring follow-up communications, success lies in customizing the way you connect with each unique segment. Here’s how to refine your approach and avoid the pitfall of blanket communication. 

    Hyper-Segmentation: Getting Specific About Who You’re Talking To 

    Not every message serves the same purpose. Awareness messaging has its place—whether it’s introducing your institution to new markets or keeping your name top of mind for existing ones. But when your goal is generating actionable leads, hyper-segmentation becomes essential. 

    The question to ask is: What do we know about each audience, and how can we leverage that in both messaging and segmentation? For example, out-of-state prospects might respond to communication about scholarship opportunities designed for non-residents. A prospective student interested in music may be drawn to band scholarship messaging, while someone working for a partner employer might appreciate hearing about tuition reimbursement benefits. Even behavioral data can unlock opportunities. Consider those who’ve engaged with specific program content but haven’t applied yet—these individuals are prime candidates for abandoned cart-style messaging to re-engage them and move them closer to applying. 

    Hyper-segmentation is not about casting a wide net but rather creating smaller, targeted audiences with clear, actionable insights. The more specific you can get, the better your chances of connecting in ways that matter. 

     

    Follow-Up Communication: Treating Every Lead with Intent 

    When it comes to follow-up communication, understanding a lead’s origin is critical. A student who visited your booth at a college fair or participated in an in-person campus event has already demonstrated more active engagement than someone who passively submitted their email address after watching a social media reel. Similarly, a lead captured through a paid search landing page may already be deep in their decision-making process and need entirely different messaging than someone still in the exploratory phase. 

    The goal is to meet each lead where they are, considering their intent and what you already know about them. From there, you can take incremental steps to learn more and guide them through the enrollment funnel. For example, an inquiry generated at a college fair might warrant an immediate invitation to schedule a personalized follow-up conversation, while a more passive lead might benefit from an introductory email series designed to build familiarity and trust over time. By aligning your follow-up strategies with the context and intent of each lead, you avoid the misstep of treating them all as if they’re at the same stage of the journey. 

     

    Building a Messaging Matrix: Positioning Your Value for Every Audience 

    The core features and benefits of your institution don’t change depending on the audience—but how you frame and position them should. A messaging matrix is a critical tool for ensuring your communication resonates with specific groups while maintaining consistency across your overall brand. 

    Investing time in creating a messaging matrix allows you to align features, benefits, and proof points with each of your target audiences. There are certainly obvious points of messaging differentiators—for example, traditional undergraduate students might value campus life, student organizations, and academic advising, while adult learners may prioritize flexible scheduling, career advancement opportunities, and credit transfer policies. Within those broader categories, however, there’s even more nuance—transfer students and first-time freshmen have distinct motivations and concerns. Similarly, graduate students pursuing executive leadership roles will likely need messaging that’s vastly different from that aimed at career advancers just starting their journeys. 

    By taking the time to map out these variations, you create a framework that ensures your messaging aligns with the unique goals and priorities of each segment. This step doesn’t just make your marketing more effective—it also reinforces your brand as one that truly understands the diverse needs of its audience. 

     

    Closing Thoughts

    In a time when higher education institutions are competing for shrinking pools of prospective students, a personalized approach to marketing is no longer optional—it’s essential. By prioritizing hyper-segmentation, aligning follow-up communications with audience intent, and building out a messaging matrix, you can transform how you engage with prospects at every stage of their journey. The closer you can get to marketing to an audience of one, the better your chances of not only capturing their attention but also converting them into students who feel truly understood and valued by your institution. 

     


    Jess Lanning began her career in higher education at a private university where she served as director of enrollment marketing on a record enrollment team. Over her decade-long career, she has focused on strategizing and implementing digital marketing campaigns as a senior vice president of strategy and senior partnership manager for higher education-specific agencies. In these roles, she served undergraduate, adult, and graduate audiences across the verticals of paid social, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, conversion rate optimization, digital PR, and user experience. Jess now serves as a Director of Digital Strategy at Liaison and we are very lucky to have her!

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  • Common App data shows 5% jump in first-year college applicants

    Common App data shows 5% jump in first-year college applicants

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     Dive Brief:

    • First-year Common Applications are up 5% year over year, with over 1.2 million prospective students submitting the forms for the 2024-25 application cycle as of Jan. 1, the company said Thursday.
    • First-year applications ticked up across both institution types and student demographics, but some groups saw accelerated growth. Common App found disproportionate increases among students believed to be from low-income households and those who identified as underrepresented minorities. 
    • Applications to public institutions grew by 11% year over year, outpacing the 3% growth seen at private colleges, Thursday’s report said. 

    Dive Insight:

    Applications from prospective first-year students have steadily increased since the 2020-21 application cycle, Common App found. 

    That’s despite the challenges that have thrown aspects of college admissions into tumult, including the botched rollout of the updated Free Application for Federal Student Aid during the 2024-25 cycle and the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 ban on race-conscious admissions.

    Roughly 960,000 students used the Common App portal to submit over 4.8 million applications during the 2020-21 cycle. In the 2024-25 cycle, over 1.2 million users submitted just under 6.7 million applications.

    Prospective students can continue to apply to colleges through the month and beyond. But a majority of applications for the following fall semester are traditionally submitted by the end of December. 

    The number of colleges first-year prospects applied to ticked up slightly between 2020-21 and 2024-25, but remained between five and six institutions. 

    Common App found disproportionate application growth among students from low-income households. The portal does not directly collect household income from applicants, but researchers used students who were eligible for fee waivers as a proxy. Application rates for that group increased by 10%, compared to 2% for their counterparts who weren’t eligible for the waivers.

    Moreover, applications from students in ZIP codes where median incomes fall below the national average grew 9% since the 2023-24 cycle, compared to 4% growth from those in above-median income areas, Common App found.

    The company also saw more applications from minority groups underrepresented in higher education, classified by researchers as those who identify as Black or African American, Latinx, Native American or Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.

    As of Jan. 1, 367,000 underrepresented applicants used Common App to submit first-year applications. But their numbers are growing at a faster rate than their counterparts.

    Among students in underrepresented groups, first-year applications grew by 13% since last year, compared to the 2% growth for the others. 

    Latinx and Black or African American candidates drove much of that growth, showing year-over-year increases of 13% and 12%, respectively.

    However, it appears that students are reconsidering their application materials following the 2023 Supreme Court decision. In June, separate Common App research found a decrease in the number of Asian, Black, Latinx and White students referencing race or ethnicity in their college essays.

    Thursday’s report also found more first-year students including standardized test scores in their applications, up 10% since last year. The number of applicants leaving them out remained unchanged year over year.

    “This marks the first time since the 2021–22 season that the growth rate of test score reporters has surpassed that of non-reporters, narrowing the gap between the two groups,” the report said.

    That’s despite interest slowing in highly selective colleges, the type of institutions that have historically most used standardized test scores in the admissions process.

    Applications to colleges with acceptance rates below 25% grew just 2% in 2024-25, Common App found. That’s compared to the between 8% and 9% increases seen at institutions of all other selectivity levels.

    Just 5% of the colleges on Common App required test scores in the 2024-25 application cycle, a slight uptick from the 4% that did so the previous year. 

    COVID-19 pushed many institutions with test requirements to temporarily waive this mandate, and some ultimately made the change permanent.

    But others returned to their original rules. And reversal announcements continue to trickle in, including one from the highly selective University of Miami just this past Friday. 

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  • How AI Has Gone To The Dogs

    How AI Has Gone To The Dogs

    One highlight from FETC’s Startup Pavilion is Florida-based Scholar Education, which uses AI chatbot dogs to help tutor students and give feedback to teachers. How it works: A friendly AI-powered classroom assistant provides academic guidance and encourages engagement. The AI dogs will deliver daily reports to parents so they can see feedback on their kids’ learning, creating a direct line of communication between home and school. See it in action for yourself:

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  • FIRE statement on Supreme Court’s ruling in TikTok v. Garland

    FIRE statement on Supreme Court’s ruling in TikTok v. Garland

    The Supreme Court today ruled that a federal law compelling TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the social media platform or cease operations in the United States does not violate the First Amendment. The law functionally requires TikTok to shut down its operations by Jan. 19 absent some other accommodation.

    FIRE issued the following statement:

    Our unique national commitment to freedom of expression requires more caution than today’s ruling delivers. The unprecedented ban of a communication platform used by 170 million Americans demands strict judicial scrutiny, not the rushed and highly deferential review the Supreme Court instead conducted. 

    The Court explicitly notes the “inherent narrowness” of today’s decision. FIRE will hold it to that promise, and fight to contain the threat the ruling poses to our First Amendment rights. 

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  • Historians’ council vetoes Gaza scholasticide condemnation

    Historians’ council vetoes Gaza scholasticide condemnation

    The American Historical Association’s top elected body has shot down a resolution opposing scholasticide in Gaza, after members who attended its annual convention approved the statement early this month by a 428-to-88 margin.

    The association’s elected council, which has 16 voting members, could have accepted the resolution or sent it to the organization’s roughly 10,450 members for a vote. Instead, the council rejected it as the official position of the association.

    Jim Grossman, the association’s executive director and a nonvoting member of the council, said the Thursday afternoon vote was 11 to 4, with one abstention. He said the meeting was over Zoom.

    The rejected resolution had condemned the U.S. government’s funding of Israel, saying it “has supplied Israel with the weapons being used to commit this scholasticide” and that Israel “has effectively obliterated Gaza’s education system.” Scholasticide is defined as the intentional eradication of an education system.

    The resolution also called for a permanent ceasefire and for the association to form a committee to help rebuild Gaza’s “educational infrastructure.”

    In a written explanation of the veto, the council said it “deplores any intentional destruction of Palestinian educational institutions, libraries, universities and archives in Gaza.”

    However, it considers the resolution to be a contravention of AHA’s “constitution and bylaws because it lies outside the scope of the association’s mission and purpose.” The constitution, the council noted, defines that mission and purpose as “the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of research, teaching and publication; the collection and preservation of historical documents and artifacts; the dissemination of historical records and information; the broadening of historical knowledge among the general public; and the pursuit of kindred activities in the interest of history.”

    Grossman said the vote to approve that explanation was 10 to zero with three abstentions, after some members left the meeting following the veto vote. He said he couldn’t reveal who voted which way in either tally because the discussion was confidential.

    “We consider it imperative that council members be able to speak freely and candidly during the meeting, and that’s why they’re not recorded and that’s why we do not quote any individual council members,” Grossman said. “And they did speak freely and candidly.”

    Van Gosse, a co-chair and founder of Historians for Peace and Democracy, which wrote the resolution, said “we are extremely shocked by this decision, and disappointed.” He said, “It overturns the democratic decision at that huge [conference] business meeting and the landslide vote.”

    Anne Hyde, a council member and a University of Oklahoma history professor, said she voted to veto “to protect the AHA’s reputation as an unbiased historical actor,” noting that the organization does congressional briefings. She also said the current war in Gaza “is not settled history, so we’re not clear what happened or who to blame or when it began even, so it isn’t something that a professional organization should be commenting on yet.”

    Asked why she didn’t support sending the resolution to the full membership for a vote, Hyde said, “As a council member, you really are thinking about the full 10,000 people, and it includes high school teachers, people who teach in really difficult circumstances and who don’t agree about this issue.” She said, “You could imagine all kinds of scenarios” where a full membership vote “still wasn’t representative.”

    This marks the second time this academic year that the top body of a major scholarly organization has shot down a pro-Palestinian resolution before the group’s full membership could vote on it. In the fall, the Modern Language Association’s executive council rejected a resolution that would’ve also accused Israel of scholasticide—and would’ve gone further by endorsing the international boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israeli policy.

    Unlike the American Historical Association, the Modern Language Association Executive Council, which has different bylaws, axed that resolution before its convention this month even began.

    In February 2022, the AHA council did approve a statement on another current war. It condemned “in the strongest possible terms Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine” and said, “This act of overt military aggression violates the sovereignty of an independent Ukraine, threatening stability in the broader region and across the world.”

    The statement rebutted Russian president Vladimir Putin’s historical justifications for the invasion, saying, “Putin grossly simplifies and distorts Ukraine’s history, essentially erasing its distinct past and rendering it indistinguishable from Russia.” The statement ended with this: “We vigorously support the Ukrainian nation and its people in their resistance to Russian military aggression and the twisted mythology that President Putin has invented to justify his violation of international norms.”

    Grossman told Inside Higher Ed Friday that “the Ukraine statement was purely historical. It was well within our scope.” He said, “No serious professional historian in the United States considers Putin’s historical explanation to be anything close to accurate history, so the war itself was based on an abuse of history, and that’s what our statement addressed.” There’s “no such consensus” among U.S. historians on the situation in Gaza, he said.

    Two pro-Israel organizations, the American Jewish Committee and the Academic Engagement Network, said they sent a joint letter to the council Thursday urging the veto. The letter calls the scholasticide accusation “preposterous.”

    “There is no evidence to suggest that Israel is deliberately and systematically targeting the Palestinian educational system for destruction,” the letter said. “The resolution blatantly ignores the fact that Hamas routinely launches rockets from, and houses its weapons and fighters in, civilian structures and facilities.”

    The organizations wrote that “as an institution, the AHA should steer clear of weighing in on contentious political conflicts, particularly when so many members vehemently disagree.” They said such resolutions can “create a hostile and unwelcoming environment for scholars and students who identify as Zionists and those with strong personal, academic and professional ties to Israel.” They further argued that “the association would be better served by adopting a stance of political neutrality on geopolitical issues.”

    This story has been updated.

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  • Korean reality TV showcases language learning in the UK

    Korean reality TV showcases language learning in the UK

    The series, premiering on February 5, was filmed at Bell English Schools’s Cambridge premisis in August 2025, which hosted Dong-Il Sung, Kwang-Kyu Kim, Ki-Jun Um, Hyuk Jang, and Seung-Hwan Shin for two weeks in August 2024.  

    The program, Shala Shala, follows the actors’ authentic experiences of learning English alongside other students, taking part in activities, and staying with host families and in Bell Cambridge’s on-campus residences.  

    “These are male, middle-aged actors who are famous in South Korea, but who have got to a certain point in their career and maybe they want to try more roles in English or maybe they want to travel personally with their families,” Rebecca Stead, head of marketing at Bell Educational Services told The PIE News. 

    “So, the premise of the show was that it’s never too late to late to learn English,” Stead added.  

    To make it as authentic as possible, 50 hidden cameras were set up around the school to capture the actors’ true experiences taking classes with Bell’s summer learners. 

    While Stead maintained that the actors were “great students”, the program’s trailer reveals a somewhat bumpy path to language learning success.  

    “It was a big operation and really interesting for us staff to see how a TV program is made, and the other students were really excited to have the actors around,” she added.  

    The premise of the show was that it’s never too late to late to learn English

    Rebecca Stead, Bell English

    With seven schools for adult students and young learners across the UK, Bell’s Cambridge institution is its flagship location offering year-round language courses to learners of all ages.  

    “We’ve got these beautiful gardens and traditional buildings, and it’s in Cambridge, which is such an attractive destination. It’s very much that quintessential image of what a lot of people from other countries imagine the UK to be like,” Stead noted.

    “Not only are we showcasing Bell but we’re also showcasing the UK and what a valuable experience it is to study and travel here, so hopefully it will be a positive thing for the industry as a whole.”  

    The program comes at a time of slowing recovery for the UK’s ELT sector, with levels likely to be a “new normal” for the sector, according to a recent report by English UK.  

    The program will be airing on YouTube as well as the South Korean television network JTBC on February 5, 2025.  

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