Whilst Liden & Denz Russian Language Schools have been using Zoom for 1:1 Russian live courses since 2017, the Covid crisis has led them to introduce regular online group courses, catering for different time zones.
They are now able to offer the following online Russian courses continuously
- 2x2 lessons per week (extensive)
- 3x2 lessons per week (extensive)
- 3 lessons daily (intensive)
- 4 lessons daily (intensive)
These four group course types are held at different times, catering for learners in Europe, East Asia and Northern America, our main markets.
For example: the intensive group with 3 daily lessons starts at 8 AM in Los Angeles or 5 PM in Berlin whereas the course with 4 daily lessons kicks off at 8 AM in Berlin and 4 PM in Tokyo. Likewise for the extensive courses.
In addition to the new online courses, Liden & Denz have introduced hybrid learning - allowing students to be either in the classroom or online with a number of measures introduced to facilitate this such as marks on the floor help teachers to stay within the camera limits and microphone sets to suit the room size.
The placement and onboarding of new students happens in live sessions three times per week. Our Director of Studies assesses incoming student levels and assigns newly arrived learners of Russian to an existing group for the week(s) to follow. Beginners can join at specific dates only.
The other opportunity the crisis offered was finding a new home for their many self-study exercises. A learning management system allowed Liden & Denz to upload hundreds of exercises for all levels, now accessible as part of any course package. Some exercises can be accessed without any booked course. Online cultural activities have also been added to the portfolio. Those are free for all Liden & Denz students and add even more value to their Russian online courses.
"We need to focus on new ways to teach the language of Pushkin, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, using our biggest assets, our teachers. The rest is technology."
Nadya Lyubich: Liden & Denz’ Director of Studies
