Improving Online Teaching with CleverControl

Today we share the experience of a small online school teaching foreign languages online. This startup was founded in 2021 by three enthusiastic teachers. "We did not have the money to develop our own learning platform from the beginning," says Melissa, one of the school founders. "So we started teaching using only video calls in Whatsapp and sharing materials via Google Drive". Whatsapp proved an excellent tool for the purpose: most students already had it and did not have to install any additional software. Whatsapp also made learning possible both from computers and mobile devices.

With the growth of its audience, the school had to hire new teachers. It immediately raised the question of the quality of teaching. "We started receiving students' complaints about some new teachers," Melissa confessed. "For example, students said the teachers did not pay enough attention to explaining difficult grammar cases or mistakes in homework. When I talked about it with the tutors, they assured me they did their best, and the students just lacked the effort to understand." The situation required a method to assess the new teachers objectively. Whatsapp did not allow recording calls, and Melissa doubted she could visit online lessons - her presence could make students uncomfortable and uneasy.

The solution was to find a way to record Whatsapp calls, so Melissa and her co-founders could rewatch lessons and give her recommendations to the teachers. CleverControl was a real find for them as it allowed the most convenient way of recording calls. Moreover, it could record chats, so the founders got the whole picture of how teachers communicated with the students.

"I expected software like CleverControl to be troublesome to install and get used to, but the real experience with the program was a pleasant surprise," Melissa admits. "Getting it on the computer took no time at all." At first, the teachers were against the idea of monitoring - they used their personal computers for teaching and did not want the school to track them during their personal time. The founders held a meeting where they explained how CleverControl worked, what data would be collected and why the software was necessary. They taught the teachers how to stop monitoring at the end of their workday, so they could have control of the monitoring process. The founders also disabled monitoring features that were unnecessary for their purposes, for example, websites and clipboard monitoring.

"I like how simple and adjustable CleverControl is," Melissa says. "The teachers don't need to make any manipulations to record and upload the lesson - everything is automatic." Melissa found the online dashboard very handy too. She could have all the reports in one place and access them anytime. She saw there was indeed a lot of room for improvement, both in the way of teaching and communication.

"Now we are holding biweekly meetings with the teachers, where we discuss moments from the recorded lessons and how to improve the students' experience. I can say CleverControl is a valuable part of our school's growth," Melissa says.

• Nagrywanie rozmów

  The founders could record teachers' video lessons, assess their quality and provide recommendations for improvement.
• Online dashboard

  CleverControl recorded all lessons and uploaded them to the online monitoring dashboard automatically. The founders could conveniently access the recordings there.
• Remote settings

  The online dashboard allows adjusting settings remotely, enabling/disabling features that are (un)necessary.