“The greatest joy came from working with partners from different countries and step by step develop something innovative,” says Ana-Maria Tanase (behind the front desk), Senior Researcher of Centre for Promoting Lifelong Learning (CPIP) in Romania. Photo: Simona Tanase.
“The greatest joy came from working with partners from different countries and step by step develop something innovative,” says Ana-Maria Tanase (behind the front desk), Senior Researcher of Centre for Promoting Lifelong Learning (CPIP) in Romania. Photo: Simona Tanase.
Ana-Maria Tanase of the Romanian organisation CPIP talks about the lessons of the international project I-BLU. The project seeks to develop efficient, user-friendly learning pathways for adult learners of English.
The I-BLU (Innovative Blended Language Upskilling) project’s goal is to develop a new kind of English course for adult learners. It is a digital solution that aims to facilitate rapid advancement from a low A2 to a functional B1 level (CEFR). The solution is modular and flexible and offers diverse digital learning applications as well as blended learning varying between live and digital learning formats. The solution includes for example Learners Catalogue and Blended Panoply, including tutorials, methodology inputs and ready-to-use teachers’ materials.
The course will be available to learners, teachers and schools for free as of the end of 2024.
“It was important for me to provide a solution to adults who want to find new ways for personal development,” says Ana-Maria Tanase. Photo: Simona Tanase.
I-BLU aims to overcome persistent barriers to adult language learning such as lack of access to high-quality materials, lack of programme flexibility, lack of motivation and guidance, and lack of effective feedback.
The project is implemented in cooperation with five partners from Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Spain and Slovenia, and is funded by Erasmus+.
My personal goals are aligned with the overall goal of the project, which is to develop a user-friendly, highly motivating and efficient learning pathway for adult learners of English as a second language.
At the same time, my goal is to provide a solution to adults who want to find new ways for personal development by improving their English language skills, and simultaneously a solution for employers who seek skilled personnel and to the whole European civil society.
I consider my personal big achievement obtaining an impressive number of adults and language teachers to test the online platform in the testing phase. Also, I demonstrated a lot of enthusiasm in developing specific learning tools for the 6th category – or Learning Pathway – in the Learners Catalogue, ‘The Internet’, and they were successful. All along the way, I have had a chance to develop myself personally and professionally.
We are all proud of one of the biggest achievements, the Learners Catalogue, including six main categories, from the World of Work to On the Move and In the City. Another great achievement is the Teacher’s Manual.
The challenges of the I-BLU project were due to the large number of participants involved in the national testing sessions. However, these were positive challenges, because they largely helped us to promote the project, which we had already planned to do. We aimed for high quality and high efficiency, and we succeeded!
We expected to have challenges due to poor attendance, weak retention, insufficient progress and lack of motivation of the adults participating in the sessions. Each partner country or institution had this fear for various reasons: previous experience with participants, limited availability, ability and potential to take responsibility and engage in self-learning and demand for a certain level of English.
We managed to overcome these challenges easily, as the target participants responded positively to all our requests: the national research, testing the new activities, validating the results and giving feedback.
A lesson learned would be not to give up, no matter how far the result seems to be.
The greatest joy came from working with nice, professional project partners from different countries. It is wonderful to see how, step by step, you can together develop something innovative that supports adults in learning and improving their English skills.
Perhaps the number of learning tools required for I-BLU was a bit demanding, but this did not worry us. It only motivated us to strive for a bigger success.
The biggest surprise was that we managed to tackle the high ambitions related to I-BLU in a relatively short time. Additionally, all activities and initiatives of the I-BLU project were approached at a high-quality level.
In practice, this means that we have had clearly defined and achievable objectives, detailed plans and continuous monitoring. We have allocated and efficiently used our financial, human and technological resources.
Our desire now is to complete all remaining learning tools and conduct a new testing session in September 2024. We will continue promoting the results of the I-BLU project. The fear that I-BLU would not find users is forgotten, because its success so far shows us that it will enjoy increased interest in the future.
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