Ejemplo de planeación de la salida de campo

According to respondents, all proposasl for developing a new program in Beijing must be approved by the ofOfice of the Headmaster (Respondent No.1,

No.2, No.5). This principle applies to other schools in the short-term language training division as well.

The head of a department is one who leads the program development, course design and textbook selection process. “What’s central in the first phase of program development or update, is the needs reports of clients, which require specific statistics to justify the program development.” says Respondent No. 1, “The ways of detecting clients’ demand depend largely on efforts of the marketing division, such as a questionnaire, telephone inquiry, interviews and so on”. The head of the department also sets standards for the course and train the instructors.

Next, instructors are chosen and assigned to develop their own syllabus. Standardized test-preparation textbooks are introduced to the programs, in line with scripts of each instructor. Other language proficiency courses also cooperate with large international textbook producers and publishers like McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., by using and localizing their English textbooks. After the primary design of the program or curriculum, there’ll be assessment from experts and senior management.

5.3.4 Instruction

“Economic” or “academic”, that is the question. Respondent No. 2 revealed that research in NOET is instruction-oriented, aiming at improving the quality of instruction. NOET believes that the quality of the instruction is the foundation of their students’ future success, as well as the foundation of the company’s economic success. Academic research serves only to supplement its present offerings, however, a publiclly stated goal of a founding member of NOET is to one day establish a private university.

There are two major ways of instruction, face-to-face and online. Face-to-face instruction consists of On-Campus courses (serving local students who are residents of a certain city) and in-residence courses (providing accommodation for students from other cities). Online courses are internet-based educational products and can be purchased via the Internet.

Now that the number of NOET affiliated school has reached 40, the instruction management division manages internal communications and connections between schools, including communication among instructors; common textbook problems; course planning issues and even promotional approaches (Respondent No. 2, No.4).

Learning structure in NOET has changed as this institution grows.

� Scheduling: For many years, most of the courses took place on weekends, at night, and during the vocations. But now, these are courses are available every day 24/7.

� Student body: In the early days, the student body of NOET was made up of adults and mature college students, who had clear goals for taking language proficiency tests and going abroad. These students were representative of self-directed learners, who are typically independent, willing to take the initiative and persistent in the learning process. They have self-discipline, self-confidence and the desire to learn more. As a

result, they are able to organize their time, develop their plans for completion, and are goal-oriented. Nowadays, NOET attracts students from a diverse age group, all the way from toddlers to people in their forties even fifties.

� Class size. Giant class sizes, sometimes amounting to 900 students in one room,has ever been a defining feature of the young NOET. It represented a courses’ attraction and an instructors’ charm, once upon a time, but now fades away under today’s pressure for individual experience and value. The new trend is that smaller the class size and a higher thetuition.

All respondents consider that teacher’s role in operation as the most important factor in instruction and in the success of the company. “NOET employs approximately 15 thousand instructors and staff around China, of which more than 50% are part timers. This explosion in the number of employees clearly reveals the rapid development of the Group, since NOEF had only 3000 employees before being listed on the NYSE”, according to Respondent No. 5.

Their instructors are famous for creating a “New Oriental Style”, referring principally to their passion, sense of humor and so on. They are original, learned, brisk, versatile, and speak fast. In order to build up and keep a high-qualified faculty, NOET adopts strict recruitment and comprehensive training program.

Respondent No. 1 initiated group preparation of courses and instructors are organized to deliver the same content. “It is more fun cooporating than competing.” says Respondent No.1, “That way everyone benefits from the process. Those who refuse to participate or make the most of the chance will eventually become obsolete, for the rest of the instructorsare improving bit by bit.”

Another approach to keep a high-qualified faculty is through training (Respondent No. 2, No.4):

� Training for senior instructors or on-service training incorporating individual demonstration and colleague's evaluation in meetings;

� Buying courses of certain topic from other professional companies;

� Overseas training.

Respondents point out unanimously two categories of career path for faculty:

• Professional Ladder: These are faculty hierarchy in design, from junior instructor, middle instructor, senior instructor, to star instructor, trainer of instructors.

• Managerial Ladder: Excellent faculty members are likely to be chosen to join management and involve in making needed innovations and changes in the organization.

Then what is the secret to promotion in this giant enterprise that has thousands and thousands of talented insteructors? As Respondent 1 and Respondent 5 assert, there is no explicit promotion principle, but thecompaniesare definitely performance-oriented and on the lookout for talented individuals who produce the best resultsfrom their efforts. “Striving to be No.1 is what you have to do; then everything will fall into place.” asserts Respondent 1, speaking fromn his own life experience.

5.3.5 Quality Assurance

The assessment serves as a primary approach of quality assurance in NOET. The assessment in NOET does not refer to traditional assessment practices for student’s learning, which are traditionally occupied by tests, exams, and other forms of assessment Instead, NOET focuses on evolving new modes like: “performance assessment, portfolios, learning logs, self-assessment, peer assessment, group-work assessment, and oral/poster presentations” (Havnes & McDowell, 2007, p.6).

NOET uses a grading system in which all instructors are assessed at the end of their courses by their students; the graded is scaled from one to five, with five as the best and one being the lowest grade. Additional information in this assessment includes the recommendation rate and the drop-out rate for the instructor. The recommendation rate involves the percentage of students who recommend a particular instructor; the higher the recommendation rate, the higher the grade. And the drop-out rate refers to the percentage of registered students who drop out after the free audition class, because students may obtain a full refund after the first free audition class if they’re not satisfied with the performance and/or service. In addition to grading, the students are also asked to recommend the one instructor whom they prefer over all others. The result of this assessment process then decides whether or not a new teacher is made a regular employee and also determines if a bonus is to be paid to the instructor.

Besides, students’ outcomes or students’ satisfaction is guaranteed by other approaches like:

• Telephone interviews during and after courses with students (Respondent No. 1, No.2, No.3, No.5) as well as with the parents of the students (Respondent No. 1);

• An internet platform which allows students and parents to track course updates as well as the student’s. This kind of information is routinely updated by an assistant instructor and can be checked by both students and parents, both online and in person. (Respondent No. 1).

• An email address for complaints and suggestions (Respondent No. 5);

• Open hour or Open day for students (Respondent No. 5);

• A national customer service system (Respondent No. 5);

• The maintenance of a “file-for-life” for each student (Respondent No. 5).

This quality control system has done much to assure the quality of the educational products offered, however, according to Respondent No. 5, this service also creates some disservices. For example, the strict control of the process inevitably expands the company’s bureaucracy and therefore increases operating costs. Additionally, the rigid evaluation process can result in uniformity of teaching methods and sometimes inhibits creativity among instructors, and this process also has negative effects on the quality of intercompany communication.

5.3.6 Management (SWOT Analysis)

A SWOT analysis, which analyzes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats faced by a company, is deemed an effective means with which to analyze the effectiveness of a company’s overall operation and management. The following will use the SWOT method to analyze NOET and the others responding companies.