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We are proud to announce that the HELP consortium has been awarded the European Language Label 2017 in the Project category. European Language Label award is a prestigious recognition and was presented at a public ceremony on 29 September 2017.

The European Language Label is coordinated by the European Commission and in Ireland it is managed by Léargas. The label recognises outstanding achievement in the teaching or learning of languages. This category recognises creative initiatives that improve teaching provision and learning achievement. Our project is based on innovative learning environments, and brings added value to participants in terms of competence and motivation. Evidence of institution-wide support for the project and its overall impact also strengthened our application and contributed to HELP winning the category.

The jury commented: “The platform that has been created is innovative and well-structured. It could be adapted for use with languages other than English. This project is innovative in that it supplies materials that are unique and focused. Materials are particularly well-supported for autonomous learning.”

See the official ELL booklet here and watch a promotional video from Laergas here.

We are proud we can offer high-quality outcomes recognised with a prestigious award.

Final conference in Olomouc

After three years of development, the HELP project has reached its goal: the materials for healthcare English and intercultural competence are ready and are being released out into the world. The team efforts were crowned at the final conference in Olomouc, Czech Republic, on 15^th of June 2017. We presented the final materials, the on-line platform and a mobile app. Project members and participants met at Palacký University to learn about the HELP products and to share their professional expertise. Thanks everyone for coming!

Let’s celebrate!

The HELP project has recently won the 2017 European Language Label – an award encouraging new initiatives, added value and an innovative approach in language education. We are very proud that the HELP materials have been rewarded as a substantial, high-quality educational tool. The award will certainly boost the impact and underlines the unique character of the programme. The official award ceremony will be held in Dublin on 29^th of September.

Ready to serve

We are happy to announce that the on-line platform including all 20 modules on medical and intercultural competence will be hosted on-line for the next 10 years at the least. The sustainability agreement signed by the relevant partners ensures that the outcomes will be available to users for free for many days to come and you are cordially invited to take full advantage of this, either on a web-based environment, on a mobile device or printed on paper. Many already do so, with more than 700 learners on all continents. HELP is here to help!

Successful piloting – participation and feedback exceeded expectations 

During the last six months, the HELP platform, printed module versions and the mobile app have been tested by users from several European countries. We had almost 500 students, self-learners and teachers from Higher Education who tested the new learning programme. Teachers’ and students’ responses was generally positive and show that the materials fill a gap in educational resources. Testers liked that the material combines English learning with professional medical content and intercultural topics to prepare for the challenges in the European workplace. The high professional quality and flexible access to the resources was appreciated as well as guidance for self-learners and foreign language learning tips. The piloting report was compiled by our Irish partner will be available here.

Although the pilot testing phase of HELP has now finished, we would still appreciate your feedback! If you have used our products and wish to tell us your thoughts on them, please contact Emma Beatty at emmabeatty@fit.ie. Thank you, we are grateful for your time and comments.

Fine-tuning of the HELP learning programme

The learning materials will now undergo final adjustments, reflecting comments and suggestions from the piloting feedback. Teachers and students will have now free access to the platform and will be able to print all modules from a pdf or download the audio and video files. The mobile app will soon be available for download for Android devices from Google Play store in order to achieve the most flexible learning approach and access in Higher Education.

Join us for the final conference

The consortium partners met in Dublin for the last time before the final conference. Apart from analysing the piloting results and planning the fine-tuning phase, we discussed the structure of the conference, which will be held in Olomouc on 15 June 2017. Preliminary programme and will be announced on our website in March and registration will open in April. Curious? You are cordially invited to celebrate the launch of our products!

Piloting is underway
The 14 healthcare and 6 intercultural modules are being tested by users with collaborating organisations. At present, the HELP learning platform has more than 250 active learners in the Higher Education sector from all over Europe. Apart from the partner countries, we have participants from universities and companies in Croatia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary and the UK, who are testing the form and the content of the platform. We are encouraging anyone interested in the piloting to contact any consortium partner.

Feedback
Piloting is voluntary and modules are available for free, but in return, we are requesting quality feedback. The purpose is to gather relevant feedback from real users and to learn from their experience. The feedback from piloting participants is collected with a set of quick and easy on-line questionnaires and will be used to improve the materials, to debug the on-line platform and to fine-tune the modules. The piloting phase ends on 31 January 2017. At the same time, the feedback will be analysed and final adaptations done in February to prepare the final printable and platform versions.

Mobile app
The modules have also been transformed into a mobile application for modern portable devices running Android OS. The app can be downloaded directly from the platform, since it is not available in GooglePlay as yet. After collecting the feedback and implementing changes and suggestions, it will be available to the general public. If you wish to try it out, feel free to contact any consortium partner. We really appreciate your feedback!

We are happy to announce that the piloting phase has been launched!

The HELP project has entered its next stage. Following the Needs Analysis and materials production phases, we are finally ready to present tangible and practical products. At present, the Consortium Partners are working with selected groups of teachers, students and self-learners in Higher Education who are testing the materials both in printed and on-line based formats. The project’s online platform is based on the LMS Moodle and offers audio and video support for each module.

Feedback from our piloting participants will be collected via on-line questionnaires and will be used to improve the materials. The piloting phase ends in December 2016 and the feedback will be analysed by the end of January 2017 in order to finalize our project’s outcomes. The printed materials, on-line platform and mobile app will be available for public use on 15 June 2017 and will be presented at the final conference in Olomouc, Czech Republic.

If you wish to take part in the piloting, feel free to contact any Consortium Partner in your country or anyone close to you.

Thank you for your support,

Your HELP Team

On-line Platform getting ready
The HELP project team met in Rostock, Germany, on the sunny and windy coast of the Baltic Sea for their fourth transnational meeting. It was hosted by pro-Kompetenz, our German consortium partner on 1st and 2nd June 2016. During the two days we discussed and made a substantial progress in number of activities for the project.

The creative work on the learning modules is coming to an end and it was time to plan for further actions. The on-line learning platform is being currently developed and due to be complete for the piloting phase in September 2016 for all of the 14 medical and six intercultural modules. This new media-based English learning programme for medical purposes will have a significant impact on learning in Higher Education.

The HELP products open up new options for flexible learning and introduce more accessible routes to learners in Higher Education to both wider society and the labour market. They will be freely available for non-commercial purposes will bring considerable benefits to any student, teacher or self-learner of English involved in the healthcare sector.
We invite you to take part in the piloting, just contact the partner closest to you!
The piloting will allow us to gather feedback and fine-tune the modules, the on-line platform and the app. We look forward to sharing the first modules with you during the piloting phase. The project’s final conference will be held in June 2017 in Olomouc to present our products to a wider audience. Come back in September to learn more!

Welcome to HELP!. The project has begun!