COVID-19 Information and Advice
NEAS Australia is continuing to support our members and the ELT Community during COVID19 with a clear message and purpose: we have a plan, and we will get through this together. Thank you to our members, partners and stakeholders who have in turn supported NEAS.
*Updated 15 December 2020*
NEAS is looking forward to 2021 and having international students return to Australia to resume their studies. In the meantime, please stay up to date with the latest government advice:
Department of Health
https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert
Department of Education, Skills and Employment
Study in Australia
https://www.studyinaustralia.gov.au/English/student-support
Department of Home Affairs
https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/
ASQA
https://www.asqa.gov.au/covid-19
TEQSA
https://www.teqsa.gov.au/latest-news/articles/coronavirus-covid-19-latest-regulatory-advice
Extra Student Support Initiatives
Sonder
goPassport
https://alphazetta.ai/solutions/gopassport/
Member Information
NEAS continues to be increasingly aware of the plethora of challenges that are facing all our members currently. Many are experiencing financial distress with student numbers plummeting. Almost all centres are delivering online classes, and for many, it has been a steep learning curve with many challenges around teacher tech skills, technological hurdles and what the sector’s understanding of best practice for online delivery is. What we do know is that we will all get better at this and critical to all, is sharing of ideas amongst members.
Preparation Advice for Centres:
- Communicate regularly with students, families, staff, agents and homestay providers on the measures being taken by the centre
- Regularly clean surfaces and objects which are touched frequently
- Provide sanitisers across your entire centre
- Practise social distancing
- Cancel excursions and large gatherings
- Prepare working-from-home policies, review risk policies and strategies
- Appoint a COVID-19 management team or committee to coordinate your centre’s response
- Keep records of all decisions, feedback, data, recommendations and outcomes
- Notify your regulator (eg ASQA, TEQSA) of your strategies
Innovations in NEAS Professional Development
NEAS’ Professional Development supports the ELT community through advancing best practices to all areas of ELT delivery and support. Our PD supports all individuals working with and alongside ELT institutions to help them meet their quality goals as well as expand their PD capacity.
Our 2020 Professional Development suite continues to evolve in order to provide the support needed by the ELT community.
Updates for the professional development lineup can be seen here.
Respond, Revive and Thrive
We are pleased to release the NEAS Respond, Revive and Thrive Plan and would love your feedback. This plan maps out how NEAS will work with the ELT community over the next 18 months as we get through this together. We aim to transform NEAS to be ready to support a transformed community. We wish to ensure that Quality Assurance is at the forefront of our rebuilding our community, embedding best practices in QA throughout. This Respond, Revive and Thrive Plan complements our 2020-2023 Strategic Plan.
We invite you to have a look at our plan and let us know your feedback.
NEAS Online Health Check
At the beginning of 2019, NEAS published Quality Area H: Online Delivery. These Quality Principles are aspirational in nature and can be used to drive continuous improvement in the online learning space.
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing a rapid shift from face-to-face to online learning for an indeterminate period of time, NEAS has prepared a Health Check activity for online delivery.
The Health Check may assist members to evaluate their response so far and begin to map out a path of continuous improvement. The Health Check is a Self-Review activity comprising a series of questions aligned with the Quality Principles of Area H.
Click here to complete the Health Check.
Support from the Sector to our ELT Community
NEAS is still receiving further advice and support for our ELT community from specialists within the sector, and providing resources that can benefit your centre and your staff. See the following contributions, and explore new and innovative options that can positively impact how you operate during the crisis
IELTS
IELTS has launched IELTS Indicator, an online English language test for students not able to attend an IELTS test centre due to the Covid-19 related restrictions.
The Indicator test will be available in selected locations where it is not currently possible to deliver in-person IELTS testing.
For education institutions IELTS Indicator is a great way to gauge the English skills levels of your prospective students across Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking.
Bookery
During this crisis, Bookery is endeavouring to remove the pain and stress from remote teaching by finding the best resources to help educators during this time.
Working with publishers, Bookery has sourced the best array of eBooks, presentation tools, and digital resources to take away some of the hardship of being out of the classroom.
Guided E-learning
The attached case study describes how GEL helped International House Palermo convert from a classroom-based school to a complete online school while maintaining its effectiveness and unique identity during Covid-19.
GEL provides blended learning to some of the biggest and most prestigious EFL organisations in the world. Clients include EC English, ELS Language Centers, and the British Council.
PEARSON
Pearson has created and compiled free resources for working online, distance learning and well-being to help English teachers and learners.
We are pleased to announce that we can now offer Versant with online monitoring to help with students admissions and placement. Plus we have updates and free preparation resources for institutions and PTE Academic test takers.
ReadyTech
ReadyTech is rapidly responding to COVID-19 with useful content and offers to support our valued education providers through the crisis. With the power of technology and advice at your fingertips, we are confident you will be able to successfully manage your team, students and businesses remotely while creating new opportunities for the future.
ETS TOEFL
ETS has expanded availability of at-home testing for the TOEFL iBT® test. The test will now be available in all TOEFL iBT test locations, with the exception of Mainland China and Iran. Learn more about this new test delivery method at an upcoming webinar.
Click here for more information
Oxford University Press
To support you and your students during this challenging time, Oxford is offering free access to online resources. This includes guidance and ideas for delivering lessons online and free access to 148 Graded Readers.
Click here for more information
StudyTravel Network
Tap into the wealth of resources available on studytravel.network, the complete communication platform for staying connected with industry colleagues, marketing, booking meetings and messaging. All the latest industry news is in StudyTravel Magazine which you can read online.
Click here for more information
Cambridge Assessment English
Cambridge Assessment English is here to support every teacher.
We provide the world’s leading range of qualifications for learners and teachers of English and are committed to supporting you with a wide range of resources in these difficult circumstances.
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press has provided you a list of our free online resources which have been developed to support teachers around the world.”
Click here for more information on those resources
e2Language
In this important LinkedIn article, Jarrad Merlo, co-founder and director of teaching and learning at E2Language, explains why quick-fixes such as screensharing documents using Zoom won’t hold for very long and may jeopardize your school, especially if COVID lockdowns extend beyond a month.
Along with some useful online teaching tips, he urges schools to move sooner rather than later to a proper long term online solution and recommends E2Language’s new white-label platform called E2Classroom, which he describes as a purpose-built “digital language school in a box”.
Click here for more information
The Pie News
Entries for The PIEoneer Awards 2020 are open until 24 April. Enter for your chance to gain global recognition for your work!
Click here for more information
eBECAS
Keep in constant contact with your existing and potential students and agents via sms, email and student portal. Verify who is attending classes, separate potential students (make sure they are not entered as debtors) from genuine starters and check your cash-flow.
Use efficiencies like online payments. VET USI version 3 has arrived.
Read more from the CEO of eBECAS
Meshed Group
At Meshed Group, we provide solutions to support your ELICOS College’s Online Learning Strategies. Talk to one of our consultants to know how we can help you.
Click here for more information
OET
As the world’s only international English language test specifically for healthcare professionals, OET is supporting our community of healthcare professionals and English-language teachers with free English preparation content.
Just like healthcare professionals, we care!
Learn more about how we’re supporting our community.
2020 NEAS Management Conference Update
Each year, we look forward to hosting our members, partners and stakeholders at the NEAS Management Conference to advance global quality assurance in English Language Teaching and come together as a community.
Over the past few weeks, we have been closely monitoring and evaluating the situation around COVID-19 to ensure we take the necessary measures to protect the health and wellbeing of attendees. As a result of the government’s recent banning of events of over 100 people, we have been obliged to enact force majeure and postpone our 2020 conference.
While we are disappointed that we will not be able to run the conference this year, we have commenced plans to bring you a bigger and better event in 2021. Your ticket for this year’s conference can be refunded, transferred or donated to NEAS.
We look forward to seeing you at the 2021 NEAS Management Conference.
Provide flexible delivery:
- Deliver by phone, email, video conferencing or an online delivery platform
- Use flexible attendance monitoring strategies
- Identify key learning outcomes and assessment tasks, then modify to suit flexible delivery
- Keep records for each student
- Train, mentor and coach teachers in online or distance delivery
- Explore online ELT providers and the solutions they offer
Everyone:
- Take care of your own and your team’s physical and mental health by being supportive
- Reach out for help if you need it, ask those around you if they are OK and if they need some help
What NEAS is doing to support the ELT community:
- NEAS is hosting upcoming QLS workshops via the online conferencing tool, Zoom
- Our next webinar will focus on the COVID-19 response
- We are publishing regular Member Alerts and updates
- NEAS is exploring providing quality assurance services online
- NEAS is here to help with advice, information and solutions
