Eteacher Group
 | |
| Industry |
Internet Education |
|---|---|
| Founded | Ramat Gan, Israel (2000) |
| Founder | Boaz Bin-nun, Yariv Bin-nun |
| Headquarters | Ramat Gan, Israel |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Services | Online language courses |
| Owner |
Boaz & Yariv Bin-nun Pamoja Capital |
Number of employees | 515 (in all branches) |
| Divisions | 5 language schools |
eTeacher Group is a private company based in Ramat Gan, Israel, which provides services in online language courses. The company serves students from the private, corporate, government and academic sectors, having a number of programs in Hebrew, English and Chinese, alongside relatively unique programs in Biblical Hebrew and Yiddish.
History
eTeacher Group was co-founded in the year 2000 by Boaz and Yariv Binnun. The two Founders and co-CEOs, are brothers and grandsons of Aharon Rosen, a pioneer of the Hebrew education programs for non-native speakers during the creation of the State of Israel and bestselling author of the "Thousand Hebrew Words" series.
In 2002, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted the company the challenge of founding the world's first online Hebrew school. Children of employees in the Israeli diplomatic service could use such a service learning to read, write and speak Hebrew correctly, despite growing up abroad and moving from country to country. A few months later the online platform created by the company started serving Israeli children and families abroad, while an online Hebrew School for the Jewish communities round the world was launched in 2005.
As of January 2010, the company has been collaborating with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in providing courses in Yiddish, Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic. These courses are accredited for students of the university, as well as providing language students with academic based courses supervised by university staff members.
The company has since utilized a wide variety of online technology to perpetuate their grandfather’s vision of bringing Hebrew to anyone who wishes to learn it, at any age and anywhere in the world. Their vision has expanded over the years to one of building a leading international online multi-language academy.
Teaching Methods
Defined as an "Online Language Academy", the company provides an online platform for teaching a number of language courses, while utilizing a range of tools alongside a team of language professionals.
The teaching process is based on system incorporating different teaching tools, the backbone of these is a weekly live lesson with a language teacher (usually native to the language he or she teaches). For this, the company employs some 300 teachers from around the world. Some, more 'unique' languages such as Yiddish, Biblical Languages & Aramaic, which have smaller native tongue speaking communities if any, are taught with the assistance of academic teams from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Alongside the weekly "real-time" lessons the language programs include a weekly practice lesson. In order to supplement these online weekly meetings, the language programs also provide recorded dialogs and recorded lessons. Also, supplementing the electronic and online aspects of the programs, the student my also make use of provided teaching textbooks and workbooks in the language and level the course is focused on. Between lessons the student is expected to complete assignment and homework, which are in turned assessed and graded by the staff.
Schools
The different language courses are divided into five schools, each with a staff of tutors, learning platforms and a unique web site. Each of these schools offers courses at different levels in a specific language, except for the Biblical Languages School which offers courses in three languages.
Chinese School
The Chinese School offers courses in Chinese, in up to five levels of difficulty.
English School
The English school provides courses in the English language in ten levels of difficulty, these are divided into 4 level categories (Starter, Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced).
Hebrew School
The Hebrew school was the first to be launched, and is probably the most wide spread. It offers courses in Hebrew for adults and for children, alongside seminars for Hebrew language students.
Biblical Languages School
Launched in 2007, the Biblical languages school teaches courses in Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic and Biblical Greek. Since 2010, the Biblical school also offers academically credited courses for Hebrew University of Jerusalem students. The courses in this school are supervised by academic staff from the university.
Yiddish School
The Yiddish school offers perhaps one of the smaller programs, offering an A level adult course in the Yiddish language. This school is also academically supported by the Hebrew University staff and also provides a credited academic course for students. Most users of the Yiddish language courses enrolled with in this school originate from the English-speaking world.
External links
- Company overview, Bloomberg Businessweek.
- Rachel Neiman, "The biggest Hebrew school in the world", January 1, 2009, Israel 24c.
- Tracy Wu, "eTeacher Group: A Case of Lost in Translation", June 28, 2011, EContent.
- eTeacher school of Chinese.
- eTeacher school of English Language Instruction.
- eTeacher school of Hebrew.
- eTeacher school of Biblical Languages.
- eTeacher school of Yiddish.