Altissia: A Platform by Teachers, for Teachers

Ms Elle is a Legend

Shortly after the birth of my youngest daughter, I received a package from overseas. It was a gift from my favourite secondary school English teacher, Ms Elle, with whom I had reconnected a few years prior. She had sent me a beautiful board book about a little girl with a wild imagination and who loved stories. My daughter, now four years old, also has a wild imagination and developed a love of stories, partly thanks to that book (thanks to Ms Elle) which I still often read with her. I, myself, learned from Ms Elle to love not only stories, but also alliteration, irony, words – language. And, so, it was no surprise that I became a language teacher. And, yes, Ms Elle sparked my love of teaching. Think back and remember that one teacher – there was always one – whose support and enthusiasm or knowledge and quirkiness impacted your life. At Altissia, we, too, know the value of a good teacher and that they cannot be replaced – and this is certainly not our plan. While our product can be used as a self-study tool, we feel that it reaches its full potential when used by teachers as part of a curriculum. Read on to learn more about how teachers are part of our creation process and how we aim to provide them with tools to help in their teaching.

Seeing the Potential in Everything

Working in the field of language teaching and education is more than a full-time job. For the teachers reading this, you likely understand what it means to live and breathe your work, how paradoxically frustrating and fulfilling it can be to mark papers into the night on a weekday, spend Sunday afternoons preparing lessons and cutting out flashcards, and finalise exam grades during your winter and spring breaks. Even while streaming the latest hit miniseries, scrolling through the news or listening to a podcast, in the back of your mind, you’re thinking, How can I use this in class? How can I use this song to teach the third conditional or the present perfect? What expressions could the students learn by watching this video clip?

Our pedagogical team at Altissia is the same; we are full of ideas for new content, lessons, classes, exercises, and more. These are, of course, combined with requests and needs from the markets, such as teachers in our partnering institutions. The next stage involves discussions with our technical team, which always lead to novelties making Altissia a platform that evolves.

By teachers…

Altissia’s intuitive digital platform offers support for teachers of blended or hybrid learning and in-person language curricula and courses. To create and maintain our content, we rely on a large team of teachers, linguists and pedagogical experts who know best how to help students progress in their language learning experience. To ensure content of the highest quality, we have rigorous proofreading and quality assurance processes in place, all of them involving teachers and other language experts.

The digital realia of the platform in the form of news articles and videos are updated regularly, so the content stays interesting and significant because of its relevance. Similarly, the lessons are based on real-life contexts and situations, meaning learners can immediately and directly apply their knowledge in a practical way. The ludic and interactive nature of the learning tasks help engage students and motivate them to reach their language objectives.

Besides developing and maintaining the content of our platform and our language assessment, our teachers and pedagogical experts are also involved in the teaching of live classes and the development of project-specific activities and content, writing newsletters, leading conversation classes and, depending on the project, even hosting digital escape games.

For teachers…

Altissia’s eclectic and international team of teachers, linguists and pedagogical experts have created a relevant, ludic and effective language learning solution. Our goal is not to replace teachers, but rather to offer a comprehensive tool to help teachers reach their potential as educators. You can integrate our platform as part of your hybrid, blended and in-person language curricula and courses. In a blended or hybrid course, the platform helps diversify the teaching resources and provides input and exposure to the learning language outside the classroom, all while keeping you – the teachers – in charge of your curricula and your course. You are free to use the content on the platform as it suits you and your teaching needs, all while benefiting from the advantages of having a ready-made platform at your disposal.

Having the online content all in one place helps keep your learners motivated and focused. Furthermore, automatic correction of exercises helps engage learners, makes them more conscious of their learning process AND saves precious classroom time. Contrary to “classic” homework or other online resources, you are actually able to follow up on your students’ activities on the platform and make sure they do them.

Altissia’s platform can also help resonate the support you give your students, team members or even yourself during the language learning experience beyond the hours in a physical or virtual classroom, assisting with differentiation, personalization or remediation without interrupting the in-person lessons.

Our team also provides communication material, pedagogical training and tools, administrative and technical support, motivational resources and more to ensure you reach your language learning and assessment goals. Our dedicated Train the Trainer portal provides teachers with tutorials and videos on how to use our tools, catalogues to help you build your courses and information on where to find help. We are here to support you as best as we can by sharing our knowledge and expertise. We are here to work hand-in-hand with you and provide you with another asset in your teacher’s toolkit.

Contact us today. And happy World Teachers’ Day!

(In loving memory of L.L.-C., a legend.)