Client success story: Ministry of Health Indonesia

The Indonesian Ministry of Health (MoH) Directorate for Health Workforce partnered with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to find an experienced organisation to support their materials writers with the learning design of an online self-study English course.

The aim of this course was to enhance the English language skills of healthcare students, giving them greater access to job opportunities in a competitive market.

British Council’s Corporate English Solutions (CES) worked with their team of materials writers, of lecturers in healthcare and English teachers, using a consultative approach. This approach helped the team produce a coherent and engaging 180-hour online self-study English module.

The Challenge

The materials writing team, although experts in their fields, lacked experience in learning design to create engaging and accessible self-study content quickly and within budget. With frequent changes to the team, they also needed to ensure any new team members could rapidly acquire the skills and expertise needed for learning design.

The team needed support with:

curriculum design – creating skills-based syllabi aligning module objectives with outcomes, developing practical, relevant activities and ensuring chapters written by different writers formed a coherent, level appropriate programme
self-study learning methodology
planning and coordination of the module development to meet the short time frame and to stay within budget
editing and reviewing of the module content
aligning the level of English to a CEFR B1 level.

4

steps to upskill the materials writing team

1-to-1

coaching and personalised targeted feedback

6

chapters edited and reviewed

The Solution: Our four-step process

Step 1: Consultation

A free consultation and needs analysis to understand the context, pain points and objectives of the project.
Meetings with the learning designers and stakeholders to set the project’s objectives, content focus and delivery model and establish a strong relationship with the team.

Step 2: Design

Creation of a Writers’ Pack that served as a handbook for writing English Language Teaching (ELT) materials. The pack included guidelines on writing objectives for syllabi and an activity bank to help create a variety of language and communication skills training content. The handbook also included an exemplified lesson template making content writing more productive and coherent.
A bespoke training plan including consultancy hours which could be used flexibly to upskill the materials writers in the areas they most needed.

Step 3: Delivery

Four months’ consultation:
- Team meetings, writers’ meetings and one-to-one coaching on objective setting, course layout and activity sequencing to ensure the content was relevant, coherent and engaging for its audience.
- Targeted and personalised feedback for each writer after the first draft adapted to their varying proficiency levels.
Upskilling in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to ensure the writers accurately pitched the course for those with B1 level English.

Step 4: Evaluation

Interim and post project reporting.
A final content review including editing and proofreading of the six chapters by the British Council team before the module sign-off by the MoH RI and the FCDO.

This bespoke consultancy approach was successful in rapidly upskilling the content design team and producing a coherent and engaging English for healthcare self-study module for students at the MoH RI polytechnics.

"We wanted British Council for its expertise in English Language Curriculum Development. They helped shape the learning content and tailor it for the appropriate English level of the learners. They also coached the lecturers on how to create a curriculum for the first time."

Zoe Dayan, Regulatory Reform and Health Attaché, FCDO, British Embassy Jakarta

"Thank you so much for all your hard work and commitment and flexibility with this project – and for steering it to such a successful conclusion. We got a lot more from you than we asked for"

Zoe Dayan, Regulatory Reform and Health Attaché, FCDO, British Embassy Jakarta

"The team provided great consultants that always supported and improved our confidence to write, revise, and re- write"

A materials writer

"My favourite thing was the one-to-one virtual meetings with the consultant where I could ask questions and receive suggestions."