Thorn Learning coordinates the global Courses for teachers learning community, supporting more than 100,000 English language teachers participating in the British Council’s TeachingEnglish open learning programme through community management, tutor support, live events and learning content.
Project overview
The TeachingEnglish open learning programme provides free professional development opportunities for English language teachers worldwide through self-study courses, social media communities and live events. Thorn Learning supports the delivery of this programme through coordination of the Courses for teachers community and associated learner support activities.
Working closely with the Open Learning team, Thorn Learning helps teachers connect course content with classroom practice through discussion, peer learning, live events, learner support materials and ongoing community moderation. The project builds on Thorn Learning’s involvement in delivering more than 50 TeachingEnglish open courses since 2021.
How we worked with the client
Chris Thorn works closely with the TeachingEnglish Open Learning team, course tutors and community moderators to coordinate content, support learning, develop resources and maintain an active professional learning community.
The project involves:
- Coordinating the Courses for Teachers Facebook community.
- Supporting course tutors and moderators.
- Developing community posting schedules and content plans.
- Producing learner support resources and guidance materials.
- Creating accessible digital assets and community content.
- Producing and moderating live events.
- Managing Facebook Guides and learning resources.
- Supporting tutor induction, mentoring and training.
- Reviewing community data and implementing improvements.
- Developing systems, guidance and quality-assurance processes.
The role combines community management, teacher education and instructional design to create a supportive environment where participants can discuss ideas, share experiences and apply course learning within their own teaching contexts.
Services and standards
Learning community management, tutor support, moderation, content planning, live-event production, instructional design, digital asset creation, quality assurance and reporting.
Development of accessible digital resources using accessibility review processes, ALT text, captioning and inclusive design principles.
Maintaining the British Council approach to EDI through inclusive community practices, global representation and support for teachers working across diverse educational contexts.
Main outputs
- Coordination of the Courses for Teachers Facebook community.
- Support for more than 50 TeachingEnglish open courses delivered between 2024 and 2026.
- Tutor induction, mentoring and ongoing professional support.
- Weekly tutor meetings and moderation support.
- Community posting schedules and wraparound learning plans.
- Facebook Guides and organised learning-resource libraries.
- Learner support resources, learner guidance materials and tutor reference documents.
- Accessible graphics, videos and digital learning assets.
- Facebook Live events and community discussions.
- Community insights, reporting and continuous improvement initiatives.
Learn more
Courses for Teachers Facebook community
British Council open learning programme
Team and contributors
- Community coordination, tutor support, content development and live-event production: Chris Thorn
- Graphic design and artwork support: Nikki Owen
- Social media writing and content development: Sangeeta Sathe
