Introduction to Abacus Let's Do Business courseware

This is the standard introduction that we give to new users of the Let's Do Business courses.

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Welcome to Abacus Let's Do Business.

Your courses are now active.

There is more than 300 hours of language practice so choose the materials that you want to study carefully.

There are 4 skills courses (Telephoning, Presentations, Meetings and Negotiating).

Telephoning is suitable for learners from elementary to advanced levels of proficiency.

Presentations is suitable for low intermediate to advanced levels of proficiency.

Meetings is suitable for intermediate to advanced levels of proficiency.

Negotiating is suitable for intermediate to advanced levels of proficiency.

There are 3 knowledge courses (Grammar, Vocabulary and Pronunciation Practice) with related tests. There are 3 levels of difficulty; Basic, Intermediate and Advanced.

To understand better how to use the courses, I recommend that you read the Support Document for new students at
http://www.language-software.com/LDBManager/index.htm.

There is also a User Record System at the same location. You can see how much time you have spent in the programmes. You can also post messages to your tutor here and check your test results.

Stephen Byrne, MA (App Ling), Dip TEFLA, HDip in Education, MIITD
Director of Education and Abacus CEO

Abacus Communications
the right word @ the right time in the right place

Hurricane Wilma closes Abacus' site!

Dear User,

Some of our web sites are located in the USA (Florida to be exact). Owing to hurricane Wilma, our home domain www.abacus-communications.com has been shut down for safety reasons.

If you want continued access to our courses, please use the following link;

Let's Do Business courses
Abacus Webschool
English for Academic Purposes programme.

http://www.language-software.com/LDBManager/index.htm

We apologise for any inconvenience.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Byrne, MA (App Ling), Dip TEFLA, HDip in Education, MIITD
Director of Education and Abacus CEO

Abacus Communications
the right word @ the right time in the right place

12 Main St, Lucan, Co. Dublin, Ireland
Tel: +35316219550
Mob: +353 868387520
Fax:+35316282055
email: abacus@abacus-communications.com
www.abacus-communications.com

More FAQs about Abacus Products - Upgrades

A customer who purchased LDB about 4 years ago has upgraded to Windows XP and their CD cannot install anymore. What do you normally do? Charge more for a new CD - give them a free one? (They are a good customer, not a time waster)

[Abacus says] If there is an upgrade in the same year of purchase, it is free. In this case where the customer has already got extensive use, we would give them a 20% discount off the current retail price as they are a repeat customer.

Besides the CD option, there are also the web-based programmes. One of the key advantages of the web programmes is that they do not become technnically redundant. Abacus is currently phasing out its CD-ROM collection and placing it online.


Stephen Byrne, MA (App Ling), Dip TEFLA, HDip in Education, MIITD
Director of Education and Abacus CEO

FAQs about Abacus Products October 2005

We are often asked questions about our products and recently we were asked to provide information on the differences between our CD-delivered courses and the web-based courses (on-line)

All answers refer to the Let's Do Business web-delivered courses (there are
7 courses and related tests and the CD format (4 programmes only).

1) I do not clearly understand the difference between the On-line courses
and the CD-Rom based courses.

We no longer produce CD-ROMs. All of our development now effort goes into
the web-based courses. The web-based courses are in essence v5.0 of the CD programmes.

We normally sell the web-based programmes and only offer CDs where there may
be a requirement for off-line practice (for example if the student does not
have convenient access to the internet while travelling on business, etc.)

2) And does the buying of the CD-based course includes an access to the
on-line courses?

No. Access to the on-line courses is only permitted if you have a valid licence.

3) Are the On-line lessons a complement to the Cd-Rom based lessons, or are
the two courses completely identical ?

Content-wise, there are some similarities between the 4 CD-ROM programmes
and the corresponding Let's Do Business web-based courses.

They differ in the sense that there are more courses on-line than there are
CDs (there are 3 additional web-based Let's Do Business courses).

The on-line system includes a range of testing tools on-line.

The on-line system includes an on-line authoring tool whereby the teacher can produce new materials to complement the existing resources.

The web-based courses offer more content, and a multilingual learning management
system which allows teachers to follow students progress.

Students can acess the on-line resources at the school and at home.

Students can ger assistance from a remote tutor if this service is provided.

4) I have recognised that the current version 4.1 does not support W98, WNT, W2K - although it is mentioned in the teacher's manual that all operating
systems are supported.

You are right Win98 and WinNT are no longer supported (although earlier
versions of the CDs do support Win98 and NT). Win2K is
supported in v4.1.

Regarding technical redundancy, the on-line version does not rely on the
operating system of the user but rather the user's web browser.

5) In the teachers manual an online testing process is mentioned. I suppose
it's a test of the knowledge after the lessons are finished.

Yes, the tests are designed primary as achievement tests (rather than as
placement tests). The on-line system does allow you to author your own
tests.

6)Is it possible to access these tests if only the CD-training set has been
bought?

No. The tests are only offered to students registered to use the Let's Do
Business on-line courses.

7) 3 levels are mentioned: beginners-intermediate-expert. Are these
automatically in progress during the CD-training process?

The 3-levels reference applies to the Let's Do Business Grammar, Listening
and Pronunciation Practice and Let's Do Business Vocabulary (web-delivered
courses only)

8) I do not see any possibility to select the level in the training
programs.

The lessons are presented in order of difficulty on the CDs. The levels of
proficiency required are more clearly presented in the web-based courses.

Invitation to a web conference

We are always happy to organise a short web conference to highlight the key features of the web-based system and show how your organisation could support your students during the learning process.

Other courses

Besides the English for Business programmes, we also have a General English
programme (at 10 levels) called Webschool and and academic English programme
called Clarity English.

Stephen Byrne, MA (App Ling), Dip TEFLA, HDip in Education, MIITD
Director of Education and Abacus CEO

Abacus Communications
the right word @ the right time in the right place