Leveraging the talent within our high-performance team to develop innovative technologically sound solutions has long been the TELL ME MORE strategy—ever since we first applied speech recognition to the language-learning field in 1987
Our Vision
Our Mission
To offer the most complete, pedagogically sound, effective learning method for learners around the world.
More than sixty people from thirty-seven different countries work together in the R&D department to continually improve and innovate the TELL ME MORE product, and contribute to it being the leading foreign language-learning program available!
Meet our Experts!
Caroline Macombe
Editorial Manager R&D
What is your role within the R&D Department?
I am responsible for the overall coordination of the work done by the teams that are involved in the creation and development of our content for our three global markets: education, business, and consumer.
What issues do you deal with on a daily basis that contribute to the development of the TELL ME MORE product?
I combine managing the team with managing new projects, to ensure that the projects are launched on time, with the level of quality that is expected of and associated with TELL ME MORE. We meet with customers and learners in order to carry out in-depth studies defining the specific needs and expectations of our clients and their markets. Those needs can differ depending on whether the end customer is an individual, a Fortune 500 company, a government agency or a high school. This helps us highlight things that need improvement or new ideas we can incorporate into our products, in order to ensure that our products correspond as closely as possible to our clients’ requests. We then set up an internal team tasked with working on each of these projects. This team is made up of programmers, educational specialists, and editorial professionals who work hand in hand to move the project forward. As a matter of fact, this is how we developed our dynamic “Film Set” activity, which allows learners to participate in an interactive immersive role-play situation. Here at TELL ME MORE, it’s important that the language-learning experience be fun and appealing to the end user.
In your opinion, what makes TELL ME MORE unique?
Our ability to offer a wide variety of content in a large number of languages, and the fact that we target a large and extremely diverse audience. My dream would be to continue to expand our range of products, particularly by adding more authentic television content and videos.
What is your role at Auralog?
My team essentially has two roles: one is to coordinate all of our software development projects, and the other is to oversee the usability of our products. We are involved from the moment Auralog decides to develop a new product. From the start, I name a project manager and a usability expert whose job it is to analyze the content of the development project. When we design the software, we always think in terms of why and how the user will use it. In this respect, the role of the usability expert is to think about the all the various functions of the software and it’s on-screen layout. Using a blended instructional design approach we are able to blend the latest learning theories and best practices into our programs. When the software’s layout is complete and has been fully tested the program is then considered to be in a state for release. TELL ME MORE is endowed with a wealth of content and functions, and yet our product remains easy to use and navigate. Thanks to its usability, the different elements are organized and presented to the user in an intuitive manner with maximum flexibility.
What has been the most significant product innovation that you’ve participated in?
What made the biggest impression on me was the development of the first web-based version of TELL ME MORE, which in my opinion was a huge leap forward for the company. Users register online, then receive their login information by email. When users connect to the portal, they then can directly access all of our online course content. At the time, I was the project manager for the online version. It was the company’s first venture into offering its solutions over the Internet. There was a team of us who worked on it for a year. Since then, there have been a number of subsequent versions that have been increasingly tailored to match our clients’ needs, but that has to be one of the biggest innovations I’ve been a part of here at Auralog.
In your opinion, what makes TELL ME MORE unique?
Our product by far is most renown for its speech recognition technology, since the technology we’ve developed is the most advanced in its field. However, our product has other strengths, notably the variety of languages that can be learned, as compared to many of our competitors who mostly only offer one language. Another thing that makes us unique is that we offer both CD and online versions of our product, which can be used to complement one another, if the client wishes. Furthermore, although our solutions are geared toward the learner, we have also developed tools to help those who accompany the learner through his or her training: instructors, tutors, administrators… We’ve added a number of services that go along with our product, such as conversation classes and 24-hour support. In my opinion, these services play an increasingly important part in our solutions. I think this is another of our strengths. We are passionate about language learning and keep finding ways to improve our solutions.
Patrick Brisacier
Project Team Manager,
Technical Team
Eddy Moren
R&D Software Manager
Could you introduce yourself and describe your position and team?
I have worked for Auralog since 1999, and I manage three key teams that are integral to the development and delivery of our client experience. About three years ago, I reorganized our teams into different specialty areas in order to maximize our teams’ talents.
First we have the Technical Team, which is in charge of the technological aspects of all R&D (testing, requirements gathering, etc.), but particularly the architecture of our solutions. The members of this team are mostly software designers and senior development engineers.
Next there is the Business Team, which is in charge of the heart of our software—everything that makes it run smoothly. The members of this team work internally with the Marketing and Editorial Departments, as well as with the Client Services Department. In cooperation with these departments, the team defines use-cases in order to ensure coherence between the new options requested by the client and those that already exist.
Finally, there is the Projects Team, which includes usability and user interface design. This team defines how the options developed by the Business Team are displayed on-screen. This is how our product will appear to the end user.
What can you tell us about speech recognition?
Historically, speech recognition has been at the core of our program. We were pioneers in applying speech recognition technology to language-learning software.
It’s a technology that we are constantly improving. In R&D, our role is to develop anf innovate technology that is adapts to each language program we offer.
In your opinion, what makes TELL ME MORE unique? What makes it stand out from the crowd?
The product passes through different teams each with their own unique expertise. The R&D Software Team’s main contribution is our constant innovation and work to push technology to its limits. Our team uses only the best in terms of technology. We are constantly trying to push the envelope in terms of speech recognition, online applications, etc., while keeping in line with the standards in our field. In this light, we have a partnership with Microsoft that allows us to keep our finger on the pulse of new technologies, and to stay informed of their vision of the future, so that we don’t fall behind. We are careful to keep abreast of any new developments in our field and to fully utilize the technology that is available to us.
Could you please introduce your department, your role, and your team?
I am part of the Services Department, and I manage what we call the “Products Team,” which is made up of project managers. What sets this team apart is the wide variety of tasks we handle.
My team consists of localization project managers, whose job it is to adapt our products to foreign markets. Our products are available in about fifteen different interface languages, and this team is in charge of those languages. They are also in charge of burning and checking all of the master files that are sent off to be copied.
Another part of my team is in charge of all our e-Learning projects. They are involved in any new developments in our online learning solutions, as well as new versions of our products, in order to bridge the gap between the end user and the R&D teams.
Our technical writer is in charge of creating all of the messages that appear within our programs, as well as writing the manuals, user-guides, and other documentation that accompanies our products.
Our internal Librarian is the person in charge of all documentation and oversees our internal archive system, and is in charge of our Electronic Document Management (EDM) systems.
What is your role within the department?
My main role is to act as a link between our clients, engineering and the developers; in other words, I’m the go-between for every new development project. I let the developers know what the users would like and how they'd like the product to appear, for all of the product’s various markets or types of user. I also make sure that the user experience is up to TELL ME MORE standards.
What is a typical project like?
We’re part of the project team that includes people from the R&D, Marketing, and Client Services Departments. We’re there to give the consumer's point of view— not a usability, instructional design or a pedagogical perspective, but that of your average user. We always try to imagine and develop a product that is intuitive, easy to use, and also attractive and appealing to the user. That’s why we are involved in the different phases of development, from the initial design up through the delivery of the final product.
What is the most significant project that you personally have managed?
The most exciting project is always the one that we haven’t started yet! But I really think that the transition from version 5 to version 6, a few years ago, was most significant for me. There was really a technological leap forward from one version to the next, and we completely overhauled the interface in order to bring it up to date and make it easier to use, all the while incorporating more functionality.
In your opinion, what makes TELL ME MORE unique?
Above all else, its quality. Here at Auralog, it's very important to us that our customers are thrilled. All of our teams work hard to create a software program that is instructionally well designed, pedagogically sound and of the very highest quality.
Nathalie Berger
Products Manager –
Services Department