TEFL Online

My EPIK interviewer basically told me to do an online TEFL course, both so I could get some experience and to give me a pay increase. He said it was "highly suggested," by which I understood that EPIK really, really prefers it. He said "make sure it's an accredited institute." Well, it doesn't take much internet research to figure out that there is no board of accreditation for this stuff, nor would I call any of the online programs an "institute." My recruiter said any of the popular online (100 hour+) courses would do, so I did TEFL Online, and I figured I'd write a short review of that here.

Click on the "read more" link to see the full review.



First of all, I was skeptical that I could complete the course in two months, but it wasn't that hard to do. I did one lesson every one or two days, and it worked out pretty well. In TEFL Online, there is no limit to the number of lessons submitted each week, but you can't submit a new lesson until your current one has been graded. On that note, my "mentor"/grader was very fast and very responsive. As long as I submitted by the early evening, he had every lesson corrected by the next morning and always answered my questions right away. Very friendly and good feedback. I have no complaints on that score.

As far as content, some of it is BSing, but some of it is useful stuff. I guess that's about what I expected. I actually did enjoy getting a chance to preview/practice some TEFL issues, even though the course can't provide any practical experience. Each lesson consisted of a few pages of text, a video or two, some essay questions, and a review test. Of all of it, I liked the videos the best. They showed teachers actually teaching lessons. Whether the classes were real or rehearsed, I don't know, but it was good to see some of the theory in practice. They really push the PPP lesson plan structure, but it's worth practicing if you've never written a lesson plan before and it provides you with a good template. I did the 120 hour course, and I will say that, unless you're trying to impress someone with your hour count, it's not worth it. The "young learners" and "business english" add-ons were short and mostly consisted of common sense stuff (use songs and games with kids, act professionally and keep careful records with adults...). The grammar add-on is not great, but it's an ok review. Furthermore, these sections weren't graded (except for the final "test"), and there was no feedback.

My final comment is a warning. The "certificate" you receive on finishing is just an online document, which you have to print out yourself. If you want TEFL Online to actually print one out and send it to you, you'll have to pay through the nose, especially if you need it quickly or need it notarized or apostilled. I think this is pretty crummy, since you've already paid for the class and I've had to notarize and apostille a number of things in the last month, and it doesn't cost $100. I've contacted my recruiter to see if a certificate I printed out myself will satisfy EPIK, but I don't have the final word yet. I'll update when I do.