As mentioned previously, I did an 120-hour online course through i-to-i TEFL. Let me say this: I did a lot of research before choosing a course. I knew that CELTA would be the best to do eventually, but there wasn't a way that I could do a full-time course whilst I was working. Also, several TEFL course providers have the online component and offer a in-class 20-hour teaching practice component. This is the best and higher on the totem pole than a 100% online course. However, you need to be in a location where that particular course provider will offer that 20-hour classroom experience. I could not find a provider that did that where I currently live, so I went the 100% online route with the plan to do CELTA (which 160 hours, all in-class) at a later time.
One of the biggest things for me in choosing a course was checking to see how good the customer service was. Because I was doing an online course, I wanted to be confident that if I ran into problems I could call and get things straightened out relatively quickly. Another issue for me was cost. Since it was going to be all online, I was not willing to spend over $500. I wanted to have it be affordable and have easy access. Finally, I wanted a course that was going to be helpful and accredited. (If you think about it, doing a super cheap course online through someone unknown will not help you.)
There. Those were my top three things as I went out in search of a TEFL course online. There were several options but I settled on i-to-i TEFL because it meant all my criteria. I was able to have a very enlightening conversation with a TEFL trainer (who called me from Australia! <---at no cost to me) and was extremely helpful in answering my questions. The cost was very affordable, so I added a 10-hour teaching children certificate as well to my 120-hours. i-to-i TEFL was having a sale, so I had $100 off the course. (When I've been back on the website, they usually offer a discount on their courses.) And finally, i-to-i TEFL is an internationally recognized TEFL teacher trainer. They might not be CELTA, but they are well-known and well-respected worldwide.
Thus, I began my journey to pursuing my first TEFL certification.
The course, including my extra certificate, did not take the full 130-hours. i-to-i TEFL gives you 3 months to finish your course (to help you be self-motivated). I accomplished it in 2 months while I was working full-time, volunteering, and doing my own stuff.
The course is dictated by how fast you want to move through each module. There are 20-35 slides of information per module, each focusing on an aspect of TEFL such as teaching grammar or how to find a job. Usually each module began and ended with a short video clip of a TEFL classroom, which provided a basis of what you would be learning in the module. These videos were helpful, though sometimes hard to hear.
Each slide provided great information for the module, giving you definitions and examples. Some slides had gap-fills and other activities for you to do. Most of the time they worked, though I faced a few kinks now and again. At the end each module there is a 20-question quiz. You can take these quizzes as many times as you like in order to achieve a passing grade (80%). With the exception of two, I passed on the first time. The first few question are gap-fills and then the rest were multiple choice. They reviewed what you learned in the module. I took notes, so if I struggled with an answer it was easy enough to go back and look at what I wrote down.
However, there were times when there were questions that were not covered in the module. It was frustrating and the two times I did not pass the first time is because I left some questions blank, which automatically counts as a missed answer. You do not see what the correct answer is, so I would just guess again.
Every three modules there is a checkpoint, which is graded by an online TEFL tutor. The checkpoint integrates what you have learned in the previous three modules. A couple of them are just questions, such as "If you were in a classroom and this....". They are very helpful to see if you can produce your own thoughts from everything that you learned and integrate them. The interface is not as user friendly (it felt like I was using an old Windows XP computer), but easy enough to deal with. There was one checkpoint that had audio clips that were very poorly recorded, so it was extremely difficult to hear. You can only do these checkpoints three times to pass, which is done on a pass/fail only system.
All of my checkpoints were graded within the hour of my sending them, since the online tutors were in Australia and the time difference was convenient. I passed the first time on each checkpoint with helpful comments on each question on the checkpoint; however, there was no constructive criticism offered on how my answers could have been improved.
When I ended my 120-hour course and finished the 10-hour course, I was awarded my certificate. You can download a copy straight from your course portal and they will mail you a hard copy. (I got two in the mail, which makes me think that they didn't update their system after sending me the first one.)
Overall, doing TEFL training through i-to-i TEFL was a positive and educational experience. It did not go into great detail in any of the modules, but provided me with a good idea of what a TEFL career would be like and what is expected of a TEFL teacher. Being fully online, I never had a problem with access and felt that the money I paid was well worth the investment.
This is a great course for someone to do if they are not familiar with TEFL or TESOL, such as I. It is really a foundation course that will help you decide whether or not a TEFL career is right for you.
Check out the website here: http://www.i-to-i.com/tefl
One of the biggest things for me in choosing a course was checking to see how good the customer service was. Because I was doing an online course, I wanted to be confident that if I ran into problems I could call and get things straightened out relatively quickly. Another issue for me was cost. Since it was going to be all online, I was not willing to spend over $500. I wanted to have it be affordable and have easy access. Finally, I wanted a course that was going to be helpful and accredited. (If you think about it, doing a super cheap course online through someone unknown will not help you.)
There. Those were my top three things as I went out in search of a TEFL course online. There were several options but I settled on i-to-i TEFL because it meant all my criteria. I was able to have a very enlightening conversation with a TEFL trainer (who called me from Australia! <---at no cost to me) and was extremely helpful in answering my questions. The cost was very affordable, so I added a 10-hour teaching children certificate as well to my 120-hours. i-to-i TEFL was having a sale, so I had $100 off the course. (When I've been back on the website, they usually offer a discount on their courses.) And finally, i-to-i TEFL is an internationally recognized TEFL teacher trainer. They might not be CELTA, but they are well-known and well-respected worldwide.
Thus, I began my journey to pursuing my first TEFL certification.
The course, including my extra certificate, did not take the full 130-hours. i-to-i TEFL gives you 3 months to finish your course (to help you be self-motivated). I accomplished it in 2 months while I was working full-time, volunteering, and doing my own stuff.
The course is dictated by how fast you want to move through each module. There are 20-35 slides of information per module, each focusing on an aspect of TEFL such as teaching grammar or how to find a job. Usually each module began and ended with a short video clip of a TEFL classroom, which provided a basis of what you would be learning in the module. These videos were helpful, though sometimes hard to hear.
Each slide provided great information for the module, giving you definitions and examples. Some slides had gap-fills and other activities for you to do. Most of the time they worked, though I faced a few kinks now and again. At the end each module there is a 20-question quiz. You can take these quizzes as many times as you like in order to achieve a passing grade (80%). With the exception of two, I passed on the first time. The first few question are gap-fills and then the rest were multiple choice. They reviewed what you learned in the module. I took notes, so if I struggled with an answer it was easy enough to go back and look at what I wrote down.
However, there were times when there were questions that were not covered in the module. It was frustrating and the two times I did not pass the first time is because I left some questions blank, which automatically counts as a missed answer. You do not see what the correct answer is, so I would just guess again.
Every three modules there is a checkpoint, which is graded by an online TEFL tutor. The checkpoint integrates what you have learned in the previous three modules. A couple of them are just questions, such as "If you were in a classroom and this....". They are very helpful to see if you can produce your own thoughts from everything that you learned and integrate them. The interface is not as user friendly (it felt like I was using an old Windows XP computer), but easy enough to deal with. There was one checkpoint that had audio clips that were very poorly recorded, so it was extremely difficult to hear. You can only do these checkpoints three times to pass, which is done on a pass/fail only system.
All of my checkpoints were graded within the hour of my sending them, since the online tutors were in Australia and the time difference was convenient. I passed the first time on each checkpoint with helpful comments on each question on the checkpoint; however, there was no constructive criticism offered on how my answers could have been improved.
When I ended my 120-hour course and finished the 10-hour course, I was awarded my certificate. You can download a copy straight from your course portal and they will mail you a hard copy. (I got two in the mail, which makes me think that they didn't update their system after sending me the first one.)
Overall, doing TEFL training through i-to-i TEFL was a positive and educational experience. It did not go into great detail in any of the modules, but provided me with a good idea of what a TEFL career would be like and what is expected of a TEFL teacher. Being fully online, I never had a problem with access and felt that the money I paid was well worth the investment.
This is a great course for someone to do if they are not familiar with TEFL or TESOL, such as I. It is really a foundation course that will help you decide whether or not a TEFL career is right for you.
Check out the website here: http://www.i-to-i.com/tefl
Very nice post. I read this. This is so informative. Thanks for share post about 120 hour tefl course. This is so useful for many users.
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