Online TEFL Course: Tips and Strategies for Choosing a Good One

So you’re thinking of taking an online TEFL course are you? If you’ve spent some time looking around the web you’ll notice there are more courses than you can shake a stick at. To make things more complex there are different acronyms for basically the same thing.

And on top of this you’ll find claims made by the different organizations that offer courses that say they’ll guarantee job placement or a higher salary upon completion. Any organization can say this, few can do it. One notable exception is i-to-i's online TEFL course. (They place thousands in ALT positions throughout Japan every year.

In fact you'll find that if you take the time to inquire where the placement is, you'll often find it to be some nasty corner of the globe where no one wants to work. Rarely do TEFL placement agencies place candidates in Japan. The TEFL industry is unregulated, which is why it’s such a mess and why you need to be extra careful when selecting an online course.

Having said this here are some pointers on selecting an online TEFL course. The first thing to keep in mind is if you intend to work for the big 4 then an online TEFL course won’t be necessary. This doesn’t mean an online certificate is useless. They can be very helpful in getting higher paying “gigs”.

• Before you spend any time surfing the net figure out what you want out of the course. It’s so much easier to select a course if you know what you want. For example what country do you want to teach in? Do you want to teach business English in Japan? etc.
• Study the content of the course and make sure it meets your goals. Many outfits won’t disclose what their content is. Don’t bother with these outfits.
• The biggest problem with online courses is the lack of hands on experience and this is really what separates on-site courses from distance courses. To compensate for this select courses that offer video taped lessons so at least you can see how to do some of the techniques taught.
• Another big point is on-line tutor support. It’s nice to be able to ask some questions about how to implement some teaching strategy or lesson.
• Also 24 hour support is a handy feature, dealing with time zone differences is a genuine pain. Why choose a company where you have to wait until 11:00 at night to get an answer to your question?
• If the TEFL course provider is externally moderated and accredited by IATQUO (International Accreditation of TESOL Qualifying Organizations), then this is even better.
• If the course provider helps with placement in the area you want to teach in, this is a nice bonus. (Remember it needs to be where you want to teach, any organization can place you in countries where anyone with a pulse can get a job). Keep in mind that in Japan because the market is fairly glutted, online TEFL course providers that will go the extra step and find you work in Japan are few. One TEFL course provider that meets all of the above criteria and is the industry leader is i-to-i.

Return from Online TEFL Course to Home