If you’re interested in teaching English online, there are a few different TEFL providers that offer mini-courses to help you learn more and certify your skills. I recently tested out the International TEFL Academy’s Teaching English Online 2-week Specialty Course and in this blog post I’ll share what the course is like, the pros and cons, and my honest opinion on the course.
Disclaimer: This review is not sponsored, but I was given free access to test out the course. This blog post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking on one of my links, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. This helps support my business and my mission to help teachers. Thank you!
Post Contents
What is the International TEFL Academy Teaching English Online Specialty Course?
If you’ve already completed a TEFL course, then you may be looking to add on additional specialty certifications in areas like Business English, Teaching Young Learners, or in this case, Teaching English Online. If you’d like to read my review of the ITA Test Prep Specialty Course, click here.
International TEFL Academy’s Teaching English Online Specialty Course is 2-weeks long and is 100% online. It includes:
- 2 chapters of reading with some videos included in the chapters
- 2 quizzes, one on each chapter of reading
- 2 assignments
- 2 peer-to-peer forums
- Optional online lectures (you can attend live or watch the recording)
There are strict deadlines to follow so I recommend adding all the important deadlines to a calendar to help you stay organized.
Teaching English Online Specialty Course Readings
There are currently two chapters of reading for this course. There are a few different International TEFL Academy branded videos and random YouTube videos mostly related to VIPKID sprinkled throughout the weekly readings which you will access online.
Chapter 1: Identifying & Attracting Students
This week’s reading covers the basics of topics like the different types of online classes, required technology, and understanding the differences between teaching for online language schools, facilitated marketplaces, and working as an independent online tutor.
Chapter 2: Delivering Online Instruction
The second week’s reading focused on the differences between teaching young learners and adults, reward systems, how to use provided slides to teach lessons, and creating tailored lessons when teaching online independently.
Teaching English Online Specialty Course Assignments
Assignment 1: For this assignment, I had to create an intro video for a fictional school. It was good practice to make sure my video was the correct length, double check my sound and lighting, and feel comfortable in front of a camera.
Assignment 2: For the second assignment, I had to choose 2 different tech tools and demonstrate how I would use them in the online classroom to enhance provided lesson plan materials. We were given a sample video of what our video should look like, which was helpful. Again, this was an opportunity to practice skills necessary to online teaching like sharing your screen, managing multiple open windows, and adapting lesson plan materials.
You’ll need a computer with a webcam and microphone in order to complete the assignments.
Click here to see my recommendations for online teaching equipment for all price points
Teaching English Online Specialty Course Quizzes and Forums
Each week includes a short quiz on the week’s reading. You can attempt each quiz up to 3 times and you have 1 hour per attempt.
For the peer-to-peer forum, you’ll need to respond to the tutor’s initial question as well as comment on your peers’ posts by the deadline.
Teaching English Online Specialty Course Pros
- The course goes through how to use company-provided slides to teach online, step by step. I think this would be very helpful for BRAND NEW online teachers.
- The assignments were relevant and helpful. When teaching online, you’ll have a better chance of getting hired if you have a quality intro video. The second assignment was a great way to test out how to use different tech tools like Padlet, Kahoot, Pear Deck, etc.
- I like how there was a checklist at the end of each section on the ways to teach online in chapter one to help you decide which option is best for you and your online teaching goals.
- The course does a good job of explaining the differences between teaching adult and young learners online. There are videos of current teachers explaining how they teach different levels of learners.
Teaching English Online Specialty Course Cons
- The material is outdated. There are a lot of references to Chinese companies like VIPKID, GoGoKid, and DaDaABC, all of which closed down in 2021 due to a law change in China. The reading states that the information was current at the time of publishing. However, the online teaching industry has changed significantly in the past few years and I would hope that a course on a rapidly evolving industry would be updated more frequently.
- This course covers the absolute basics. In my opinion, the reading material could go into greater depth. The first chapter seems to just scratch the surface and isn’t very actionable.
- The platforms mentioned in the course are also outdated. It recommends teaching platforms like Skype, Zoom, and Google Hangouts. While Zoom is still used today by many online teachers, there is no mention of platforms like Classin, Koala, or LearnCube which are platforms designed specifically for online teaching.
- Some of the links to teaching tools are incorrect or broken. For example, the link for Webjets is broken as it is now called Weje. It is stated in the course that these are “tools popular at the time of writing” and it is not meant to encourage the use of specific tools. For the price point, I would expect updated, relevant tools and links that worked.
- I didn’t receive any feedback on my second assignment.
Final Thoughts
I was personally a bit disappointed in this specialty course after having such a positive experience with the International TEFL Academy Test Prep Skills Specialty Course. Overall, the Teaching English Online course feels like it needs an update and to be expanded to dive deeper into the topic, especially at this price point.
If you are brand new to teaching online, I think that this course could be helpful as it goes over the basics, but for anyone with some online teaching experience, I don’t believe this course is a good fit.
Click here to enroll in the Teaching English Online Specialty Course
Curious about the International TEFL Academy’s Test Prep Skills Course? Watch my video review here:
