As some of you know, I got my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification through an online course I bought off of Groupon. That course, which you can read about here, was pretty comprehensive, although there were some significant typos towards the end. Before I bought that, I had accidentally purchased a non-accredited TEFL course, but I quickly realized that it wasn't accredited, and I got a refund.
Fast forward two-and-a-half years to now.
I've been putting that online TEFL certification to good use, teaching English and test prep classes ever since I got certified. I found a Groupon for an IELTS specialist course that seemed to check out: it's accredited through what seems to be a legitimate body (ACTDEC), a couple hours of Googling "GlobalTEFL.uk.com scam" didn't really come up with anything, and the site has some good reviews. So, for $19, I figured hey, why not? My TEFL course was only around $79, so it wasn't too unreasonable to think that this much shorter, non-certification course might be legitimate for $19.
Then I started the course.
First of all, I noticed after the fact that it's a little weird to have .uk.com rather than .co.uk, which makes it seem like they're pretending to be a .co.uk and hoping people won't notice. But mostly...Well, I'll let these screenshots from the first few pages speak for themselves:
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| This is the very first thing I saw when I started the course: the course outline. Tell me, why IS so effective about preparing for the exam? |
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| From the section on pacing. This sounds like a non-native English speaking high school student who didn't do the reading. I'm pretty sure that when you get down to it, the crux of the "training" on pacing is that pacing is good and you should do it. Thanks, Global TEFL! Who knew? |
I spent about ten minutes giving it the benefit of the doubt, watching the Youtube videos that clearly aren't theirs, before asking for a refund, which, thankfully, I got. They refunded me in Groupon bux, which for me is fine, because I like Groupon in general.
tl;dr: GlobalTEFL.uk.com is bad and the material sounds like it was written by lazy high schoolers who are scraping by with a C in English in some country where English isn't spoken and workers aren't paid a whole lot. I haven't tried any of their other courses, but I sure wouldn't trust them or their accreditor, ACTDEC.
Brilliant English teacher always having bright future so keep work hard for that.
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i almost threw money into the water here. Thanks for this post. I wish there was a list of legit courses we can refer to
ReplyDeleteI've just completed the Globaltefl.uk.com TEFL/TESL certificate program, and I can say I'm pretty much in agreement with you. I completed the program because *that particular certification* was mandated by my school (all teachers were required to complete it in a space of three months. I already had 2 other certificates, but, we were told, CEA, a school accrediting operation in the US only accepts the Global certificate. Right away, warning bells: someone is getting a kickback somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThere were so many grammar mistakes in the written material that I lost count. The lessons were presented in poorly formatted pdfs. (I happened to be taking a MS Word course at the same time, and I scored higher by reformatting every lesson.(the lessons, when downloaded, seemed to have been formatted by someone who was using a word processing program for the first time, and was wearing a blindfold.)
My sum-up? If you can find a better one, go there. I did my first 2 certificates at IOA, and was quite pleased with the programs. Their written materials were more professionally written, i.e. fewer mistakes, and their tests were straightforward and did not mark correct answers as incorrect! (Yes this was an issue even with the final exam at Global... when I told my fellow tea hers that I was taking the exam that afternoon, they *all* told me that, no matter what, I'd get #15 wrong. Sure enough, although my a swer was, word for word, the same as the correct one shown on review, it was marked incorrect. I complained vociferously, but didnt even get a "sorry").
Oh, and by the way, if you take the required quizzes, print them off and save them, because the final exam is made up of those self-care questions. When you do the class management assignment, after you finis, prit out the comments and take it again: copy their comments to answer your second try, and roll on the floor laughing when the comments you get back are the same comments you made, word for word.
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