CIEE TEFL Online 150-Hour TEFL Certificate Course

A bit of background on myself: I am a 23-year-old graduate of UW-Madison and I took the 150 hour CIEE TEFL course in preparation for my CIEE Teach Abroad Program in Chile. I have had quite a few hours of classroom facilitation but no experience teaching English, though I am well versed in the language.
The cons: An online course of how to run a classroom, in my mind, seems bound to fail, so perhaps this review is unfair. What I mostly gained from the coursework was what to specifically google the things I need to know as a future teacher. Exams were super easy to skate through, and I didn't really have to read all of the slides to do well on the tests. I wish the course would have focused more on lesson planning and less on how to adapt to a new culture and educational theories that I will probably rarely consider day-to-day. I also hated the pseudo class discussions online where posting is mandatory and you have to reflect on classmates' comments. Certain types of media were really difficult to upload and I had some technical issues.
The pros: The course has a mostly-intuitive layout. It provides you with a ton of resources at the end of every module which was one of the few things I knew I would return to. I did gain a better understanding of how to plan lessons which is key. Classroom videos and critiques of live teachers did help, but those only came near the end of the course. My tutor was awesome and easy to get a hold of. I also really enjoyed the practicum component of the course.

After a reasonable fee of $1000, and 11 weeks of power points, discussion posts, quizzes, and useful weekly assignments (including the production of lesson plans for the future), you gain access to the world! I am now eligible to teach in South Korea, and I feel well-equipped to do so! A lot of valuable information is given in this course, and whatever is not explicitly written you can find on your own using the provided links to legitimate educational resources.

You do have to find an institution and/or people to tutor for Practicum hours on your own, but CIEE provides advice and a tutor--a real person to communicate with via video calling. CIEE also provided me with a letter as proof of enrollment during my application process for teaching abroad. All you have to do is email these people and they'll get right back to you.

The tech stuff is easy to figure out if you've been around computers, the coursework isn't at all over the head of anyone who has successfully done at least some college units, and if you're a slow reader, I'd carve 20 hours per week out of your schedule to complete the work. Through CIEE, it's not at all a grueling process to earn your TEFL certificate. :)

The lesson planning portion of the course was really helpful! It enables me to discover all the option I have for creating fun and effective lessons. Now that I'm teaching, I am avle to use the resources I practiced in my TEFL course!

During this 10 week TEFL course I developed my awareness of the field and practices of TEFL and gained a deeper understanding of the components of the English language applicable to teaching EFL. I’ve also developed appropriate lesson plans for a variety of learners to aid both their receptive and productive skills and their use of English. This course has given me the confidence to step into my classroom in Thailand. The practicum gave me first-hand experience with teaching so I could better understand what was to come.

Now I'm in Thailand teaching English to 6th grade students and I use the skills I learned from my course every day. I have an awareness of how to build my lessons in a way that brings the learners along with me to eventually create projects using the English skills I taught them. I know many games and have access to many resources to keep English learning exciting. I'm able to blend together my new learnings from the teachers here in Thailand with my understanding of TEFL theory I learned in the course. Currently, I am having a nostalgically joyous time teaching Christmas to the children in my classrooms.

The CIEE TEFL program really helped me become a successful teacher equipping me with the skills and confidence to kickstart teaching English to Thai students. I would recommend the CIEE TEFL course to anyone who is going to teach overseas.

The 150 hour TEFL course sounds like it would be a lot of work, but you learn so much from it. The weekly discussions with the tutor were fun and it was nice to get feedback throughout the course. Overall, I would definitely recommend the course to anyone thinking of taking it.

This was my first experience with an online course. An online course wasn't my first choice but it fit my timeline and schedule much better than taking a class in person. I was able to do most assignments on my own schedule and own time. However, it was much more work than I anticipated. Luckily, it was during the summer and I only had a part time job because if I had a full time job I am not sure that I would have effectively gotten the most knowledge out of the course. The tutor was wonderful and helped talk me through my decision to teach abroad in Spain. We also still keep in contact occasionally and she's still willing to give me ideas and assistance about TEFL!

I learned so much from CIEE TEFL. The material was easy to understand, but also valuable information to learn from. Our instructor welcomed any questions we had and made our online group sessions valuable and engaging. The projects and tests were productive. If you put in the time and effort, you saw the results of this. I highly recommend CIEE TEFL.

The course was fine. It covered a lot of material that has been useful in my first weeks teaching in Korea. I will definitely refer back to the downloadable units and the many links. The practicum element was great too; I learned many things from the teacher I observed. I would recommend to anyone looking for a solid online program.