Hi folks,
Sorry, I’m not a big reddit user, so sorry if my etiquette is a bit off.I wanted to take a moment to warn about a company I had to deal with – the company in question going as far as attempting to falsely DMCA claim my review of their product in order to get it removed.
With mod’s approval, I would like to include a link to the video, however, I will go over the main talking points:
1. The [TEFL.org](https://TEFL.org) constantly promotes their product as “on sale”, when in truth the timer is fake. Once it reaches 00:00:00, it will reset for another 2 days and some hours. There is proof of this in my video.
2. The [TEFL.org](https://TEFL.org) promotes their product as 100% self study, self paced, but hide and obscure the fact that in truth you have 6 months to complete (in it of itself is more than enough time, however, this is blatantly false advertising because 100% self study, self paced is not the same as 6 months to complete the course)
3. The [TEFL.org](https://TEFL.org) uses poor practices for marking students, going as far to state they expect students to fail all assignments at least once, requiring students to redo assignments. Why these assignments fail, in my opinion, seems to be down to a pass-fail system, where anything less than a 99% is counted as a fail. This can be discouraging to certain students, and after some disputes with their tutors over this, I was given little justification for my failed assignments.
4. The legitimacy of any and all reviews of their product have been now called into question due to the fact that they attempted to false DMCA my review of their product. Their attempt to remove negative press begs the question of how much of the “positive press” on their product is accurate and legitimate, as it is clear they are willing to attempt to take down (mind you, very small, low-impression) videos and reviews in order to maintain a positive image.
The quality of the product itself – as in what you actually learn – is fine. As an experienced teacher, I had some gripes with their methodology, but at the end of the day, it’s easier to consider it as one tool out of a handful of your teaching tool belt – whether that’s worth the $260 is up to you, but after my experience with them, I’d say that I feel like I burned $260 that would have been better spent on new materials and teaching supplies. However, I find the marketing practices to be shameful and disrespectful of their customers and their own business, in addition to their tutoring methods which are demoralizing.
I just wanted to give everyone a warning, do what you will with the information. The videos I link below are my own videos on the topic themselves that are from my own Youtube channel.
The original review:
[https://youtu.be/WbS38Bd3QII](https://youtu.be/WbS38Bd3QII)
My discussion about their attempted DMCA claim on my first video:
[https://youtu.be/K76s4bYLxrg](https://youtu.be/K76s4bYLxrg)
(this post’s wording and phrasing was well considered, do no expect the same consideration taken in my videos, as they are presented in a far more casual manner that what you see in this post.)
small edit:
Posted the wrong link
3 comments
I used TEFL.org and I knew that the sale banner was fake, similar to how other companies have “sales” but the base price is ridiculous. Agree that it’s dodgy practice but I liked the outline of the course more than other’s I looked at.
However, as for your claim that the 6 month limit is hidden. That’s absolute bullshit. It’s on the course detail pages under “How it works” and if you’re not reading the course detail pages prior to paying for a $250 course, then that’s on you.
You can extend the limit on the course with $ and I think it gives a good incentive to get the course done. It took me 3-4 weeks to do the course full time, so 6 months should be plenty. I did my course back in June 2021 so I can say they’ve been clear about the 6 months timeline since then. Self paced does not mean you have forever, it means that your can choose when and how much you study for. My uni offers online courses that can be self paced but they still have a deadline to get them done. It’s common practice. It also means they can allocate a person to you, knowing that you’ll be attached to them for 6 months making admin planning easier.
As for failing… I did the course at the same time I was studying a master’s in teaching. I thought I would pass with ease, put very little effort into my assignment and then promptly failed. The feedback I got was helpful. This also meant I put a lot more thought into the following assignments and treated them like uni assignments. I do agree this might put some learners off, but it was good for me. If they are arbitrarily failing people then, yes, that’s wrong. But expecting people to actually put in effort allows them to deliver graduates of a high standard. There’s nothing wrong with that. It what we expect all higher education providers to do so that you can trust the degree.
Honestly, the real biggest issue is the sale banner. Everything else seems like personal issues you had with the system, which is fine to have. I can see why they’re preventing your review as you’re taking personal gripes and turning them into legal ramifications.
It’s my opinion that the majority of those online cert programs aren’t worth them money, no matter which organization it is. It’s a waste because without a teaching practicum, observations, feedback, and further, deeper study, the person is not going to be, by any means, ready to teach on their own. Yet that is what the cert promotes, i.e., that taking this course makes you a qualified English teacher.
I would advise saving up your money for a course like CELTA, or CertTesol from Trinity. Or if you’re really serious, take college course in English, Education, TESOL, Linguistics …
You really are better off preparing yourself by getting a serious education than thinking that these certs are “good enough.” After all: what kind of an educator eschews a real education?
Quick post… all TEFL certs are pretty crap and aren’t really ‘qualifications’. I’d only recommend them as a primer. For example with i-to-i I did a weekend course at a backpacker’s hotel and you couldn’t fail. It was ~$200 and mostly just useful because I got to network and ask an experienced eikaiwa teacher (our trainer) for a few pointers.
IMO if you set the bar low with these things you’ll be fine. They’re a primer, not an academic qualification.