Topic: ICAL Online Teacher Training

[hero]

http://icalweb.com/about.asp

Unfortunately I only had time for a very quick look at this one, pressures of the day job this time of year!  I hope that some of the course graduates will be along to provide some real information, positive and negative hopefully.

ICAL was one of the very first schools offering online teacher training way back in 1998. Making use of powerful new internet technologies and employing only the best to both create and tutor our courses, we soon became the largest online provider with our courses being taken right across the world.

Since then ICAL has become firmly established as a leader in the field, often copied but always one step ahead!

With a new, innovative way of teaching, it soon became clear that the internet as a teaching medium is the way forward and now, with more tutors than any other online provider, thousands of graduates and many thousands more current students, you can be certain that when you join ICAL you are joining one of the largest and best online teacher training providers around today.

Our students come from all over the world and often come to us through word of mouth referrals. The reputation we have is second to none and the security of training with a well established school like ours is always worth while.

That's the introduction in the 'about us' section of the website, all seems straightforward enough!  They don't claim any accreditation, which is generally a good sign and they point out that there are in fact no international accrediting bodies for TEFL providers - honesty is the best policy and other TEFL providers could take a leaf from this book!

They offer a TEFL course at $265, a TEFL course with teaching practice at $395 and a CALL certificate at $315.

The TEFL course looks fairly standard fair, although it didn't seem as detailed as others I have seen, on the other hand I was only able to access the overview so I didn't really get a great look at what they offer.  It does seem to be a feature of the site that actual content can't be accessed until after registration, I can understand that - it would be good to hear from others who have taken the course for that reason.

The teaching practice element seems to be an evaluation of teachers by video and diary.  There is no chance to take a residential session as with some other courses.  It would be interesting to hear what others think about this.  As I have stated previously I have always thought that for such a practical skill as TEFL it would be hard to train without at least a minimum of a practical component.  As they point out, this 'teaching practice' that they offer is aimed at the teacher already working in a classroom and as such is an evaluation rather than practical training.

The CALL certificate is something that I confess I have not seen before:

A thorough introduction to CALL - Computer Assisted Language Learning. Taking you from the very basics of what CALL is to an in-depth look at how to set up a lab, which programs to use and how they can be best used in the classroom. Plenty of sound CALL activities and exercises.

It assumes minimal knowledge of computing (you just have to know how to use the Internet and email) and takes you through the 5 modules step-by-step with plenty of help from your personal tutor.

The courses can apparently be completed over the time period that the student desires, which I guess would be a positive for those with busy schedules.  They also offer assistance with work placements, although we need to hear from more experienced folks with the company I guess.

Their forum seems to contain quite a few topics, I found this which caught my eye being based in Thailand myself: http://icalweb.com/mytesl/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=364

I tried to post a request for graduates to come here and give their opinions, but unfortunately it seems that forum registration is only open to those who have registered for the course

Summing up, I didn't really see enough of the content to be able to say if the course is any good or not!  Let's just hope that we can get some objective views from those in the know .....

[Muhammad]

I just completed the 'regular' ICAL certificate course and I must say that I am completely satisfied with the training that I have received.  I have previously participated in a couple of week long pre-employment trainings for some well-known EFL providers and their trainings did not compare with the ICAL program.  The five modules were very challenging each one took me from 4 to 10 hours of work to complete.  The program focuses on preparing and executing good lessons and it helps you to focus on every detail of the lesson as well as the needs of the students.  The tutors were very helpful and personable.  I actually felt that the tutor was someone whom I had known for a long time.  The administrative staff always responded to my inquiries within 24 to 48 hours.  The program was an apt challenge and the service was excellent.  I would recommend the program for anyone who wants to take an introductory course.

[Lindsay]

Hi everyone,
This is my first post here. I finished the ICAL teacher training course a few years ago and regularly visit the forums to give advice and to learn of other student's experiences. I also pick up a lot useful tips and share ideas. My post here is not intended to be a testimonial, although I was very pleased with both the content of the course and the online support. The student's support pages on the homepage, forums and my tutor all combined very well to make an educational and enjoyable experience.

About the course itself:
The course is focussed towards educating new ESL teachers in classroom management, curriculum development, understanding student's needs, grammatical explanations and, most importantly, develops the resourcefulness of each teacher as they progress through the course. Each of the five units carry on well from each other and build to a rather overwhelming, however interesting, final unit. I might have to disagree with Muhammad's statement of taking 4-10 hours to complete each unit. Including researching time, note taking and formatting of each unit I'd guess there would be around 80 hours in completing the course. This estimate does not include resubmitting corrected units. The structure of the course is, you must score at least 16/20 for a unit before you can proceed to the next unit. There is no time limit or limit for the amount of times you have to resubmit a unit. The is some solace in knowing you are doing a course you cannot fail. When each unit is graded by your tutor it is returned with comments and tips from the tutor. I found this information to be some of the most useful throughout the course. I'd also like to add the tutors are very approachable and willing to answer any questions you may have regardless of whether it is course related.

In closing:
I could not comment by comparison to other TESL certificate courses as I have not done any others, however, I would recommend this course without hesitation. It is an interesting and educational TESL certificate course, which I thoroughly enjoyed. If you are curious about this course come to the site and have a look at the homepage and forums. My user name and student number are, Lindsay-ONB5B. And, unfortunately, as Hero stated, only registered students are permitted to post in the forums.

Thought for the day:
"Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty."
Albert Einstein.

[hero]

I could not comment by comparison to other TESL certificate courses as I have not done any others

Therein lies the problem with evaluating TEFL courses ..... the vast majority of us only ever take one (maybe two or more in some cases, but rare) and therefore all we can do is offer our experiences.

Unless somebody wants to pay me to travel the world taking TEFL courses and evaluating them ........

[anyonefortennis]

I did an ICAL course about 6 years ago, it was a reasonable price and a good way to test the water to see if I would want to do a residential course, which I later did.

I was working at the time and the double workload was quite hard to balance, it wasn't a walk in the park by any means. The course content was pretty good, and the support from the personal tutor was absolutely first rate. Furthermore the support from the admin and technical side was also pretty impressive.

After finishing the course I did a residential course, it was pants. The TP was with a group of kids (4 I think) who were the friends of the instructor's kids and would turn up late and were clearly not there through choice. The instructor was ok, although lacking in teaching experience and he offered no out of class support and the admin was w*nk.

The ICAL course was just as good as the residential in terms of content, and as a business they were more professional, however the residential course had two major advantages. Firstly, the opportunity to network and secondly the fact that you could talk things through with the other trainees. On occasions (for me at least) it takes time for the penny to drop, and the fact that you had other people to sit down and talk things through really helped. Also you can learn sh8t loads from other people’s experience.

For me the ICAL was value for money, the residential was not, so much so that I don't even put the name of the course provider on my CV, lest they receive some unintended praise for my extraordinary teaching skills (tongue in cheek) and I rarely tell people I attended the course as I feel what I learned was from my fellow trainees and not the course provider.

I would recommend an ICAL course, but only for a feeler or refresher. ICAL do have a forum for trainees, but it is no sub for sitting down over a cold one and going through the days events with others who shared the same experience.