Why only 5–15% of the people who start free & cheap online TEFL courses complete them
If you sign up for a free TEFL course then chances are you won’t complete it. In fact chances are you won’t even start it. You may register, but odds are you won’t get past that.
Why not?
Well, because you are not that interested in it. You signed up because it was free.
How many free things (websites, ebooks, etc.) have you signed up for that you never or hardly used?
What about cheap TEFL?
You are a little more interested, but again you signed up for that course because it was cheap and there was probably no other reason. Although since you paid some money you are more likely to finish it.
According to some studies roughly 5–15% of those free sign ups for courses finish them and get certification (which is not free).
I’ll tell you some of my data later, but…
Why don’t people finish these courses?
Sometimes the problem is with the courses being boring and others it’s the students lacking desire and commitment.
They just signed up because it was free or cheap.
If you are looking for a cheap or free TEFL course ask yourself how committed are you to improving your situation as a teacher?
If you think any course is going to be as good as another you are wrong. They are many different kinds of courses out there. Many may be similar, but they are not all the same.
And your problem is that you are probably just focused on the carrot — the job. But that’s just a start. After you get your job then what?
You have to teach.
And do you think you will like it if you don’t know what you are doing?
I don’t think you will because I didn’t and my first year was difficult. Teaching English is not easy. Teaching to kids is not easy.
You need to commit and take a specialized course that’s focused on improving your situation unless you just want to get by or you are actually going to teach yourself.
But…
You want to be happy right? You want to have a better experience right? Or do you just want a job?
A certificate is an extrinsic reward. These kinds of rewards don’t make people happy for long.
You need to focus on intrinsic rewards.
What are the problems with many of these courses?
- large chunks of content that are abstract to newcomers
- text (people don’t read much)
- little to no interaction
- no to little feedback from a human teacher
- passive learning
Lecturing is boring most of the time for most people. Why? Because it’s passive. You sit there and listen. This is not reserved for just online courses, but in-class courses can be like that too.
The one I took was.
I spent a few days in a classroom and did some take home work. I can only really remember a few exercises that we did in the course. Which comes down to about 20 minutes out of 2 days in that “classroom.”
Lecturing is similar to reading in some sense and people only read 20–28% of the text on a page according to some studies.
So if you only read 20–28% how much do you think you will remember?
A good online TEFL course is going to make teaching English abroad a reality. It’s going to get you closer to doing that and not by just giving you some certificate, but by actually preparing you to do your work.
It’s going to:
- offer feedback from a teacher
- be interactive
- include instructional videos
- not ask you to read large chunks of text or even watch “lecturing videos”
- be active
- have projects or assignments
- be catered towards teaching the students you are going to teach like: adults (most TEFL courses), kindergarteners, elementary, middle, or high school students
Not many of these things are present in free or cheap TEFL courses.
Why not?
Because who wants to put the time in to train you for free or a very low cost? These courses may offer plenty of information, but it’s probably not going to be in a format that’s easy to absorb.
My data on a “free course” that I created is this…
At some point in 2015–2016 I calculated that I had 2,630 sign ups for a free TEFL course (free to start) and issued 182 certificates which is about 14%.
There were others that completed the course who didn’t receive certification.
Many of the people who signed up for these courses were not native English speakers. In fact many — which is common in MOOC courses were from Southeast Asia, India, Africa and other third world countries.
I think some were looking for a ticket out of poverty. But a TEFL certificate doesn’t replace the fact you don’t have a degree or are not a native speaker.
Those are qualifications that you normally need to legally teach in Asia.
And many of the people who signed up never even started the course.
Why?
Because they were looking for something free. They were low commitment.
Do you want to have a better experience abroad and feel more confident teaching to mostly kids?
If your answer is yes then take this course.
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