Most teachers are no strangers to online teaching in 2021. After a huge shift to online in 2020, which many of us thought to be only temporary, now we are considering the reality and benefits to online teaching, and ELT and other language schools are seeing the advantages of offering hybrid learning to their students.
Whether you're new to online teaching or have been doing it for several months, the IH Certificate in Online Tutoring is a great way to validate your knowledge and skills in this area with an official qualification, and boost your professional development. Here, 2020 course participant Christopher Walker, Teacher and Teacher Trainer at International House Bielsko-Biala, explains how the course boosted his confidence and practical online teaching skills.
Why did you decide to take the IH Certificate in Online Tutoring course with International House’s OTTI?
I’ve been running professional development sessions at my school for many years, but I was worried that they were not as useful now as they once had been – my concern was that the shift to online teaching had had a negative impact on my ability to cover the core content with the staff who had come to me for help with their own development. The Online Tutoring course provided me with the skills I needed – and gave me much more confidence in dealing with online teacher training.
How did you find the IH Certificate in Online Tutoring course content?
The course was extremely useful, just as the other course I have completed with IH all have been. I learnt a lot about how online tutoring is different to face-to-face work – although that’s not to say there aren’t similarities as well. The most useful aspect was certainly that the content could all be applied immediately – this was as much a practical course as anything, and although there was plenty of theoretical knowledge being shared, we always had the opportunity to relate it to the work we would actually be doing.
What is the most valuable aspect of the IH Certificate in Online Tutoring course?
The sense of community that is instilled in all of the IH courses – that was the most valuable aspect. Knowledge can be sourced from many different places, but you get something extra with an IH course – you get an active community of like-minded teachers, all willing and eager to interact, and supported by the most wonderful trainers.
Would you recommend taking the IH Certificate in Online Tutoring course? If so, why?
I would recommend all of the different IH courses to anyone who is serious about their professional development. For this course specifically, I would say that it provides participants with the tools they need to do their job online, and the confidence to overcome any obstacles that might present themselves along the way.
IH Certificate in Online Tutoring courses starts regularly throughout the year. For the next one, see here