Probably due to my recent series on comparing TEFL courses (links below) somebody wrote to me recently asking for my opinion on www.teflcoursereview.com/ . It’s a site where anyone can write reviews of the TEFL courses listed, which apparently makes its money out of clicks on the links to the course providers’ sites (when they have a referral programme). You can also suggest other courses to add to the list.
Like the hotel review and restaurant review sites it is obviously based on (and the similar customer reviews on Amazon etc), it’s definitely a good thing that it exists and anyone should have a brief look before they pay for anything. Like those hotel reviews and customer reviews, however, you have to take it with a huge pinch of salt. For one thing, competitor courses could quite easily go on there to slag off schools, and they themselves could go on there pretending to be satisfied customers – and there are many attested examples of hotels and restaurants doing exactly that.
Also like other customer review sites, it is a useful supplement to proper reviews rather than a replacement for them. There is still a place for proper reviews in newspapers, and there is certainly a place for proper TEFL course reviews too. I therefore humbly submit a proposal for RealTEFLCourseReviews.com:
The courses will be reviewed by experienced teachers who already have at least the same level of qualification, similar to TEFL.net book reviews. For the reviewer, it would be a great way of getting the right experience to get into teacher training, and for the course providers good quotes from the review would be very useful on their websites and several levels more convincing than quotes from trainees. The data for the review could come from reading course materials, sitting in on part of the course, watching videos of part of the course, or even being a “secret shopper”, with the review clearly stating how they came to their conclusions.
Think it could work, and people I’ve spoken to about it have said the same. Anyone actually fancy setting it up?
More on comparing TEFL courses
TEFLtastic 