Here you will find the answers to some questions you might have about the course. If you can’t find a specific answer, please do contact us at tefl@sheffield.ac.uk.
This course is essentially for anyone who works with teachers: this includes, but is not limited to, teacher trainers, educators, DoSs in language schools, mentors or conference speakers. The course is also not restricted to one particular training context and the content of the course has been designed to be used in a variety of contexts and situations. Each unit involves reflection tasks in which we ask you to consider how the input is applicable to you and the context you work in.
We have organised the course into distinct units with each one dealing with a different aspect of teacher training and released on a weekly basis. Before you start Unit 1, we ask you to complete the Orientation Unit first as this will give you an overview of the course and how to use our platform, Training Foundry.
The complete course costs £375.
The full course lasts for 10 weeks.
See the timetable for information about the dates of the course.
The course is delivered purely online and is made up of nine content units, which will be released on a week-by-week basis throughout the period of the course. Each unit consists of a number of topics exploring aspects of working with teachers. Each unit contains both asynchronous and peer work content. The asynchronous tasks include guided self-study tasks, forum tasks, research, quizzes and reflection; while the peer tasks involve working with other participants to, for example, mark lesson plans, observe and offer feedback on lessons and plan input sessions.
Your tutors will offer feedback on your forum posts and group work tasks. You may find that to complete some of the group tasks, that you will need to be online at the same time as other members of the group – this is optional though, as we provide ways of contacting and working with other participants which do not require you to be online at the same time.
Generally the course consists of asynchronous content which means you can complete the tasks at a time suitable for you. You may find that to complete some of the group tasks you will need to be online at the same time as other members of the group – this is optional though, as we provide ways of contacting and working with other participants which do not require you to be online at the same time.
As mentioned above, some of the tasks and forum contributions require group or pair work. This will be a good opportunity for you to share best practice and learn from each other as well as being an important part of getting the most from the course.
The course units have been designed to make up approximately 4-5 hours worth of work, including working through the online content, completing the interactive tasks and contributing to the discussion forums. You may find that some units may take slightly longer than this though.
Although all the units are standalone, and it is not necessary to complete one before moving on to the next one, we strongly recommend that you complete the units on a weekly basis. This is to ensure participants complete the group tasks at a similar pace and to ensure you receive timely feedback on your work.
Collaborative tasks are a way for you to share best practice, ideas and suggestions with other participants on the course, so not completing these could not only impact on your learning but on that of other course participants. Forum tasks are also an important part of the course and have been designed to help you to consolidate your learning and reflect on your practice. Although these are not compulsory, completing them will allow you to learn from your peers and tutors.
Unfortunately, when you complete tasks via the online asynchronous content, your answers are not recorded or stored. Therefore, as you work through the tasks, we strongly recommend that you make notes on a word document or equivalent on your computer. You may decide to handwrite notes if this works for you. We also give you the opportunity to use the ‘My Notebook’ function – see the Orientation Unit for more details. As the course is not assessed as such, we will not be checking your answers to any of the self-study tasks you complete. We will, of course, comment on your forum tasks. We will also be offering support and advice on any of the practical group tasks you complete.
The course will be available for 3-4 weeks after the end of the course. This will enable you to use the content and to save anything that will be useful for your future training.
If you do experience any difficulties with technology, please contact our dedicated help desk which you will need to contact and explain the problem. They will try to help you resolve the problem as soon as possible. Their contact details are: eltc.tel@sheffield.ac.uk.
Yes, we provide certificates for completing the whole course. Gaining a certificate is dependent on completing all the tasks in the course. Please note that this course does not provide any kind of credit.
Your tutors are experienced teacher trainers who have worked in a range of different contexts and settings. Nick is the co-author of ETpedia Teacher Training, a resource book for both experienced and new teacher trainers. You can read a review of their book here and here. We recommend that you buy the book to complement your studies on this course. You can buy the Kindle edition here and the spiral-bound edition here.
