What makes a good English course?
There's so many different courses out there, it's sometimes difficult to know which one to choose. Let's talk about some things to look for when choosing an online English course.
Learning Outcomes
A good course will have a clearly defined set of learning outcomes. These are the things that you will be able to do at the end of each lesson or at the end of the course. You should be able to review the list of learning outcomes to decide if those are in line with your own goals.
Never choose a course without knowing exactly what the outcomes of that course are.
Methodology
Schools and teachers may have their own defined methodology. This methodology will include how the course is designed, and the kinds of activities you do during the course. Some courses may have more of a lecture format, where the teacher does most of the talking. Other courses are more communicative, and teachers will encourage the students to interact with each other more.
Additionally, some schools may take a task-based or project-based approach, where students work on a series of projects throughout the course. These projects are derived from the learning outcomes and should reflect real world situations.
Materials
Many schools like to stick to a course book. Course books are nice because they provide a clear structure for the course and are written to be suitable for a particular level. The problem with course books is that they may not reflect the every day experiences of the students in the class. Instead, they may be based on the experiences of someone living in the UK or the United States who’s writing the book.
An alternative to course books are authentic materials. Authentic materials are materials that are not written for English language learners, but for native speakers. While these authentic materials may be more difficult than course books, they are a better reflection of what you will encounter in the real world. Sometimes, the best way to prepare for the real world is by challenging yourself in the classroom to understand real world materials.
Assessment
You should receive some type of assessment or evaluation during your course. At some schools, you will be given a quiz or an exam at the end. However, a quiz or an exam might not be the best way to determine whether or not you have met the learning outcomes for the course.
At other schools, particularly those which use a task-based or project-based methodology, you will find portfolio based assessment. This means that a student will put together a portfolio of materials that they create throughout the course which shows how much they learned during the course. A portfolio is something that a student can look at after the course and recognize their progress. It is also something that they can review after the course when they are using English in the real world.