CELTA Online

Most importantly, you will earn a CELTA certificate, which is one of the most internationally recognized TEFL qualifications. It is also now more accessible—you can join our course from anywhere in the world as long as you can join courses during our time zone (U.S. Central time). You will also gain skills to teach online, which offers more opportunities for your TEFL career.

Your certificate will not specify that you completed the course 100% online. You will get the standard CELTA Certificate, issued by Cambridge English Language Assessment (part of the University of Cambridge) and certifies that you have completed 120 hours of training.  You will also get a certificate in Teaching English Online from Missouri State University.

The content of the online course follows exactly the same syllabus as the face-to-face intensive course and is completed over a 16-week period.

The curriculum includes interactive course content, forum discussions, live sessions, written assignments and guided video observations. These may be completed in your own time within deadlines set by our online trainer. You should be prepared to spend a minimum of five hours a week online. There are seven required synchronous sessions throughout the course (times will be arranged to fit the availability of the trainees, when possible.  

Weekly Activities 

• Attend teaching practice on Thursday evenings from 6-9 p.m. CST as a teacher or observer 
• Plan and teach eight 45 minute lessons throughout the course
• Attend a meeting with your trainer at least 24 hours before teaching to prepare and go over your plan (time to be arranged) 
• Work through the assigned units on cambridgeteachers.org 
• The units assigned are detailed below and in the weekly announcement on the Cambridge site 
• Complete only the assigned forum tasks mentioned in the weekly announcement on the Cambridge site 
• Each week you will have one short task turned in as a reply to that week’s announcement on cambridgeteachers.org 
• Over the course, you will observe 6 lessons (a mix of pre-recorded lessons and live lessons from your trainers) 
• Occasionally, your trainer may give you recordings and/or additional live input; these are optional, but recommended 
• Meet deadlines related to the 4 written assignments for the course

You will teach 6 hours of assessed teaching practice, usually as eight 45-minute lessons. During your CELTA teaching practice, you will experience teaching grammar, vocabulary, receptive and productive skills, and more.

You will be teaching classes of 6 to 20 students at two levels who have signed up for free online classes offered by Missouri State University's CELTA center. These students are adult English language learners who are usually still living in their countries of origin. They have a variety of academic backgrounds and first languages.

Teaching Practice Schedule 

Thursdays 

• 6:00-7:30  Teaching Practice  6:00-7:40 Teaching Practice 
• 7:45-9:00  Feedback + Trainer’s input 7:45-8:15 Feedback 
• 8:20-9:00  Weekly meeting, both groups (in high beginner room) 

You do not need advanced computer skills to complete CELTA online. Basic typing skills and internet/email access are required.

Hardware Requirements

•  A laptop or computer and monitor with minimum screen resolution of 1024x768 pixels
  • Windows XP Home and Professional 800MHz Processor with 256MB RAM
  • Windows Vista 1GHz processor with 1GB RAM
  • Windows 7 or 8 or 10 1GHz processor with 1GB RAM
  • Mac OSX 10.3 or higher 1GHz processor with 1GB RAM
  • This course is not currently available on iPads
•  A reliable broadband-speed connection to be able to handle progressively downloading videos and virtual classroom sessions
•  A good quality USB headset with headphones and microphone

Software Requirements

• We recommend one of the following web browsers for Online CELTA.
  • Firefox 3 or higher
  • Safari 
  • Internet Explorer 8 or higher
  • Chrome does not support all course features. Please do not use Chrome.
• Microsoft Word (either PC or Mac version).
• Your browser will require the following free plug-ins to be installed and enabled. Please check the links below to make sure you have the latest plug-ins installed.

• • Java – http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader – https://get.adobe.com/reader