Here you will find some reviews on MyTEFL and ITTT. Unlike some other sites these reviews do not include affiliate links which you will soon learn more about.
Are ITTT and MyTEFL legit? Well, it depends what you mean by legit, but I am going to share my observations, insights as a teacher (started in 2004) and some reviews which might help. I haven't actually taken a course with either one, so you can take this with a grain of salt.
First we'll talk about MyTEFL, then iTTT and then their accreditation which is the same.
Why do so many blogger$ review MyTEFL?
I always see bloggers reviewing and recommending MyTEFL. But if you look closely you will see that there is a reason why. That reason is because they are making money off of you when you buy a course after clicking on the link to their website.
Here is an example of MyTEFL's affiliate marketing.
The whole beach thing is also frequently used to market some TEFL courses, but something to keep in mind is that you don't teach on a beach.
Just so you know
If you google "MyTEFL reviews" many of the sites on the first few pages are by affiliates.
- farangdom.com
- bestonlinetefl.com
- cheapteflcourses.com
- twomonkeystravelgroup.com
- thebrokepackbacker.com
- hungrypartier.com
Those pages all include affiliate links.
Should you care? Well, they are written by someone who is making a commision by recommending that course. So you could say that they have financial motives.
Also the following sites have reviews written by different people, yet they are also affiliate sites.
- goabroad.com
- gooverseas.com
- teflcoursereview.com
MyTEFL review on Reddit
Reddit is a pretty good place to get a variety of opinions on things. Although there may be undercover marketers there is no affiliate marketing allowed on Reddit, so it can be a little less financially biased as the community definitely doesn't encourage marketing.
But like everyone else it's biased and on r/tefl you will find a CELTA bias.
Anyways... I found a couple posts there about them.
"Also, remember that mytefl has a good affiliate program which pays anyone that brings them students (not a bad thing, just a marketing strategy) so it will be difficult to find impartial reviews about the company." - James-Lang
My thoughts
Yes, as I previously mentioned finding impartial reviews about MyTEFL on many sites will be difficult. Everyone is biased including myself and yourself, but there is a difference between a bias and a lie.
If you don't believe me try a search for:
everyone is biased
"Can't speak to myTEFL's job assistance specifically, but in general you don't really need a TEFL course's assistance for Korea. Plenty of job postings, recruiters, direct hires, EPIK (the ministry of education's program) that you can easily navigate yourself." - Cormore
My thoughts
I agree. I took a TESOL course that offered "guaranteed jobs", but they had very few jobs where I wanted to teach. You can find many more jobs on your own if you just look. I previously wrote about TEFL course job placement.
"I'm currently doing one on myTEFL.net. So far it's okay. I don't think it's a waste of money (especially if it is required for your job and you have no prior experience teaching in a classroom.)
They have a bunch of sales to get a certain percent off of your course...
...How quick you do it is up to you, it's all go at your own pace with quizzes every so often. I'm about 1/4 done with it and its not super difficult or anything, just pay attention!" - fangmeiya
Who owns myTEFL?
If you go to that video you will see that he refers to himself as an 'intern'.
An intern?
And that his name is Adam and like myTEFL is apparently located in Vancouver.
Oh what a surprise.
I contacted myTEFL and received an email from an 'Adam'.
Hmmm...
What a coincidence and he doesn't reveal his last name.
FYI.
It started with a hunch, but I figured out...
The owner of myTEFL created the site 'Eslinsiderreviews.com' to trash me because of this review.
And if you are thinking, "yeah well you put his face here..."
But this update with his picture above was just added on Sept. 9th 2020. See the bottom of this page for the original publish date.
Around a year ago 'Eslinsiderreviews.com' showed up when people searched for reviews on my site. Basically it's a site written by a troll (an anonymous user) to trash my name.
And now I know myTEFL wrote it.
Why did he write it?
Because of this review you're reading right now.
If you want to learn more about this then go here.
The difference between this review and his is that mine is transparent (written by a real person with an identity) and 'Eslinsiderreviews.com' was written by someone who did not reveal their identity. Of course he could go in and add a fake one later like "Trusted" TEFL reviews.
Now we'll talk a bit about iTTT and then the 'accreditation' after that.
iTTT's affiliates?
Both iTTT and MyTEFL do some affiliate marketing and as mentioned before that means that bloggers and others get a cut when they recommend their courses.
Here's an example from Quora.
You can see the affiliate link when you hover over it. It says, www.teflcourse.net/?cu=lindagoesesl.
There's also no such thing as "international accreditation".
So do you think an affiliate review is an unbiased review?
Why does iTTT have 9 different homepages?
I don't know much about their courses, but there is one thing I noticed...
Over the years I noticed that iTTT's site showed up in the search results and sometimes it was the same page with a different url. I did a little research with an online tool and found 9 different url's for their home page.
See for yourself:
- teflcorp.com
- tefl-certificate.net
- tefl-tesol.net
- tefl-course.com
- teflcourse.net
- tesolcourse.com
- tefllife.com
- teflinternational.com
- teflcourse.net
If you go to any of those above pages you will find a page that looks the same. I think this might be pre-2010 SEO because it's a bit spammy.
iTTT TEFL course review
This is a review on a blogger's site that doesn't appear to be an affiliate.
"In the ITTT online TEFL Course, there are 20 units in total and a final test. I did about 2 to 4 units a day (depending on how many was in the zipfile) and completed it in about six to seven days. It was well under 100hrs worth, 60 max, including the final test."
ITTT and MyTEFL's accreditation
"OTTSA is one of those empty-shell 'accrediting' organizations that exists solely to make it look like a place has been accredited. They don't have a physical address, a phone number, nor indeed any indication of even what country they are in. Two-thirds of their 'accreditations' have been awarded to ITTT, and the only place you can find a reference to them is from the 'schools' they have 'accredited'." - Annaeus
You should know that TEFL accreditation isn't actually a requirement for TEFL courses. There is also no one accrediting body for this.
Despite the fact that it isn't required it is apparently a form of social proof and trust for some people as many are searching Google for "accredited TEFL courses". So over the last month or so I have emailed a few different accreditors in TEFL which included OTTSA (who "accredits" ITTT & MyTEFL) and Accreditat.
The guy from Accreditat responded pretty quickly. However, OTTSA never responded and I actually have sent them 2 different emails inquiring about getting accreditation. And since they haven't responded I am questioning the validity of it and the courses that it accredits.
Is their accreditation legit?
OTTSA claims to accredit some courses by MyTEFL and ITTT.
It is said that sometimes the accreditor and the company are the same. That's when the course provider and the "accreditor" are actually the same person(s) with the accreditor using a different name. Here's a definite example here.
OTTSA only claims to accredit these companies and another company. The other doubts I had may have been from an article about MyTEFL that I read by Alex Case.
I mean if you really want to do business and make money then why wouldn't you respond to inquires from a potential client?
Again I sent 2 emails. The first I sent directly on 8/8/2017 from my hotmail account. And the second email I sent using the form on their website on 9/15/2017. If they actually reply then I'll update this article, yet it's now June 21st, 2018 and they still haven't replied.
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