I believe that some students in the class are not qualified to peer-review others' work. This is very clear in their misunderstanding of the submitted assignment, errors in spelling, and poor feedback given. Assignment review should be done by an expert in the field; not students who have demonstrated, in many instances, limited English proficiency.

There is literally no requirement to join this course; Anyone can join this course: Whether a graduate or a high school drop-out. And thus their ability and intellectual level vary greatly. Therefore, it is unfair to allow those with limited education/language proficiency to review other students' work.

I've liked all the courses until this one. There was very frustrating and I found 0% helpful in the long run. Assignments were very unclear and often students would rate low on the assignments with little no reason why only saying generic lines like, "You missed something." The last one for example also, two people rated me low saying I either went too long or too short on the video. My video when I recorded it was about 7-8 minutes long which met the rubric. The assignments were also very suggestive and little guidance was given. 99% of the feedback I got on the assignments was just "good job" or "you missed something." Would have preferred if the professors graded these things, as I know they would say more then saying "good job" and would say what could be improved. Also the teachers we observed were not very good and I don't think any of them knew how to teach ESL. Finally the lesson plan parts were very, very redundant, and not needed to teach ESL.

I've liked the first 3 courses but this one needs a lot, and this is about the first half of the final course so I'm not sure what I did right or wrong. Please improve things in this course based on what i am saying.

This course was well-structured, and the plentiful examples helped to support the theories I learned about. The writing prompts - our homework - suited the material and could be addressed for many different topics, from beginner to advanced English language learners. What concerned me was that the level of writing I found myself reviewing was often of questionable quality, especially for individuals who aim to teach others a language as difficult as English. I understand that there's a broad range of English competency. Maybe a proficiency exam at the outset of these courses would help with this issue.

Would like a step-by-step video on how to do the Capstone. Tips and Tricks.

I accomplished and learned so much from the first part of this course. I cannot wait to start on the second part. Thanks to Dr. Dixon and his colleagues for a great ESL certification journey.

I would give this course 5 stars if not for the lack of expert review, the lack of response I've gotten in the discussion forum, and the absence of a way to contact any actual ASU staff that runs the course. It's not acceptable that we get ONLY peer review before we submit our entire portfolio for expert review for the TESOL certificate. There is not even a way to contact actual ASU staff via email. The FAQ says to write concerns into the comment box from the 'flags' in the lesson. Well I wrote a comment that apparently got sent into oblivion because no one responded. We get zero feedback before the final pass/fail assessment, which is the opposite of the philosophy we're taught in this course. Peer review is precisely useless because most people just say "I gave you full marks, please grade mine!!" We are told to ask questions about course content in the discussion forum, but the entire discussion forum is just spammed with people asking for peer reviews. I posted a question about expert review and got no response from any course 'moderators' or 'mentors.' Why would I ask questions about this course to the peers who know just as little as I do and are not even native English speakers? It's fine that they are taking the class, but we should have someone who is actually an expert giving us feedback even once before the final submission. The content of the course and the assignments are better than any other online TESOL course I considered. But be aware you're on your own.

The entire course was not paced well. The capstone had as much work each week as the other courses had in the entire 6 week course. To make it worse for me the capstone came up at the end of the year when teachers are overloaded already. I ended up having to roll over to the next session 1/2 way through. Work should have been better spread out. I also do not like that you get no real teacher evaluation in a capstone. Meaning a student could take a full 8 courses over a year and then fail when the teachers finally look at all the work in the second capstone.

I learned much from the course, for example, how to improve on my teaching philosophy. I updated my teaching philosophy, and used it in my CV. I like the steps for creating and executing a lesson plan. It was a lot of work, but there was a lot of learning activities and authentic activities to foster my learning. I used what I learned in the course to teach Nursing Assistant students in a Job Training program where I substitute teach. The students were active participants in a guided practice about Elder Speak and the discussion help the students as well as the teacher to identify Elder Speak and not to use it when communicating with anyone. I like doing the Capstone video although I had problems with the audio, then I had upgraded to a new handy Camera and the files were in HD, which made my video editing software obsolete, therefore, I did a major upgrade on video editing software and file converting software. I was reminded that there are technology changes happening frequently in the PC-Computer industry. I felt good about the class, the learning and the ability to effectively practice teaching. I look forward to Part 2 of the Teach English Now program.

Dr. Zenobia A. James

It is a well-structured course, it was helpful to me, but not as much as I would like to. I had no idea how to create a lesson plan and the examples available were either too complex or too simplifyed. Besides, there is absolutely no feedback from professionals (not even from an English student at ASU) at the assignments. And on the last course we just have to send a video and an entire lesson to be analyzed by a professional, even having had feedback from people who are not professionals either (or who are replying with 2 words just to get to the next level) during all the previous courses.

Excellent course! The workload of this Capstone Project is much bigger than the previous 3 courses, which also reflects the 20/80 rule (20% instruction, 80% practice) taught in the course. I will highly recommend this course to those who need.

Amazing course. It was a great way to tie together what was learned with the previous three courses, particularly the Lesson Design and Assessment. I suggest buying Shane's book "100 TESOL Activities for Teachers". It gives a lot of great ideas. I also suggest looking at your peers' lessons for ideas for your own classes. One is able to take them and transform them into your own designs when you begin to teach.

I enjoyed the course and the material. It was a challenging course which brought all the other courses in the specialization together. The instructors are very creative and a pleasure to learn from.

Really dificult with you don't have classroom experience already

First I would like to thanks all my tutors at "Teach English Now" that have been so helpfull and have made this course specialization so interesting and rewarding for me because I have learnt many experiences and knowledge that I have never thought before. As a matter of fact there are not enough words to say how great and marvelous you have been with this course.

The Capstone helped me to incorporate all the techniques absorbed in the previous three courses into my teaching technique. Doubtless, there are hundreds of aspects and peculiarities to master, but I did enhance my overall teaching mastery, having completed the Capstone.

Verdict: Highly Recommended:)

Best regards,

Rafael Daulet

ESL Teacher

Amazing instructors and course content! Although it would be easier to understand some material with a teaching background or training, the instructors do an excellent job motivating and guiding you to the finish line!

This course has made teaching super easy for me. It is a platform where I got a planned structure which gave my teaching a boost . I never thought making a lesson plan would be this much easier.

I am fortunate that i have got this course. Thanks a ton

I was expecting the capstone to be different than what it ended being. I didn't find it as practical and beneficial as the other courses.

The switch from watching videos and doing short assignments, to mostly readings and longer assignments took me by surprise. It's definitely good experience, but I thought it could come with a bit more instruction, or lings to further areas of study for students.

too repetitive, and i do not want to submit a video of my self teaching.

Sometimes when learners have questions, there are no channel to ask questions for authorative clarification. So, learners may feel confused about the assignments and don't have formal feedback whether he is doing correctly or not. This makes me confused sometimes. For example, what is exactly the purpose of Teaching Tip, and is the difference between Warm up activity and Teaching Tip/Activity. I hope the ASU could provide an official email address to exclusively answer learners' questions going forward. This method will help make clear of learners' queries and promote their understanding in the teaching content and their teaching performance. Any questions, please feel free to contact me: lipiandex@gmail.com

This Part 1 of TESOL Certification from ASU trains me to be a constructivist teacher. Although I'm a teacher by profession, I still learn, relearn, and unlearn things, and that's because of this course. I would like to extend my gratitude to Coursera and Arizona State University for granting my financial aid applications and making this course free for a teacher like me. I just want to let you know that I am currently finish the second part of this course as I want to obtain a TESOL certificate from ASU. More power, and I hope you will continue to help more teachers! Thanks very much!

This course is a butt-kicker, but well worth the time spent. It forced me to get the hard stuff over with, and the feedback on got on my mini teaching demonstration was beyond helpful.

Absolutely exceptional and filled with tangible products that you can immediately use in building a credible portfolio/resume. It was a good bit of work but entirely worthwhile.