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■ ■ Fine-tuning of online course materials and collaborative activities, for example,
in the new version of the course (released in September 2012), interviews with
respected industry practitioners on various aspects of language and methodology,
fewer discussion forum tasks and less repetition.
■ ■ Refining activity design for live classroom sessions, with more streamlined
functionality.

■ ■ Improving functionality in the e-portfolio, a new CELTA5 progress record
document, launched in September 2012.
■ ■ Ironing out technical bugs.
Cambridge ESOL has noted an issue with the name of the course and in its recent
CELTA Online Special Edition, under the heading ‘Messaging to improve quality
of enquiries’, announced the following change to its promotion of the course to
prospective trainees: ‘All the new marketing material emphasises that Cambridge
CELTA Course Online is a blended learning course, combining collaborative online
study and face-to-face teaching practice. This will help reduce the number of
enquiries from potential trainees who only want to study on a 100 per cent online
course, as well as help further position Cambridge CELTA Course Online as a flexible
route to gain a high-quality teaching qualification.’ (Cambridge ESOL Teaching
Qualifications, 2012b). However, the use of the word ‘online’ rather than ‘blended’ in
the course title has been vindicated in the sense that it has been seen that trainees
do need to be independent and effective time managers.
As additional courses are run at IH London and other centres the programme will
continue to evolve and at regular intervals the course materials will be upgraded
based on user feedback.

References
Bersin, J (2004) The Blended Learning Book: Best Practices, Proven Methodologies,
and Lessons Learned. San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons.
Bonk, C and Graham, C (2006) The Handbook of Blended Learning: Global
Perspectives, Local Designs. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Cambridge ESOL Teaching Qualifications (2012a) A flexible new route to CELTA.
Available online at www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-qualifications/celta/ways-
to-take-celta/
Cambridge ESOL Teaching Qualifications (2012b) Special Edition Teaching
Qualifications Bulletin: Cambridge CELTA Course Online. Issue 11. Cambridge:
Cambridge ESOL.

Garrison, DR and Vaughan, ND (2011) Blended Learning in Higher Education:
Framework, Principles, and Guidelines. San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons.

Glazer, F (ed) (2012) Blended Learning: Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy.
Sterling: Stylus Publishing.

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