[merlot]

I would not advise taking the Oxford Seminars course.

I took it in Pittsburgh, PA, and everyone in class had the same complaint: the instructor was very nice, but we learned nothing. We spent most of the time listening to the instructor's stories about her family, while basic questions like, "What's a lesson plan?" were given vague replies.

Also, the Oxford course materials use dumbed-down language in them. After any type of ESL course, including an introductory cram course like the Oxford Seminars course, would-be teachers should leave the course knowing basic terms like "multi-level classrooms", "informal assessments", "teachable moments", etc. I left this course with no more knowledge of the vocabulary of the field, lesson planning, language acquisition theory, etc, than I had before I started.

I do know that not all the teachers are the same, though. If you know someone who had a good instructor, see if you can request that person.