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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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 Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 9:57 am Post subject: |
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| Molson wrote: |
| University of Toronto's OISE has an online M.Ed program I think currently they have two streams: Curriculum & Something else and Teaching English as a Second Language (which is probably what you are interested in) |
| jdl wrote: |
| A Masters in Education from OISE is like having a law degree from Harvard. Good choice! |
The online program is in Second Language Education.
LINK TO THE PROGRAM BROCHURE
| UofT's brochure for the program wrote: |
Applicants are accepted with a four-year bachelor�s
degree or its equivalent from a recognized university,
completed with an academic standing equivalent to
a University of Toronto mid-B or better in the final
year.
Ordinarily, applicants must have an initial teacher
certification (e.g., Bachelor of Education or TESL
Certificate) and at least one year of relevant profes-
sional experience. |
Issues:
1. By "TESL Certificate" they are referring to the type of TESL Certificate offered through Woodsworth College of UofT. They take a full-time year to complete. They are the same amount of study as a masters degree (including a M.Ed) from other countries. So the prerequesite for their three year part-time masters degree in Second Language Education is the equivalent of a masters degree in Applied Linguistics or TESOL from Australia, the UK, the US etc. Sounds bad, but that's the normal situation in Ontario at other universities (for example, Brock and Carleton). Usually, the idea is that the people will do the masters degree at the same institution as the certificate (the universities teach you to teach in the way that classes are taught at that university, so there's a chance that by doing both levels at the same institution, and doing your practicum partially at the university language centre itself, you can get a job teaching at that university).
However,
2. If you DON'T have one of those, then you need an initial teacher qualification. You can be accepted with either the equivalent to a masters degree in TESOL or if you are a primary/junior teacher or a math teacher. So the kind of thing you learn in their TESL certificate program (universities in Ontario are in the structuralist tradition in language teaching) isn't required. And why is that?
| the brochure wrote: |
Graduation from the MEd requires completion of 10 half-courses.
Drawing from the expertise of world-renown researchers, students in the cohort will study:
� Second languages teaching methodologies
� Planning and organizing the second language curriculum
� Current issues in second language education
� Second language assessment
� Second language learning
� Foundations of bilingual and multicultural education
� Discourse analysis
� Practicum in second language education
� Two optional courses related to online teaching or other
educational interests
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It's because it largely duplicates what is studied in the university TESL Certificates that can be the prerequisites. At other universities in the province, the masters degree builds up from the certificate. That is not the case here, where UofT's certificate program is housed in Woodsworth College and the MEd is housed in the Faculty of Education, whereas at other universities both programs are housed in the same place.
I think in all likelihood it's a great program, but I doubt that it's a better program than any other, and UofT OISE is obviously trying to cash in on their name- except that nobody's heard of them outside of Canada (I think the only Canadian university I've ever seen marketed in Japan is McGill- and then it's for an MBA program. The can't even be bothered to show up to the JET returners conference where there is always a room devoted to universities promoting their TESL / Applied Linguistics programs. I walked out of there with brochures and having talked to representatives for graudate studies in language teaching areas from universities in the UK [universities from England, Scotland and Wales], the US, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia. I had also spoken to the guy from McGill who was unaware if McGill even had a masters degree in language teaching [they do, and I knew that going up to him]). So in the end, if you are starting out, what you're left with is still studying for a year full-time, and then three years part-time in order to get the same qualification that you could get for studying for a single year full-time elsewhere.
Also, UofT was apparently in the news earlier this year for deciding (I don't know if they went through with it or not, though) to go to a program tuition style of fee: instead of paying by the individual course (North America) / unit (Australia) / module (UK) (like pretty much everywhere else), you pay for a year of learning at UofT. So studying part time at UofT could well turn out to be very, VERY expensive. |
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Molson
Joined: 01 May 2009
Posts: 137
Location: China
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| Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:34 pm Post subject: |
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The Key word there is ORDINARILY.
Make no mistake, OISE is a cash cow for UofT. You are paying for the name if you do decide to do the program. And yes, people outside of Canada know of UofT, especially in Asia.
Anyways, I just pointed out it is an option for doing it online.
The University of Calgary also has an online M.Ed program (bit more $$$ than UofT)
About that full year pricing, I believe that is for undergrad programs. Also they consider 3+ credits to be a full-time student, so if you are doing 2.5 credits or less a year (fall/winter) then you pay per credit.
I think Brock is also going to move towards doing that. The reasoning is they accept students expecting they will take a full-time load and thus budget accordingly. In today's economy, universities are all about cutting budgets. |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 3:51 am Post subject: |
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| Molson wrote: |
| The Key word there is ORDINARILY. |
Which means 99.9999999999% of the time at UofT. That's where I did my undergraduate degree.
| Quote: |
Make no mistake, OISE is a cash cow for UofT. You are paying for the name if you do decide to do the program. And yes, people outside of Canada know of UofT, especially in Asia. |
Odd. I've been in Japan for 7 years and have never met anyone who's heard of it. I have relatives in the north-east of the US (as in really quite near to Toronto) and they'd never heard of it either. I taught ESL in both Toronto and Ottawa and none of my students could recall having ever heard of any Canadian universities before investigating them themselves.
It could be that people in China have heard of it because of the amount of emigration from China to Toronto. And the tiny amount of emigration from Japan to Toronto could also explain why nobody in Japan has heard of it.
Either way, that's a reliance on word of mouth. If you are a teacher in China, it may be better than other programs. If you are in Japan, then it wouldn't really matter.
| Quote: |
The University of Calgary also has an online M.Ed program (bit more $$$ than UofT) |
But how can you tell? UofT doesn't seem to be publishing how much it actually costs to do their program.
| Quote: |
About that full year pricing, I believe that is for undergrad programs. Also they consider 3+ credits to be a full-time student, so if you are doing 2.5 credits or less a year (fall/winter) then you pay per credit. |
They consider 3.5 credits to be full time. 3 credits is part- time. As I said, I'm not sure how the full-year pricing works. They call it 'program fees', and apparently some programs have part-time options (meaning up to 3 credits, so you would be paying for 3 credits). News to me that it's undergrad only. Everything I've seen is that it's across the board.
| Quote: |
| In today's economy, universities are all about cutting budgets. |
They're all about increasing bottom line for the university (the corporation). Part of that is cutting budgets. But it's only part. It's usually also increasing fees (sometimes in hidden ways, like in using 'program fees'), incidental fees and attracting high paying students (as in foreign students).
Anyway, like I said, I'm sure it's a great program, but the system at other universities where they run both the certificate and the masters level through the same department and faculty seems to make more sense to me. What would make even more sense to me would be to get rid of the one-year certificate altogether. They don't have them in other provinces (and therefore Calgary's M.Ed is actually a considerably cheaper option because it doesn't mean 1. losing a year of work to do the certificate/ B.Ed [neither the TESL certificates nor a B.Ed can be done by distance] and 2. the cost of the certificate itself before even starting the M.Ed). and in other Commonwealth countries, a certificate is an alternative exit for part-way through the masters degree.
As I mentioned these certificates require the same amount as the full masters in other countries. You could get a masters degree from Australia for less then $25,000. But you wouldn't have to leave work for a year (so you save that amount). You would have to leave work for a year to go to Ontario to get the certificate or B.Ed, losing 30,000 or whatever you get paid per year, plus paying for tuition etc. And then AFTER that, you can START paying for the M.Ed by distance at UofT. That's the way they should be looking at it, because that's the way anybody who's starting out will be looking at it. What they do is cut the pool of applicants to ONLY those Ontarians who already have a B.Ed or TESL certificate, want a graduate degree in SLE, AND want to do it by distance. Compared with the target of 'English teachers teaching all around the world from any country, who want to do it off-campus or who want to come to Australia / UK' then OISE is targeting a tiny, TINY market. |
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Molson
Joined: 01 May 2009
Posts: 137
Location: China
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| Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 10:17 am Post subject: |
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Just to respond on the pricing:
I emailed both the UofT and UofCalgary to get the skinny on it.
UofCalgary has a higher fee if you are doing it outside of Canada, even if you are Canadian. Sort of a BS thing to do IMO. |
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