New Zealand Certificate in English Language (Academic) (Level 4) (Offshore) (Online)

Course details

Before you start

Technology requirements

All students will need to join lessons each day using Zoom. If you do not already have the Zoom app on your device, you can download it here. It is recommended that you use either a laptop or PC with a 13” screen (or larger). You can use tablet devices for the lessons, but mobile phones are not recommended. Your device needs to have a video camera, a microphone, and headphones so that you can communicate with your teacher and the other students during the lessons. It would be best to make sure that any portable devices are fully charged, as there will be four hours of online teaching and learning each day.

Moodle

All online NZCEL courses use Moodle for lesson materials, student information, discussions, assessments, and other important information. Your teacher will enrol you in your Moodle course as soon as your enrolment is completed.

Preparing for study

Each online NZCEL course is 18 weeks long, with a two-week study break in the middle. Before your course starts, we recommend that you have access to a dictionary (you may use electronic dictionaries in class but not for assessments). Make sure that you keep all your lesson notes organised, and you know where to find them.

You will be studying Monday to Friday, so it is important that your study area is somewhere quiet and comfortable. Think about where you can study best and spend a few hours in that space before the first class to make sure that it is suitable.

Study hours

Each NZCEL programme requires 600 hours of study in total. Online NZCEL programmes have 20 hours of face-to-face study every week for 18 weeks (320 hours total). In addition, you are expected to do a further 17.5 hours of independent study every week (280 hours total). It is important that you complete all the independent study hours to have a good chance of success in your programme.

Class times

Online classes are five days a week, every week, from Monday to Friday. The morning classes (1pm-3pm NZST) focus on reading and writing skills, and the afternoon classes (4pm-6pm NZST) focus on listening and speaking skills. It is important that you are on time for each class, as it is difficult for teachers to admit a student into class on Zoom after the lesson has already started.

Attendance

Attendance of all students is checked daily on an hourly basis. Wintec requires regular attendance. Students who do not attend class regularly will be interviewed by the Team Manager to understand why they are absent and may be given a warning letter. Students who arrive late to class will be marked absent for that hour.  

Absences

It would be best if you informed your teacher in advance of any planned absence from class. If you are away sick for a day, you should ask for a medical certificate from your doctor and give it to your teacher when you return to class. Any unexplained absences will be marked as ‘absent without reason'. 

Assessment

Assessments used in the online programme include assignments (completed by students outside of class), tests (completed in class under supervised test conditions), oral presentations (a presentation done live on Zoom in front of the teacher and other students), and/or research reports (longer pieces of writing completed over a few weeks). You will have a resit or resubmission opportunity for each assessment that you do not achieve at the first attempt. Some assessments will take place during the programme. There will be final tests and resits in the final week of the programme (week 18).