The technological revolution of the twenty-first century has brought about profound changes to every aspect of our day to day lives, and education has not been spared. Online yoga teacher courses vary widely in their formality, accreditation and cost, but one thing is certain: They can be a huge help in these tough economic times. Online courses can provide convenience, individualized pacing and often a reduced cost that is simply unparalleled by any brick and mortar options. Even the less obvious benefits do have an economic effect. A complete lack of commute and the ability to take yoga courses on your own schedule, making it much easier to work, are a huge boon.
There are many different kinds of online courses that can meet different individual needs. At the barest level, there are lectures posted with no other component online yoga teacher training
. These are sometimes free and are excellent for personal enrichment or as an introduction to a topic, but they provide no accreditation of any kind. They are also likely not ideal to learn a skill in-depth, as there are no practice exercises or measures for progress. Inspired by the open-source movement, some big name universities, such as MIT, do release course materials in addition to lectures. At this stage, these are still largely in this category. As exciting as this development may be, these materials often don’t contain the tools for learning with the reward of a credential, and they certainly don’t provide accreditation.
There are courses available that feature no formal accreditation from recognized academic institutions, but nonetheless do provide a certificate of completion. These are sometimes free and contain many practice exercises and opportunities to expand the concept. These are great for learning marketable skills, though the completion of the course itself is not guaranteed to be marketable.
Another type of online course is a natural evolution of Yoga correspondence learning. These typically do cost money, though at a reduced rate, and are accredited by official Yoga institutions. They are offered by yoga schools that deal only online and by brick and mortar schools who are expanding their reach. These courses provide all the advantages of any other yoga course with a real resume building credential at a reduced cost and can fit into your schedule. There are a variety of different ways to enroll in a Yoga teacher training program, even if you are on a tight budget. One of the ways is to study under the auspices of an online Yoga teacher training program. Another way to save money is to cut down on travel expenses and the cost of accommodations, by studying for your certification at a local Yoga studio.
You may even be able to offer to do some work exchange for the studio in order to lower the overall cost of the teacher training program. Additionally, there are a number of partial and full scholarships available to aspiring Yoga instructors through educational institutions and different Yoga-related websites.
Online Yoga teacher training programs offer Yoga students a great depth of information and knowledge about the art of teaching Yoga. A good online program will cover the basic elements of teaching a safe and effective Yoga class, including information about asana sequencing, postural alignment, and modifications.
In a good online Yoga instructor course, you will also receive an in-depth education in the philosophical foundation of the practice of Yogic techniques. The cost of an online program is by far thousands of dollars less than a traditional studio-based program.
Studying for your Yoga certification at a local studio or health club will cut down tremendously on the expense of traveling to a training course and paying for room and board while you are in the program. If you enroll in a local training program, you might save up to $2, 000 in expenses over the course of the program.
However, it is wise to evaluate the caliber of the different Yoga instructor training programs. If the local program is only bare bones and does not include several of the components of a month-long residential program, you may want to consider spending the extra money for the residential program.
You may also be able to pursue a partial or full scholarship through a holistic educational institution. Sometimes these institutions have endowments for their teacher training programs and sometimes offer scholarships to aspiring Yoga teachers. There are both full and partial scholarships available to attend these programs, although it is much more probable that you will be offered a partial scholarship based on your financial need.