Hi Ava
As I said to Rustic distant learning has its place in education. Also if you read my words carefully I state that a student should think twice about spending money on a course whether distant learning or not.
As for face-to-face courses, of course there is unfortunately some poor ones exist and fortunately good DL courses exist as well, but the issue here is the poor standards of a particular type of DL course provider/s that exploits the aspirations of well meaning people believing that it will provide them a new career in CAM therapies.
As for the pass mark, you cannot judge a course on that. Marking criteria is a complicated process. As a very, very, very simplistic example: 40% at HE level is still higher than 60% at FE level. So as someone working in education, you should know that.
Best Wishes
RP
Reiki Pixie :wave:
You are not only taking the p*** out of distance learning courses, IMO your post of 9.51 yesterday was professionally disrespectful.
Cheaper to do a state funded FE courses - who says? You don't know what it will cost me in terms of travel, accommodation, loss of earnings, childcare etc etc. As for Tai Chi, come off it, it isn’t rocket science or brain surgery. Someone who has attended a Tai Chi class for a long time may be perfectly capable of taking a course online, and then further developing the practical skills (possibly with support from a tai chi instructor). They may not have the same expertise as you have, 🙂 but thats the same in most walks of life. If they are not at least competent at what they do, the market decides, just as it would for someone who trained in a way that you agree with. That is the commercial reality for all of us, however we have trained. And TBH it doesn’t matter how good we are if we can't market ourselves properly, or financially control our business.
As for other courses – I’ve had treatments from attendance based qualification therapists that I’ve had good service from, but also treatments from attendance based qualification therapists that I wouldn’t go near a second time. (Perhaps I should have recorded them for Bannick ;)...) I’ve also had excellent reflexologyfrom a distance learning school graduate.
For several reasons, one of which is because of what can count as CPD, I don't actually care if "the industry" recognises my qualifications or not. I would only be forced to tick the industry's boxes if I wanted to work somewhere that insisted on it, which I suggest the OP checks if intending to apply for a job either now or in the future rather than be self employed.
As I'm self employed, what I must be able to get is insurance. To the paying customer, if I am good at what I do it doesn’t matter where I qualified. If I am useless at what I do it doesn’t matter where I qualified. The “I’m better qualified than you are” or “distance learning is rubbish” mentality is what a friend of mine calls “professional posturing”. 😀
Me - I'm off to write another online course. My Oriental Toe Hair Plucking course is a sellout. 😀 Time to write the advanced. :hidesbehindsofa:
Rustic:)
Do all the distance learning courses you like. Then try and get good insurance with reasonable premiums and membership to a reputable organisation or professional association. For sports therapies and sports massage especially the moment you mention Stonebridge or BSY you will fall flat on your face.
I read the posts from people who seem dellusional about these courses. All I can say is that if you are practicing with these qualifications and someone gets hurt then I believe you will come unstuck in a big way.
Hi Rustic
As a professional teacher/practitioner I will maintain my posture, thank you 😉
I'm very aware of market realities, and how clients vote with their feet. That isn't my point. I wish to highlight that many of these BSY, Stonebridge & SNHS courses are not worth the paper they are written on. There has been many threads on Hp over the years with unhappy people complaining about them as AspireST has just said.
As for one DL reflex graduate given a decent treatment and a college-based graduate not doesn't mean that much, because 10% of DL grads be able to pull it off, and 90% of CB grads definitely can pull it off. No system of education is going to be 100%, and as I already said to you that DL has its place in education.
This isn't professional snobbery, it's highlighting the potential pitfulls of DL.
As for Tai Chi, it is a very complicated art, in fact a lifetimes endeavour. Most instructors including myself are trained through informal apprenticeships, then I did the C&G Teachers' Certificate. A more realistic way of training. In a more ideal world I think a lot of therapies would benefit from an apprentice style training, but that's not the way of the world at the moment.
But I will conceed on one thing. A couple of ITEC Reiki students of mine went and did a VTCT level 3 crystal healing course. I looked at their course folders and it wasn't that brilliant, they would of learned more from a DL course. After all crystal healing isn't rock-et science, lol 😉 Sorry had to squeeze that pun in!
Best Wishes
RP
Also if you read my words carefully I state that a student should think twice about spending money on a course whether distant learning or not.
I did read your words carefully and noticed that you conflated CAM courses with chasing chickens. So, it is difficult to take your 'serious' points seriously when your post is laced with such unnecessary cynicism. I don't know when points are being made sincerely, or sarcastically. To help the reader you need to take care that your tone is clear when you are moving from cynicism to sincerity.
but the issue here is the poor standards of a particular type of DL course provider/s that exploits the aspirations of well meaning people believing that it will provide them a new career in CAM therapies.
I credit you (no sarcasm on my part) with this concession that not ALL online distance learning courses/programmes/providers are rubbish. At least this is progress on your original standpoint.
As for the pass mark, you cannot judge a course on that. Marking criteria is a complicated process.
In my post I was commenting on the difficulty: a 40% pass mark AND the questions were so easy I need not have bothered doing any study. Compared with 80% pass mark AND the requirement for lots of additional reading to be able to answer the questions.
As a very, very, very simplistic example: 40% at HE level is still higher than 60% at FE level. So as someone working in education, you should know that.
CAM colleges are not HE ("Higher Education" - University) but FE ("Further Education" - Colleges and vocational training). Hence, using your own example: a 40% pass mark in FE is going to be even lower than a 40% pass mark in HE. But, neither of my courses are HE, so I'm not clear what the purpose of your comparison was?
I don't want to get in a protracted debate about this. It is clear that you have a poor opinion of online distance learning courses, to which you are entitled. I would politely ask you to be more careful in future to not make wantonly inflammatory and vitriolic posts out of respect to fellow readers and the OP. If you feel that you have more to say on the subject then I'll request to the moderators that you start a parallel thread on why you think online distance learning courses are crap. I don't feel that it is fair to Debo76 to have that debate here.
Ava x