The open college - distant learning

white orchid

Hi has anyone studied with the open college dublin? I'm looking at doing the fetac level 5 in nutrition. Do they have a good rep?

Coriolanus

All from this thread.

Cat Melodeon wrote: »

Be very careful that you know what you are signing up for. I had a look at some of the courses such as the FETAC Certificate in Communications (http://theopencollege.com/fetac-certificate-in-communications.html) and realised that it is only ONE component of a full certificate - you need EIGHT components to make up a certificate, so the end cost to you of getting a full award could be €499 x 8, ie almost €4,000.

You can do a full FETAC certificate in any VEC for as little as €250 and most offer part-time evening courses as well as full time ones.

This 'opencollege' is an absolute rip-off as far as I can determine. Don't sign up unless you are happy throwing money away. €4 grand would get you well on your way to a proper qualification with a reputable distance-learning organisation like the Open University (http://www.open.ac.uk).

Tommy-Kerry wrote: »

Hey!

I have recently completed the Fetac Level 5 course by distance learning with the open college. As stated above most courses ARE in fact only component certificates. To gain a FULL FETAC AWARD YOUY MUST HAVE 8 SPECIFIC COMPONENT CERTIFICATES TO FULL-FIIL THE FULL AWARD REQUIREMENTS as seen on www.fetac.ie. However the open college does do 2 Full Fetac Awards, you know these as they as clearly stated in the title Full Fetac Award and costs about €1100.

How did I find the Open College?

I guess I was not very happy with it, this was because when i booked my course it was supposta be distance learning and the final exam was ment to be online however when I had the course nearly done and I wanted to book myself onto the online course they told me that tey had stopped doing the exam online and I had to travel to dublin. This was not good for me as i had to travel up from kerry and to make it worse the only time they held the exams was at 6.30 p.m. which ment i had to stay in dublin for the night so to complete the final exam you can add €250 onto the price of the course for the expences you will incur for spending the night in dublin, travel and food.

Another thing that was unsatisfactory was after submitting an assignment and even after the final exam they said they would contact you with the result and feedback within 10days. This was however a lie also.. After the two of my assignments and after the end final exam I was waiting about 30 days for my feedback/result and they was me keeping the pressure on them after 2 weeks had passed, if i didnt id be probly still waiting!

I did this course as i had 7 componant certificates and I needed one more to apply and get my full fetac award to apply for college through the cao. Other than this reason I wouldnt advise anyone to do it as its really expensive and not well run to be honest. Also at the end of the day i you do want to do a Fetac course do a FULL FETAC AWARD because you can gte employment from this and you can also use it to access higher education through the CAO but unless someone have the same reason to do it than I did I would say to them dont do a componant certificate, im my opinion this wont help you in any way. In order to qualify in anything you need a full fetac award and this will in turn increase your employment prospectus.

( Oh and if you do a course here dont send in a complaint like i did because i can assure you the reply you get wont be nice!! )


Need to know anything else post here or PM me if you wish

Thanks,

Tommy-Kerry

white orchid

Thanks guys. The 2 courses I'm interested in are FETAC Level 5 Certificate in Anatomy & Physiology (D20001) and FETAC Level 5 Nutrition (C20140) as far as I can see neither mention a component cert.. I'm going to look into a bit more before I commit to anything.
The nutrition course is more for personal use & the anatomy & physiology will hopefully give me the basics to help towards yoga teacher training next year.
Thanks for your advice it's much appreciated

white orchid

Thanks buster I emailed fetac & this was their response..
D20001 is a component or minor award. It can be put together with other components to make a major award. it usually takes a total of 8 components to achieve a major award.

You should check up the component and its related certificates (major awards) on our website at http://www.fetac.ie/fetac/awardsDirectory.do?method=getAwardsByField Enter the code D20001.

Thanks

smoochies10

To anyone interested or thinking about doing a distance learning course from The open college here is some advice....
DONT! It is the biggest waste of money and the most incompetent, inefficient and unprofessional operation I have ever had the inconvenience of being involved with.

I decided over a month ago to do a course and distant learning was my only option due to busy work commitments. I signed up to opencollege and paid in full straight away, hoping to start on the course that weekend.
I did not receive any email confirmation or any form of communication from them at all for a number of days until I had to specifically request it. I didnt think it was very professional as with anything you purchase online you receive proof of purchase/order number/SOMETHING.. and I would have expected the same having signed up for a course worth a couple hundred quid.

After I received my receipt of payment I had to follow up with another email asking when i was to expect my course notes etc or any information at all. The girl I was dealing with was so unhelpful, her title is 'college administrator' but in my experience appears not to have a clue. After she eventually sent me registration forms, etc I noticed there was an inconsistency with the requirements for the course that were listed on the website to those listed in the course outline emailed to me. I emailed back asking for clarification and mentioned getting a refund as I wouldnt be able to proceed with the course.

Again I never heard anything back.
I send a follow up email to the 'charming' college administrator who told me if I wanted a refund they would deduct 85euro off me.
FOR WHAT??!!!!! She said it was for the registration fees but as I still had the untouched registration forms sitting in my email inbox I thought that was a bit rich, especially considering the reason I couldnt proceed with the course was because of their website inaccuracies.

To make a long story short, it took about a week of irritatingly unhelpful back and forth emails to clarify that I would in fact be able to proceed with the course (I dont think requirements even matter here, they just want your money) and purely out of spite I was going to go ahead with it so they wouldnt swindle 85quid out of me for nothing.

Eventually I got sent part 1 and 2 of my notes in huge attachments via email (even though on application it says course materials will be sent out in the post. Yet another inconvenience!!) and I was told the assignments for the course were in the process of being updated and would follow on along with the rest of my course notes.

It has been 2 weeks and I still have not heard anything on the assignment front or received the rest of my course material. My first assignment according to my outline is meant to be due in a weeks time. This company is laughable!
I am beyond irritated that I have to chase these people up on every small thing, I cant even bring myself to email the "college adminstrator" chic cause she is pure useless. Even the tutor who is supposed provide constant support has not been in contact with me once despite my emailing.
Oh and to top it all off, the course notes which I do have are FULL of typos an incorrect spelling. It it just a total disaster and I wish someone else had given me this advice before I wasted 4 hundred quid. :mad:

Clancyman

In the interest of balance, Smoochies10, I don't often comment on these sites, but I thought I should. I have had the opposite experience of the Open College and such was the positive experience I'd like to offer my opinion here.

Let me straight away address the College Administrator comments, Michelle is one of the nicest and most helpful people I have come across. As I had on a number of occasions to contact her, as I had problems making an attendance course on time, and with sending in information for a distance learning course I subsequently did.

I find it hard to believe you had problems with the distance learning material, as my materials arrived by post after I had selected post as the preferred option, I had a choice of e-mail or post. I opted for post as my internet access is not great where I live.

The tutor was great as well, I think you have been very unfortunate with your experience, I have a friend who attended a course and she though it was great. As I said it was just to provide balance, something must have gone wrong for you which is a pitty, as I have said my experience was great.

smoochies10

That's terrific. I am glad to hear that you had such a positive experience. Unfortunately I have never dealt with Michelle, but I wish I had. She sounds like a dream in comparison to who I have been dealing with. Perhaps I should ring the college and request to speak to her. I suppose they have a number of college administrators and I just got unlucky with mine.

I chose the post option too yet the files were sent by email, which was more expense to print and bind. Even at that, I have only received a small portion of the material and have yet to receive the assignments, or receive contact from the tutor.

I do think communication by the college is massively important when taking a course via distant learning as that luxury of dropping in to have a chat with your lecturer/admin dept. isnt there. You do rely soley on their advice, support and efficiency in responsing to your queries.

Another thing is that the college gives you 12 weeks to complete the course which is a bit difficult to do when you are not provided with the course work/assignments on time. Im am of course concerned about week 12 arriving and I am told I am too late to pass; a situation that is at this point out of my control.

The Open College

Hi smoochies10,

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the poor experience you have had with our College.
The Open College endeavours to make your learning experience as easy and enjoyable as possible. However we acknowledge that sometimes this may not be the case as you have indicated.

We are a positive and forward looking private education college who prides itself on delivering a value for money, uncomplicated and quality learning experience for our students. We are the largest dedicated provider of FETAC awards in Ireland and we have many hundreds of students who certify every couple months so clearly your issues raised are not the norm.

I would like to immediately initiate an investigation into how the issues you raised were handled by our staff member. If you contact me as indicated below supplying details of yourself and the course in question, I will deal with this without delay. It is never our intention to annoy or irritate our learners. On the contrary.

I would like to answer some of your points and clarify the actual process which will hopefully clear up some areas.

- Receiving Confirmation - When someone enrols Online they are immediately brought to a “Confirmation Screen” on the website and an email is automatically sent to the email account you listed when enrolling.

- Website Inconsistencies – Our website information is updated on a weekly basis. Our individual course pages provide detailed information on the course and the requirements.

- Course Notes – As part of our on-going monitoring of Q&A procedures we have recently introduced a more rigorous content Q&A procedure which constantly aims to improve the presentation of our course material and to facilitate learner comprehension.

- Post, Email or Online – We do provide the option for students to choose which format they would like to receive their course - post, email or online and if you had selected Post and received by email then this was indeed an error on our part.

- Tutor response – We have a 24/48hr turnaround for tutor queries and this again is the norm. As pointed out by previous students and your second posting it is vital that learners have this connection with tutors. A whole new suite of Online tools is presently being which will enable learners to communicate better with each other, with tutors and the College.

- Study Timeframe – Just to confirm the 12 week study period does not commence until you return your Biography piece and we send out the course materials. 12 weeks is a sufficient time to complete a module. We can if you wish reset this due to the delays and experiences you had.

May I also take this opportunity to bring to your attention that in the Student Handbook which you received, on page 20 there are details on how to make a complaint and it most desirable that students use these procedures to ensure effective and prompt responses.

I would like to conclude by confirming that I would welcome speaking with you in person so a full investigation can be carried out when I know I can reassure you that the issues you have experienced are not the normal state of affairs with the College.

I can be contacted at the below at any time Monday – Friday.

Kind Regards, Joe Walsh
The Open College
01 2897564
jwalsh@theopencollege.com

Coriolanus

Nice to see a proactive response.

Tom Dunne

Clancyman wrote: »

In the interest of balance, Smoochies10, I don't often comment on these sites, but I thought I should. I have had the opposite experience of the Open College and such was the positive experience I'd like to offer my opinion here.

Let me straight away address the College Administrator comments, Michelle is one of the nicest and most helpful people I have come across. As I had on a number of occasions to contact her, as I had problems making an attendance course on time, and with sending in information for a distance learning course I subsequently did.

I find it hard to believe you had problems with the distance learning material, as my materials arrived by post after I had selected post as the preferred option, I had a choice of e-mail or post. I opted for post as my internet access is not great where I live.

The tutor was great as well, I think you have been very unfortunate with your experience, I have a friend who attended a course and she though it was great. As I said it was just to provide balance, something must have gone wrong for you which is a pitty, as I have said my experience was great.

In the interest of transparency, could you clarify your connection to the account "The Open College" for everyone?

Thanks.