Is this course value for money?

What exactly am I paying for?

I have felt VERY frustrated since beginning the course and also at times that I have been 'ripped off'.

In that I am paying money I can not afford at the moment as I am off work due to an operation and as it has a long recovery period I am likely to be not working and on benefits for some time.
And ..

I have felt that I am not getting value for my money in that on this course there are no lectures, no personal tutorials or even group ones and so I expected a sort of mentoring relationship with someone i.e. my LF or to be allocated a separate work mentor – something to replace the input you would normally get on a degree course from teaching staff!!

I have had what I would call minimal input from my LF. When I have tried to speak to my LF about my feelings and concerns re this course on Skype, for instance, before I have even got started on two occasions my LF said they had to go to a meeting and rang off!!!!............. where is the in depth disscussions about my work I would expect to have with someone with a title of Learning Facilitator?????

Even the feedback on my first module – the module I sweated blood over – was not very helpful. I already know I am wordy and I have no interest in presenting my work in a different way – I have been there got the book, even written the book.....

What I want to do now is WRITE!!!

What would have been helpful to me in terms of feedback – and indeed I expected and did not get –

Would be an in depth discussion of the issues I explored, and further reading I could do on these, what in my module work was out of context or not relevant and could have been left out, i.e the personal stuff , when is personal experiences and attitude relevant or appropriate to include in an academic work and when not?. Is this a matter of wording - if we are to include personal experience should it be backed up and is so how? How my ideas fit in with any existing theoretical work, a look at where I could go from there in terms of academic threads to explore etc etc

I got NOTHING like this in my feedback

If the situation is that the existing LF do not have time to do this kind of individual, extensive and useful feedback then the UV should either:

1. Lower the fees to reflect the lack of UV input
2. Or employ at least 5 more LF to cover the work load

This situation is just not good enough for either researchers of Learning Facilitators

Surely the LF realise that the job they are able to do given the number of students they are allocated is inadequate –

Maybe they are and are taking action to bring this to the attention f their employees – if not they should be !!!

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Apart from a couple of Skype calls hastily cut off by my LF - I have hardly had any contact otherwise. When I have had email dialogue with both my own LF and other LF all I have received is short text like emails.

For someone like me who likes to converse in a very ‘non text’ way with all aspects discussed of an issues - I have found these short text type emails almost cryptic in nature. They leave me having to guess what the person really means, what was the purpose of what they said, what did they ‘really’ mean?? I just do not communicate like that!!!

Also when I ask questions in other areas the answers either do not happen or are rudimentary.

I do not need to be spoon fed and I can do the work required more than adequately. I also understand the concept of peer learning and collaboration well and understand that in the absence of any taught input and any tutorials or mentoring on this course all these are replaced by peer input and communication. And I can do this and can cope with a course that is run in this way.

However if I am not to get any taught input or instead of this extensive one to one work based mentoring or tutorial – then I do not want to pay for something I am not receiving!

I know that this course at the moment is cheaper than most other degree courses but it needs to be because online provision costs the provider at least half what educational provision cost to provide in a venue.

And the value for the money I am getting in terms of teaching/lecturing input is in my opinion - nil. As we are having to find out absolutely everything for ourselves using our own research, peer learning and collaboration with just a few hints from LF and module guidelines, and a few personal emails and Skype calls that have no substance.

I would be a lot happier on this course if we just had a booklist, a set of aims and objectives to fulfil for each piece of work, a few ‘lecture’ notes on each learning area and access to the First Class and Plone communities....

but no Learning Facilitators and no expectation that their would be any help from that direction

- and the fees cut in about in half because we are not getting the input from lecturing/teaching staff that would be expected on any other degree course.!!!

Then I would be perfectly happy with the course

Or the other way forward is more Learning Facilitators so everyone can get value for money
Or another tier of people employed to be personal learning mentors - I am happy to volunteer for this role if anyone would pay me, in fact I think the job of LF would be nice too!!!