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Review summary
Open Colleges has mixed reviews from customers. Customers particularly appreciate service and professional, though some mention concerns about communication and customer service.
I completed my Certificate in Nail Technology and had a mixed experience.
The staff are AMAZING and always offer great support. Ellena, the course instructor offers excellent insight and advice around the realities of being a working Nail Technician.
My issues are with the platform itself and the out of date education being provided (which is NOT the fault of Open Colleges) and the lack of emphasis of WHERE nail products are manufactured for higher safety.
For example:
1. Having to upload a 8-10 minute recording, in mp4 format, that is under 470mb is ridiculous. (It says 500mb
but anything over 470-480 won’t work)
2. The overwhelming typos and confusing sentence structure is absolutely unprofessional to say the least
3. The constant going on about nail polish when MOST NAIL TECHS DO NOT USE this is out of date (again not the fault of OC)
4. The lack of actual education around Nail Art is disappointing given the reality of today’s working Nail Tech and what we are expected to be able to do/create
Overall, the staff are fantastic but the platform itself? Definitely needs to be improved.
the reading materials were often set for the American context rather than Australian and often full of typos. Navigating around the modules when doing assignments was clunky. Assessment tasks included menial activities that were time consuming but not a reasonable test of skill or knowledge (eg 'write an email to explain your findings'). Requirement for role plays wih multiple actors was a burden on family.
One of the great services of Open Colleges was having quick access to a teacher and get feedback within an hour. The times when the teacher was away they would contact me via email or phone when back at work. This service made learning blockages minimal and thus made studying easy and enjoyable.
The mini video lectures, quizes and written material was straightforward to understand and the assignments were all applicable to practical accounting work.
A few months after finishing my Certificate IV in Accounting and Bookkeeping I obtained a full-time accounting job. A big reason for this was the quality of the course from Open Colleges was of a high standard and the assistance from teachers was excellent. Highly recommend Open Colleges
Certificate III in Nail Technology course experience
I almost done my Certificate III in Nail Technology course. Happy with open college and appreciated the course and im really happy and thankful my trainer -Ellena. She is very patience and guidance and helpful and response my every emails very quick. I truly appreciate everything she have done to help me get thru my cause.
Overall, this online building and construction diploma program is good for people who already have tremendous practical experience; such knowledge is required to understand the program contents well and tackle the assessments. You are totally by yourself; there is little support available throughout the study period.
The course contents should be regularly updated, including hyperlinks with course modules. For each module, there should be live lectures to facilitate a better understanding of the course topics and that students can ask questions. The recorded lectures should then be placed online. Regular tutorials should be held so students can seek help on specific topics and learn from the discussion of other students.
In many cases, the assessment questions are wordy, vague. The assessment should be revised.
Open Colleges has been amazing. Yes it’s an adjustment learning online, but there is support if you just ask.
I find the team on the phone could have a little more training on general information that you advertise on your website - with that said they are so friendly and will get back to you.
Placement support from Hayden was incredible, I’m very thankful for his dedication and follow through.
The trainers, especially Alex and Kelly are brilliant, great constructive feedback and willing to go the extra mile for students.
My overall experience was good. I loved how this course allowed you to go at your own pace. The information was easily accessible to you at any time and it was relevant to the work. My problems are with the site itself, how it was a bit glitchy at times. The staff were friendly and helpful most of the time.
I believe that the assessments where complicated to understand with a lot of information to read before understanding what was asking.
A lot of the questions where very broad and not specific
Assessments are just given without any guidance and just expected to understand.
Inconsistency with assessments - some has quizzes others didn’t, some units just had written assessments while others had video evidence included
Provided course material was very helpful and detailed.
When I reached out to the assessor I got great responses and feedback to to questions
Great Choice!
So glad I decided to do this course. It was a great stepping stone into the world of travel.
The tutor Tanya Gayle was engaging, supportive and knowledgeable on all topics. The content right up the end was constructive.
Overall, a very pleasurable experience.
Thank you OC.
Excellent platform, the best part where the student support and the instructors. friendly and helpful. They guided me and gave me all the options to be able to finish the course successfully.
One advice follow the study schedule because it requires time and you don't want to run out of time and need an extension (But if you need the team is helpful and will guide you through it).
Only study with Open Colleges if you want to become depressed.
The Pro's
- Assessors/tutors seem nice.
- Nice Layout to the website.
The Cons
- So much information is incorrect or out of date, with much of the information at least 5 years old.
- Many of the external links, including extra-curricular material they tell you to read, no longer work
- Some extra curricular material they ask you to read does not seem appropriate to this level of course, but more suitable to a degree (that is a personal view).
- Many grammatical and spelling errors throughout the course, including assignments, which are also worded poorly and can be hard to understand. Some assignment questions do not seem appropriate to the case study in question which makes answering them very confusing.
- The way the learning material is laid out does not flow and is confusing to follow along with.
- There is no proper forum in which to touch base with other students, which I was told there was when I signed up.
- Their admin team is poor. Multiple mistakes throughout my time with them including: telling me my course was ending a year before it should have due to them listing me as doing a different course; I fell very ill during my course and they made me go back to my doctor repeatedly because they were not happy with the doctors certificate - in the end my doctor had to call them to sort it out! and; I was also repeatedly told I could not extend my course when I in fact could which caused me intense mental anguish, as trying to fix their errors is incredibly difficult.
- Due to Covid limitations I've been having difficulty securing a work placement for the past year (I'm in Melbourne) and getting Open Colleges to help is really hard, they just throw barriers at you. They need you to provide proof of the places you have approached for work placement before they will help you, but its hard to provide proof when everything has been done over the phone! Basically, if you can't get a work placement for yourself you fail. A couple of potential work placements I contacted seemed to reject me after I told them I was studying with Open Colleges, and I don't understand why. I've almost ran out of extensions and have been told I can't apply for anymore.
- When I signed up I was told it was virtually impossible to fail this course and that they would do everything they could to help you. That is not true.
- This course has caused me to become incredibly depressed, which is insane as I did this course to HELP people with mental health issues (Mental Health Cert 4)
- I tried to give them 2 stars but I just can't. The pretty website and nice assessors just arn't enough, sorry.
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