learndirect.co.uk

Please rate this once you have read it

I enrolled on a course with Learn Direct last October, thinking as it was a free course it would be something that I could do at home on the days that I am able to do things.
From the start there has been one problem after another. For a start it is advertised that it is possible to learn easily with Learn Direct, but first you have to find out which colleges in your area are running the course you want, then you have to actually go down to the college to enroll (even though, this is supposed to be an online college), (I can't really complain about this first part as I had a sympathetic person at my local college who let me enrol over the phone as I was unable to go to the college myself, but that is where the helpfulness ends).

When you start your course, I was studying Intro to office 2000, you have to set up your passwords, which is easy enough to do. It is when you actually start on this particular course that the problems start.
The bookmarking system doesn't work, so the program online does not remember which section you last finished studying on, so you have to print the last page you worked on before logging out. Simple enough, but if you are only on benefits and you have to print a page out that comes out in full colour it can work out expensive with cartridges, having to replace them every week or so.

Then the post and pre assessment didn't work, this meant you could not test yourself prior to the section to see how much you knew already, (which if you are a novice to computers this is not a problem, but I do have some knowledge of computers, so I wanted to test how much I knew so saving time having to go over repetitive sections) and the post assessment was to test how much you had learned at the end of a section, then when the pre assessment did work on some sections the precision learning track didn't work, so you ended up completing either the full section or because the questions had been skipped in the preassessment it marked you as not knowing about a particular part, you had to complete a section, which if like me you do have knowledge of computers can get a little boring after awhile.

On numerous occasions I sent them e-mails this took them anything from 1 week to 4 weeks to actually reply to. I wouldn't have minded if they had sent an autoreply before just to acknowledge receipt of the e-mail but to hear nothing in that time is ridiculious.
I also phoned on a number of occasions to be told that the problems were being dealt with, but no-one could say when the problem was going to be rectified. When I eventually lost my temper I was told that they were hopefully going to deal with at the end of January, this then turned to February which again has turned to March and still the problems exist and all I have been told is that they do not know when it will be fixed.

Surely an organisation should not offer a service if they cannot deliver the goods. For a course that should have only taken 30 hours I have spent 5 months on average 2hours a day going over and over things until in the end I have written and told them that I no longer wish to carry on with the course.

I have been accepted on a course with the Open University and that starts online in May, but I have had more information from them in the space of a few weeks of enrolling (which you can do online) than I ever did with Learn Direct. They reply to e-mails promptly and always acknowledge them when they have recieved them first. You feel as if you are a person and not just a number.

Edited 21/6/01

Learn Direct called me the other week asking for someone else, turns out they had got peoples telephone numbers mixed up. The person that called phoned me twice asking for the same person, even though I had told him that he had the wrong number and explained that I had joined but left and told him why.

What more can I say. If they cannot get something simple like peoples telephone numbers correct then the courses themselves really don't stand a chance.!!!