Problems with online education

[Pat Butler]

Talk about frustrating. I took McKissock's online course for relo appraisals. I've been doing them for 25 years and am a CRP. I missed way too many questions and actually called them up.

There are A LOT of mistakes in their exams. Some of their answers are just plain wrong- and other answers match their course material identically- yet you'll still be graded as if though you missed the question!

Worse yet, when you get the wrong answers on the chapter exams you'll get a dialog box that pops up that has a hyperlink back to the appropriate page that has the related content. All of those hyperlinks pointed to the SAME PAGE! Yep, page one of chapter one. So there was no easy way to filter through the 150+ pages of instruction.

So today I signed up for an AI online course. Problems again. I get to the end of the first chapter and the pop-up quiz won't work. I called up their tech support and the young guy there was very useless. He tells me to install Firefox, so I did that. He tells me to use another computer- so I tried it on 4 other computers that I own- different brands & different versions of software. Still won't work. He gives up right away and says that everything works on his end. Duh, he's working right from the server. This guy isn't even interested in the error messages that I get at the bottom of my browser. He just made up his mind that it must be my problem. Yeah right- all four of my computers have the same problem, including my brand new laptop.

This stuff is too critical for these bozos to not have their systems working correctly. The state needs to have a complaint line to have these providers checked out when they're doing such a poor job.

 

[OSU Beavers]

I completed three online courses with McKissock, no problems. USPAP update actually forced you to cover EVERYTHING not just gloss over the material like a live class. Appraiser liability was good. Information technology and the appraiser was about 5 years outdated, but gave a nice history of computing and the internet.

 

[Pat Butler]

It appears that their course offerings are rather uneven in quality depending on who the course designer is.

 

[Delta85]

I've used McKissock before. The courses were pretty good but I agree with the first poster who complained about being directed to the first page of the chapter when failing the pop quiz rather than being directed back to the page with the actual information in question. Other than that the process went fairly smoothly.

 

[Fred]

There are A LOT of mistakes in their exams. Some of their answers are just plain wrong- and other answers match their course material identically- yet you'll still be graded as if though you missed the question!

I have had the same problem with live education.

 

[Don Clark]

This stuff is too critical for these bozos to not have their systems working correctly. The state needs to have a complaint line to have these providers checked out when they're doing such a poor job.

[/quote]

I would assume you can file a complaint with any state in which the course has been approved

As Abe Lincoln said..."The Lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. The way I see it, those who self teach themselves have a similar problem.:blush:

 

[Pat Butler]

As Abe Lincoln said..."The Lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. The way I see it, those who self teach themselves have a similar problem.

Oh give me a break. I've been appraising for 25 years and have taken so many courses that there's not much left take for CE. And the CE is so bad that I might as well not waste my time attending a classroom course if I'm not going to learn anything from it anyway.

In case you didn't notice, distance education is expanding very rapidly, including college degree courses. I suppose those people are all fools too.

 

[Don Clark]

As Abe Lincoln said..."The Lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. The way I see it, those who self teach themselves have a similar problem.

Oh give me a break. I've been appraising for 25 years and have taken so many courses that there's not much left take for CE. And the CE is so bad that I might as well not waste my time attending a classroom course if I'm not going to learn anything from it anyway.

In case you didn't notice, distance education is expanding very rapidly, including college degree courses. I suppose those people are all fools too.

Whether they are fools or night really depends. It says more about the lack of quality of our educational system than anything else. We are raising a bunch of dumbed down people in this country. Reminds me of the college degree courses that use to be advertised on match book covers(pre-politically correct era). They advertised earning a degree, among other things, by taking a correspondence course. Your online must not be so great judging by your comments about it. At least in a live presentation you can ask and discuss issues.

 

[Vegan702]

. At least in a live presentation you can ask and discuss issues.

As you can in online courses also. Sounds like there are some bad hyperlinks in this particular course Pat took. I have taken about 4 classes from McKissok with no problems. When I missed a question it took me back to the page where the answer was.

As for the quality of instruction between live and online, I would like to see some evidence of one being better then the other. There are obviously some classes that cannot be taught online, but a majority of classes can be taught online and probably more efficiently. For me I learn better on my own then sitting in a class listening to someone lecture. I can read the book and learn more then listening to some old guy up front flapping his gums. Then you will get some idiot in the class who asks a stupid question and I have to listen to endless minutes of nonsense that has nothing to do with the class. At least with online education when I have a question, I can email or call the instructor and get the answer to my question without having to listen to someone's story about my question. Or in some classes you still meet weekly online in a group forum/chat and discuss that weeks assignments.

 

[Fred]

At least in a live presentation you can ask and discuss issues.

I can ask and discuss issues any time. Don't need a class for that.