Online Courses distance education from home

I wasted almost $2000 on a cert IV. The course content was rubbish and repetitive. The assignments were too hard to send and also so convoluted. I am a qualified teacher and this place is a farce. They have folded now so no wonder their courses and support is so bad. I want my money back I wish we could find some organisation who can fine this education network to compensate us for being misled. Its a disgrace. I wish I had gone with TAFE. Would have been much more legitimate.

- Took 2 weeks to get login sorted. Ended up having to permanently use a temp login after multiple phone calls through multiple departments
- At the beginning of course it told me (automated message) my course was nearly ended and I needed to hurry up (3 month course).
- Then later I got a welcome (automated message) to new course and 'please start working on it'.
- Red bar saying I had little time to complete in main screen from the beginning. Inaccurate number of days to complete it - I don't need the pressure, annoying.
- Unclear instructions on what units would be assessed in online exam. Looked like 2 different tests but actually one test for both units. Therefore not prepared for half the questions.
- Nearly impossible to find heald for disability provisions
- Not able to find out if fees could be waived for disability before enrolling Have to enrol first and then apply for provisions. Starting course may be a waste of time if unable to afford it due to disability and then turned down.
- Couldn't submit assignments online - it would say it was submitted but then the system wouldn't recognise it days later. Tried multiple times. Finally 3 days of emails and they said I could submit by email.
- A number of links to coursework do not work - one through a more obscure link did.
- Every question gets answered with a phone call. If I was available for this I would be doing face to face not online. They seem frustrated when having to respond by email when it's requested.
- I'm not finished the course so I doubt this is an exhaustive list.
- Fees for different levels of quals are inconsistent with number of subjects required. Eg double fee for diploma when it's only a few more subjects than cert IV. I think this is to rip off the govt fee-help system (which is now impossible for students who will enter low paying careers.)
- Not a good experience but I will pursue as they are the only provider of the qualifications I need for my new career.

I enrolled thought seek, the girl was quick to explain how easy the courses were and how helpful, I was billed immediately and by the time I received notification that I could withdraw with no penalty $6000 was on my tax. Quick to tell me if you don't complete you don't pay back until you earn over 53 thousand. Well, I had nothing but trouble accessing my account, I emailed and rang. But never got a response, I called seek to transfer to a certificate course, as I was running out of time. No reply, I rang and rang and finally giving up.
That was over a year ago and then this week, emails are coming through asking me how it's all going and my options to sign off on the course or if want to discontinue or extend my course only if I have completed over 50 percent. When I ring the reply number it's disconnected?
I have never failed at anything I have done so I'm very disappointed plus have $ 6000 grand hanging over my head. I would recommend - stay away from this product. It's a major rip off not only to us, but the government who allows them to get away with it. I wish there was some way of stopping them, allowing more to be ripped off.

I have studied with OTEN TAFE before and have found them great in the past. However, I am currently trying to enroll in a Diploma course and have found it to be very difficult. That's just to enroll. I well and truly hope that my application and payment details do not take three weeks to process, especially since I was mucked around by student services last Friday. Pick up your game OTEN.....you use to be a great education institution, but just lately I have noticed a significant change on how things are run - and not for the best either.

Not happy wanted to find out about a course had trouble enrolling and then a teacher enrolled me with out asking me had a family emergency and emailed saying didn’t want to enrol no one got back family emergency was dealt with and wanted to reenrol and no help

This is my third diploma in three years and by comparison to Monarch and AAMC I have to say OTEN TAFE of NSW is worse than terrible!

Expect enrollment to be a mess it took weeks as I've seen on other reviews.

The content is just free clips available on youtube and articles you can find yourself on google. They don't even use articles in our metric system which shows just how lazy they are at ripping off other peoples work. The course is supposed to teach you how to use CAD but their idea of teaching you CAD is a login to Linkedins Lynda.com

They need to have a single user portal with all course work laid out in a chronological order instead of having the units all intertwined with no logical progression just an ugly Study timetable.

Sent an email for assistance two weeks later still no reply.

I was enrolled in a diploma in an area that I have worked in for over 5 years, I was told on many occasions that I was unable to RPL.. however I was able to with another training provider. I was told by nsw tafe that I would have to complete all of the placement hours that was required for my course however my new provider RPL all the placement. I did ask why however I found the staff to be rude and stated that it’s a requirement... I would not recommend, it’s a trap and over priced (4K to be exact!).

Doing an hr course, the guy teacher was actually quite helpful, the women is horrible total trash so rude and seems to enjoy making you sound dumb. Will be looking elsewhere to do this course. Waste of time take ages to mark your work and they just word it so you think i cannot do this that women should not be teaching anyone total narcissist.

I have finished the Cert III in Education Support through OTEN and have NOT had a pleasant experience
at all.

I will be recommending people against this course through OTEN as it is a waste of money due to the running around I have been through, and OTEN's sloppiness.

I have a huge problem with the fact that required readings with important content for the assignments are photocopied from a text book and scanned onto the website. This would be fine if every page was decipherable, but they aren't. In fact, I have taken 34 screen shots of pages where written content is indecipherable or incredibly difficult to make out (even after zooming in) I have excellent eyesight and pity anyone else who is enrolled in the course who does not and has to try and read it. There is more where that came from as well!

My second problem is with the staff member who appears to be the only one knowledgeable enough to answer any of my questions and she is only in 2 days a week! The 2 days she is in she still does not consistently answer my questions that I usually email to her (but I sometimes call her directly) For example: it is nearing on 4 months since I asked her what the title of the textbooks are for the required readings of the fourth subject, and she still cannot tell me them (they only have links to sites where the pages of these unknown textbook are photocopied and then scanned in!) She apparently never forgot but I don't understand why it's taking so long. It appears the ability to delegate is appalling. There are too many students for just one person to handle, and she isn't handling it!

My third problem is that the website is difficult to navigate. It is unclear which cluster is which in the 'course progress' page and it is irritating that every link opens up a new page. That gets very confusing, and I am quite computer savvy in my young age.

My fourth problem is with the assessments. They have spelling errors and can be worded incorrectly making questions difficult to answer. Every single time I have sent out my assessments I have had to resend them due to a problem with the downloading on OTEN's end (I don't think that should be my problem, they should be able to convert the assessments to whichever format needed themselves). I also have had to request assessments to be sent out as a word document so that I can actually add to them. They keep getting sent out as pdfs and I do not have the software to convert them!

I attempted to report these problems during the course to a 'manager' but the manager never got back to me like they said they would.

I wrote this complaint on OTENs website and was contacted the next day. They were apologetic and sent me out a textbook as compensation and explained that it was a new course and that they are making changes. They refused to give me monetary compensation so I just took the textbook and am now warning people against them. They said the manager I spoke to was not even employed by OTEN... don't know how thats possible...

Most of the content was common sense to me anyway, that's the only reason I passed.
Was never treated impolitely
Everything else....

I have tried to enrol since January. All log in details are incorrect. Contact centre is very difficult to deal with also which is making it hard to achieve any result. My son also enrolled in a course and it's the same story.....can not enrol at all. After reading the reviews and I realise I am not alone. I have completed two courses through OTEN several years ago and they were brilliant. Get your act together OTEN! What is going on???

Have been attempting to find out if my RPL has been accepted since Sept 2016. Also called 8 times over 4 days only to be put on hold for well over 10-20min each, with no answer and with twice being hung up on. When I finally got through to ask a simple question regarding alternative professional third party documents as I didn't have access to a counsellor or doctor, the lady was immensely rude and not helpful at all. I suggested if an employer was acceptable to which she stated 'what can an employer even write'. She also suggested that withdrawing would only be accepted by a committee if I was ill, or pretty much dead, as lifestyle changes, moving international, having children or personal issues would not be accepted. I'm sure not everyone's experiences are bad, but this was just bad customer service.

Teachers have taken over a months to remark an assessment even OTENs policy is 10 day turnaround. Extremely inconsistent teaching across Adv Diploma of Information Technology Project Management Course. Avoid this organization at all costs.

When i was originally contacted about studying the person on the phone made it sound great, they then told me if i didn't sign up at that time the cost was going to double in the new year so i got sucked in to joining, i was not told of any census date that i had to cancel by or be liable any way, when i realized i could not do this diploma and i contacted them i was told too bad its past census and you now have to pay even if you don't complete the diploma. Great way to make money and rip off people who are trying to get a better direction in life. i will never recommend this mob at all to any one. now i have a huge debt i have to pay for nothing and OTEN have the money for supplying nothing

I have been doing this course for nearly two years, and it is my own fault for not being ontop of it all.
However, I have to commend my course teachers, as they are always, always responsive to my questions and submissions and helpful to check up on me to make sure I am going okay.
They have also helped with extensions, and with suggestions to help me in my study.

It did take awhile for me to work out the right system, as I realised I was on the wrong one, and my emails were going to the wrong place, but once I had OTEN website on and favourited, it has been great ever since.

I'd suggest if you do want remote learning, that you can complete at your own pace, then this is something to look into and at least trying for yourself.

DO NOT STUDY TAFE ONLINE, The teachers are very rude and not helpful at all, Peter the teacher for cert4 building and construction is absolutely no help, Iv emailed loads and never got a response until I called then only to be hung up by the "tutor" (Peter) when asking for advice, I do not recommend studying Oten online at all,

I think they are now referred to as TAFENOW, I don't get what the negative comments with Online Course providers are about. I think it was a pretty good experience, not that I have much knowledge to compare against, but I found it better than studying in person. With online study, I can study and work full time, and study at any time that would suit me. There was a good amount of technical work included such as building a simple game application and stream reader. The teachers take a few hours and some days a few days to respond, which I did not find too bad. If I called and the teacher is working on the day, a teacher would follow up with a call back in 10-20 mins or an hour or so. I think if the online education community was bigger and had more support they would be more efficient and be answering queries from students more often.

These people chatted me for an assignment and
A 2 months later gave me an incomplete one with no answer to the most input important part of it.
Following that, they had the audacity to keep shut about it and when I picked that up I was told the writer had exams so cannot finish it, in plain English it means he/she was incapable of answering it. I missed my submission deadline and lost marks because of them. I somehow blame myself for it aswell for going to them at all. And if that wasn't enough, they now want to offer new a "partial refund".
I just want my full refund and move on and they certainly don't want me to do so.

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