Just finished Access to HE Psychology with LearnDirect - AMA.

Hi all.

I know there tend to be a lot of questions regarding courses/providers. I have studied with LearnDirect and now finished my Access to HE course in Psychology.

That being said, if there's anything you want to know about studying A2HE or studying with LearnDirect, feel free to ask me anything, and I'll give you my experience!

What's your experience with LearnDirect? I have read the reviews, and they don't exactly paint them in a positive light.

How was doing an Access course online? I have done mine offline, so it's a different experience.
Did you do a degree prior to the Access course? If so, how did it compared to your degree?

I found Learn Direct ok to be honest. The tutors were generally helpful and they were quite prompt with responses and returning my module grades. Feedback was generally very constructive and encouraging too. I felt the comments were always fair.

I didn't personally have any major issues with Learn Direct but I'm not sure how emphatically I would recommend them either. There were a good few inaccuracies and omissions in the course materials. One of the most frustrating issues was that the course materials provided for one of the modules had a section that didn't correspond to the assessment criteria in anyway. I flagged this to my tutor, who advised that the materials were being rewritten. Saying this, I do think it helped with my study habits as it encouraged me to rely more on my independent research than by leaning on the study materials, as I didn't trust these to be 100% accurate. There were at least half a dozen incidences where Psychologists names were misquoted, but thankfully through my own research I didn't replicate the errors in my own work.

I suppose any distance learning can feel isolating, and you do have to be able to motivate yourself and cheer yourself on, as you don't have any physical points of contact - just intermittent written communication with your tutors, which is self-initiated when you need the help (and tutors were often different from one module to the next).

I haven't done a degree prior, I will be going onto university study now.

Thanks for your answer.

What do you intend to study and where?

I was hoping to study Part Time at University of Chester or Manchester, but unfortunately, the schedules aren't conducive to my job. Manchester don't offer part-times courses and the PT courses at Chester have a schedule that clashes with my job. I have a good job that I don't want to give up in order to study, so I have enrolled in OU, to study Psychology.

Little bit of a bummer as I could have just enrolled in OU to begin with, with no need for an Access course, but I feel like the A2HE course has given me a great sense of achievement and really well prepared me for HE study, so I'm going into it a lot more confident than I would have done otherwise 🙂

Hi all.

I know there tend to be a lot of questions regarding courses/providers. I have studied with LearnDirect and now finished my Access to HE course in Psychology.

That being said, if there's anything you want to know about studying A2HE or studying with LearnDirect, feel free to ask me anything, and I'll give you my experience!