Learn Direct. Easy Relaxed Learning. (learndirect.co.uk)

Member Name: harlequin1

Product:	learndirect.co.uk
Date:	19/08/01 (981 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Learn when you want., On line tutors, interactive self testing facility.

Disadvantages: Email not always reliable, Sometimes tells you that you have done it wrong when you haven't

Learn Direct is more like a yellow pages for courses. You choose what sort of course you want and how you want to do it either online or at college and Learn Direct will find you the nearest or most suitable course available.
Learn Direct do have some of their own courses but other learning providers supply most of the courses available.
There are Learn Direct centres all over the country which let you use their computers and equipment for free once you have signed up for one of their courses. The staff at the centres are very helpful and can offer loads of advice on what courses to do and the best way to do them.
I used a Learn Direct course to study for my European Computer Driving Licence.
Once you are signed up the site is easy to use. You get an on-line tutor so if you have any problems with the course you can e-mail your tutor and they will help you in whatever way they can.
The email server used on the site is not very reliable however. They seem to have endless problems with emails not being sent/received. There seems to be problems sending attachments too.
You get a Learning page, which shows you all the courses you are signed up for and also shows what progress you are making.
You also get a learning log. This is your own personal learning organiser and is there to help you plan your learning future.
Your learning log is designed to help you think about where you are now, what you need to get going and what you need to keep on learning. I have to be perfectly honest and say that the only time I used this was when I had finished my courses.
The course that I did was really easy to use and follow. There was a lot of interactive stuff to do. Not just sitting there reading.
You can take a pre-assessment test to see what you know already and then use a precision learning track that tailors the course to suit you. This saves you having to go over stuff that you already know how to do.
At the end of each part of the co
urse there is a mastery module which is an interactive self testing facility which shows you how well you are doing and shows you which parts of the course needs review.
My only problem with this mastery module is that if you don’t do something exactly how you have been shown to do it then it tells you you are wrong.
I.e. If you had to change a font, if you right click and change it that way it would fail you because you should have gone to format on the standard toolbar even though the result is the same.
I had many an argument with my computer screen when it told me I was incorrect. I knew I had done it right, just a different way. The end result was the same.
Luckily my computer didn't answer me back so I just got on with it.
You can automatically go to wherever you left your course so that you don’t have to plough through the whole course again to get to where you were last time. This is definitely a great time saver.
My tutor was great (when the emails were actually working) She sent me loads of hints and tips on how to pass the course.
I had to go to the Learn Direct Centre to actually sit my exams for the ECDL but they were really pleasant and made you feel really comfortable.
I sat the test in seven separate parts, all scored individually, this meant you could study one part of the course, then go take a test, then go on to the next part.
That was great for me because my brain doesn’t seem to absorb as much information as it should. (A sign of old age and senility) so I could sit the test before I had time to forget what I had learnt.
I would definitely recommend this way of studying because you can do it in your own time. If you want to study at 3 o’clock in the morning you can. If you don’t want to study for weeks, well that’s fine too.
My course cost around about £150. You can get information from the Learn Dirct site on how to get funding for courses. There are links to g
et an individual Learning account from the government to get courses up to £150 paid for. Depending on the course you may have to contribute £25 towards the cost.

Summary: