“Outdated learning material, sometimes with little relevance to Australia (UK centric). Almost impossible to get airtime or guidance from tutors. Exam grading takes forever. Overall experience was not great, would not recommend Open Colleges with so many others to choose from.”
Hello Roger,
We want to thank you for your feedback, as every piece we receive is so valuable in helping us improve the student experience.
At Open Colleges, we provide nationally recognised courses, which are part of the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). Courses are subject to review and audited by the Australian Skills Quality Authority. Your course (Diploma of Human Resources Management) has been updated since you studied with us and and brand-new content has been created to meet the new industry requirements as prescribed by the AQF.
In regard to assessment grading time, we have passed this on internally, and our priority now is to improve in this area.
We will continue to improve based off student feedback like yours, but for now, we want to congratulate you on your graduation. Congratulations on all your hard work and effort. You should be very proud of your amazing achievement. We certainly are.
Thank you for your rating and feedback regarding Open Colleges. We sincerely appreciate the time you took out of your busy schedule to provide us with your valuable feedback. Wishing you all the very best in your future successes!
Best wishes,
The OC Team
“While my Work Placement was an invaluable learning component, I was disappointed in having to complete so much written content during that time, which undeniably took away from the rich experience of being immersed in the speech pathology field.”
“Completing the diploma in counselling gave me the confidence to seek opportunities to further my education. I have now almost completed a social work degree, and I could not be happier with the choice to start my educational journey with Open Colleges. One crucial piece of advice that all new prospective students should make a note of is to start looking for work experience as soon as possible.”
Thank you so much for your feedback, Brenda! We are so glad to hear that completing our diploma in counselling gave you the confidence to continue on with your education. With your experience studying with us and valuable pieces of advice, you have shown that the journey with Open Colleges can open doors to furthering one's education. We are incredibly proud of you for what you have achieved. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Wishing you all the best!
Best wishes,
The OC Team
Hello Mandy,
We’re sorry to hear that you didn’t have a good learning experience with us. We want you to know that since you graduated, we have addressed feedback from our students, and are working hard to improve the student experience.
Congratulations on finishing your course. We wish you all the very best for your future.
“No support from the head of the course. Meetings were booked in AEST however whenever she called in regards to assistance I had booked would call her time which is 30mins later.
Wouldn't discuss why my answer was wrong just to redo the module. Wouldn't even help narrow down where in the module. This particular answer I was on my 3rd attempt at getting it right. I'd spoken to another trainer who had actually tried to help but her information was even more wrong than my first attempt.
Half of the links were broken and comments from other students showed this was an issue for at least 12months. I believe that if you aren't told about something it can't be fixed. As it appeared that no one was checking the comments other than students, I would email in advising of the broken links, hoping to improve the course for those to come. One particular section of a module was all links and not one of them worked. When I emailed the lead trainer to ask for assistance in links to learn the correct information I was told to just do my own Google search. I'm paying to complete this course. I shouldn't have to Google for the missing content myself. If it was part of an assignment then yes, but not as part of the reading/learning to do with the course.
Didn't feel supported by lead trainer and in audio feedback actually commented (however don't believe she realised the recording was still on) that I was a complainer and had just slapped the assignment together.
I did my course during COVID lockdowns in Melbourne. Since then I've been diagnosed with Anxiety. This course triggered my anxiety. Especially if I had to speak with the lead trainer or knowing that she would be assessing my assignments. To be able to complete my last 6 assignments I had to have a friend/mentor or my husband sitting with me so I could complete them.
Would not recommend open colleges or this course to anyone. Have colleagues currently completing the same course and actually told them to go through anyone else.”
Hello Pauline,
Thank you for the detailed and specific feedback, which allows us to investigate our processes and look into areas of improvement.
At Open Colleges, we provide nationally recognised courses, which are part of the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). Courses are subject to review and audited by the Australian Skills Quality Authority. The course you studied is now superseded, and brand-new content is currently being created to meet the new industry requirements.
Broken links are extremely frustrating, we understand. We do use tech tools to sweep for them, but unfortunately, it doesn’t pick them all up. We are currently reviewing internally how we can improve upon this function.
In regard to staffing, we are so sorry to hear about your negative experiences caused by your trainer. We will take this feedback to education on the communication style of our trainers.
We want to end by congratulating you on your graduation. Well done on remaining dedicated to your studies throughout your learning journey. We wish you all the best, as we continue to improve our student experience.
“Did your trainer have a positive effect on your studies?
The trainer Nicola Robey made a very negative and difficult effect on my studies.
She gives assessments with little feedback which takes a lot of back-and-forth communication to understand what she wants.
It took me 2 months to complete one small assessment because she wouldn't explain what she wants for it.
During placement, I received no support and the way she explained the process of completing the required assessments was extremely confusing for both myself and my placement supervisor.
How did studying with OC have a meaningful impact on your life?
i am very glad to have completed my certificate.
What did you like about the online learning platform?
it was flexible.
Was it easy to fit study around other commitments?
yes.”
“Studying at your own pace is great and you are not under pressure and if you get the right lecturer it is great I was lucky with my second course that I had an amazing lecturer and he was. Very supportive”
Thank you for your thoughtful feedback, Kiola! We are so pleased to hear that you found Open Colleges' self-paced approach beneficial and that you had a great experience with your lecturer! At Open Colleges we truly believe that learning should be tailored to the individual, which is why our courses have been specifically designed to meet everyone's unique needs. We appreciate your time and feedback. Wishing you all the best!
Best wishes,
The OC Team
“Very good and I have managed to spend two years working as a Support Worker in Brisbane and now a new job as a Residential Worker with Emerge Aotearoa in New Zealand. Always helpful and happy to answer questions.”
Thank you so much, Sharon, for your wonderful feedback! We're pleased to hear that the support you received from Open Colleges allowed you to work as a Support Worker in Brisbane for two years and then gain a new job as a Residential Worker with Emerge Aotearoa in New Zealand. Thank you again for your kind and supportive words.
Best wishes,
The OC Team
“Open Colleges were good educators and patient too. Considerate of extension applications due to personal circumstances which bounce up. Open Colleges give you a second chance if you don't do well in a quiz. Like any higher education studies, one cannot skip on all the reading material - Open Colleges resources were comprehensive. The only negative i found, were more so the IT issues e.g. templates were uncompromising or the student needs to be at an advanced level of Microsoft suites - Word and Excel. Following an assignment, the Assessors were great in pointing out insufficient information or tips/questions which provided a better understanding of the formula or interpretation or calculation.”
Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to provide us with an honest review. We truly appreciate it and wish you all the best in your future endeavors!
Best wishes,
The OC Team
“The course was pretty good in general, until it was time to do work placement and the final portfolio. There was way too much work piled into a 3 week period (doing work placement hours plus the 60 page portfolio plus phonce checkpoints). I completed the checkpoint phone calls with my assesor that went well, until they ceased work with Open Colleges so all that was lost even though I had completed the calls and had been checked off. Still trying to organise all this months after I had completed placement with little to no support from Open Colleges. Finally finished the course and I never received a hard copy of my certificate just an email.
Way too much pressure is put on the student during placement and the portfolio and it is like Open Colleges wants the person to fail and keep having to extend the course.
Still waiting on the hard copy of my certificate a year later.”
Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate your feedback and are glad to hear that you've enjoyed the content and assignments. We apologize that you've found the support for practical placement to be lacking. Our team is committed to providing you with the resources and guidance to get the most out of your studies and we will use your feedback to help shape our future offerings.
Best wishes,
The OC Team
“Please Avoid, hopefully my bad bad experience will save you that would be the only positive from this. They will say you will have all the support you need, everything is fine, until they have your money or sign up, because that was the sales team, who now wipe their hands of you and throw you into the fire which is Open Colleges aka ICM Training. A horror from Go to Woe even the Certificate was unattractive.
Don't sign up or if stuck with them please consult Training Advocates Hotline 133873.”
Hello,
Thank you for your feedback. We understand that we cannot improve the student experience unless we’re aware of the issues that our students are facing.
Due to the pandemic, we acknowledge that we experienced staffing issues that caused us many challenges, especially in our Health courses. This was an unprecedented time with all the new restrictions, and we know we fell short in providing you with the support you needed. We apologise for this, and we have worked hard to improve the student experience with more support available when our students need it. But feedback like yours is valuable, as it gives us an insight into the areas we fall short.
We do wish to say that we are proud of you for pushing through and showing tremendous commitment and dedication to your studies. Congratulations on graduating and persevering. All the very best for your future.
Thanks for the great review, Sukhpreet! We're really glad to hear that you had a great journey with Open Colleges and that our facilitators and admin team were so helpful. It's great that Open Colleges was able to assist you with placements too - that's fantastic! We really appreciate you taking the time to provide your feedback.
Best wishes,
The OC Team
“If I could give 0 Stars, I would
Can`t recommend them at all
Learning material nor up to date
not enough staff to look after the students
everything takes to long”
Hello Dajana,
Thank you for your feedback, as it helps us address problems we may not have been aware of.
We acknowledge that your course had staffing issues and we apologise sincerely for that. We want you to know that we addressed this by discontinuing the steam you graduated in – physiotherapy. We want to make sure that our students are well taken care of, and we are always looking for ways to improve the student experience.
Lastly, we wish to congratulate you. Well done on your graduation! We wish you all the very best for your future.
“Had the worst experience with open colleges and their trainers/ assessors. No communication, weeks to get replies. 3 months to mark an assignment that I had to end up calling to ask about and them to actually do anything. Got told halfway through my practical assessment there was no one to assess me and I’d have to go back when they were able to have someone assess me. Trainer laughed at me on the phone because being in Western Australia in lockdown and borders closed was funny to them. No support and I have made sure to tell every person looking at study to look anywhere other than open colleges. Would never recommend open colleges to anyone.
Just for some insight, my practical assessment hours were done in January 2022, and I got assessed and signed off in May 2022. 4 months between the too. I was so very lucky that a workplace took me on knowing it wasn’t my fault I wasn’t signed off.”
Hello Jenna,
We are sincerely sorry for your negative experience with us. We acknowledge that your course faced major marking delays due to staffing issues and student volume. This coupled with the unexpected restrictions of the pandemic made everything very challenging. We also believe that many qualified workers went back to work during covid, due to the unprecedented demand, and this created even less opportunities for students.
We have raised this internally and are working on resolutions. This includes potentially overhauling our assessment processes and addressing staffing issues, which will take time to improve upon, but we remain committed to improving the student experience.
For now, we congratulate you on your graduation. Well done! We thank you for remaining with us and staying dedicated and driven. You should be very proud, and we do wish you all the best for your future.
“Would not recommend. The assessor didn’t read the whole assessment when marking, and even when I requested written feedback many times, I would be given audio feedback. The questions weren’t written clearly and this made it difficult to answer correctly. Communication was sparse and I usually had to wait 5-7 days for any reply. Would never go through open colleges again.”
Hello Nicola,
Thank you for your valued feedback as it helps us continuously improve the student experience.
We want you to know that we have changed the way we provide feedback – we give written feedback only now, and not audio.
We have passed along your feedback about response times, and we will work hard to improve in this area. We know that communication is key, and we are committed to improving our response time.
Lastly, we would like to congratulate you on graduating. This is a huge accomplishment, and you remained committed and dedicated throughout your studies. Well done!
