Correspondence courses?

Lee,

I'd echo Astraea's comments - it is an excellent critique of the course based on your past experiences.

I've been involved in distance learning courses both as a student (I did my Astrology courses that way) and as both a writer and deliverer (if that's the correct word). I've taught students via distance learning and I know that regular contact and provision of good feedback is essential.

There are always problems with materials - keeping them up to date is extremely difficult because of the expense involved. What is more despite proof reading errors get through. On my own Astrology course one question was 'How often does the Sun go retrograde?' Now, the Sun and Moon are the only planets that cannot go retrograde, from an Earth perspective, so this question was either put in to catch students out (which is educationally a bad strategy) or is a misprint, in which case it misleads students and gets them to call into question their good understanding of the subject.

However I did find a responsiveness to telephone queries and action seemed to be taken promptly to provide answers to these queries. Much depends on how much you are paying - the higher the price the more you expect (rightly) that there will be few or no errors or problems. Again, I echo Astraea, and suggest that you send your 'experiences' on the course to Joanne when you complete.

I wish you the best in your break from Astrology - enjoy yourself.

Thanks Minderwiz, you're right, and that is something that did occur to me, that to a certain extent, one gets what one pays for. I went for one of the cheapest correspondence courses available, and in retrospect I can see that this was perhaps unwise. Caveat emptor!

-- Lee

Mine was also not the most expensive going LOL but I did find them reasonably responsive. I phoned them up about the retrograde Sun question and they did admit it was a mistake and the question was wrong.

There were a couple of other questions that I think had errors in them because of updates that were not comprehensive but I did get reasonable feedback to my comments on these errors.

I followed this thread with a great deal of interest last year and at one stage tried to contact the person in whose courses Lee enrolled. She just didn't return my emails and I let it go.

Today I enrolled at the Canopus Academy in Tasmania and should receive their course material within a few days.

I am doing the Foundation course which should take from 6 to 12 months Canopus have a very good version of the Foundation course available for free on the website for those who are interested. I will probably do the enture course which take s about three years and goes to Diploma level.

Will keep you posted.

Moongold

I decided to return my unused courses to Joanne Wickenburg. She agreed to refund me for them, but I've had trouble mailing them back because the address printed on her receipt is not valid anymore, so they were returned to me. I've e-mailed her about it and received no response. The post office now tells me they've finally made delivery. So I'm hoping she'll refund my money as she's promised.

What a mess.

Good luck with your studies, Moongold, the Canopus material looks excellent.

-- Lee

Canopus Academy

No, no, no, no! I had a bitter experience with them, asked for a refund and was refused. After the fact, I asked around, and an Australian astrologer of some note reported that she had heard several complaints about them.

Yikes! Maybe astrology correspondence courses are not the way to go, after all. Guess I'll stick with books for now.

-- Lee

What a sorry and discouraging turn of events. Astrologers can never hope to achieve public respect (let alone legitimacy) until these kinds of experiences are a thing of the past. Joanne Wickenburg enjoys a very good reputation among her peers, but her dealings with students obviously leave a great deal to be desired. I am so sorry, Lee.

Moongold, I hope that your experiences with Canopus will be positive -- since you have not signed up for the full course, you'll be able to get an idea from the foundation work about whether or not you wish to proceed.

So far they have been easy to deal with and a woman I know a little did the course and liked it. I'm hopeful, as the early signs are good.

ncefafn, do you feel free to outline in principle what your concerns were?

You're right, Astraea, I'm not signed up for the full course.

I AM looking forward to studying again. Felt a real need for guided study with this.

Moongold

a few questions,

i have followed this thread with some interest lee expecially your critique of the lessons in the course.

1. with your acquired knowledge do you think it is possible that you could of got all that knowledge from books , (i mean going through your two basic astrology books your intermediate two books, your advanced two books, and then your specifics aspects of astrology course).

2. do you know feel you might go professional with your knowledge.

3. do you feel that astrology combined with psychology and spirituality is a valid way of conselling others ?

4. what is your next step from here, ?
to go after another course. ?
to study from books?
to let it go ?