Park Manor Academy of Psychology?

Anyone ever heard of this? It was free a while back and then the site went down at some point. Now it's returned charging for their courses...

Park Manor Academy of Psychology - Online Distance Education in Psychology

 

I wouldn't allow my credit card to go near there with a 10 foot pole. It looks like it is just a take a 'class', learn a little, get a printed certificate.

You could do the same with YouTube or the stuff at Itunes university for free, and print yourself something up. The only thing I see that this place may have is someone who will answer your questions about subject matter.

 

I'm not interested in it but I just found it odd that just a month ago it was totally free and now they are charging. For a completely unaccredited "school" I just find this odd. Thanks for your thoughts!

 

Itunes U is fricken awesome. Both for studying for non-traditional credit (CLEPS,DSSTs, etc,) as well as giving yourself an edge in regular class settings... Or even just to learn about a subject of interest for self-edification. I have much love for Itunes U.

 

It honestly seems that that place is one person who had a passion and just decided to make a little money. They have one course for a $1 application fee and $20 for the course and another course coming for $30.

 

Park Manor Academy of Psychology: What's the Issue?

Hi, I just read the postings on your thread about Park Manor Academy of Psychology. Wow, you guys seem more than a bit disparaging about it. Give it a chance first. I got a certificate from PMAP when the program was free. The material seemed fine and honestly the tests were a bit tough. I don't see what the big deal is about them charging now. I'd rather not pay, but everything seems to be costing something or more than it used to these days. Before their website went down they were being supported mostly by Google ads. I wondered what was the deal when all their ads went blank. Then they had an update indicating that Google pulled their ads citing abusive use. Their students were clicking the ads too much to support the school (no quotation marks) and Google didn't like it. So, it's no surprise they would have a fee now. It's true about the program that what you do is study materials, take a test, and get a certificate. I believe that's what a certificate course is! You guys can disparage all you like, but I'll tell you from experience, PMAP has a legit course and unlike someone seemed to suggest with regards to credit cards and a 10-foot pole, they won't steal your money... certainly no more than some "accredited" online universities that charge thousands of dollars for a degree that is worthless by reputation alone.
Peace...

 

I'm curious - What legitimizes it? (No, this is a serious question)

What exactly is the certificate good for?

Edit-
Also, I'm the one who made the comment about a creditcard and a ten foot pole. Honestly without anything to speak for it, I don't know about you, but I don't go about giving my credit card info to random sites out on the interwebs without knowing that A) I'm getting something viable for my money and B) That there isn't anything shady going on with it... Shrug.

 

A Legitimate Retort

Legitimacy: a good point. I would ask, what do you mean by legitimate? Do you mean accredited? I’ll get to that later… I have an MBA with a business law background. So, legitimate to me may mean something different than it does to others on this forum. By legitimate, I mean the business (school) offers a service (information, an examination to assess whether or not that information was understood and learned, and a certificate from the source attesting that the individual student passed the course) and followed through on providing the service after fees were paid, or at least they did in my case.

As for the credit card comment: I agree completely. I do not go around putting my credit card information on questionable websites either. Really though, unless the website is a big, big name, you never really know. Like you, I want to get something for my money and am cautious. In my research about the school before I signed up, I found nothing shady going on. My experience with them supports that. Park Manor did (don’t know if they still do) use PayPal – a staple of small businesses on the internet that don’t want to pay big monthly fees for a credit card processing service. Having run my own moonlighting online business until a few years ago using PayPal, I felt safe with this system. I knew that the business never got my credit card number, etc. That’s how PayPal works. It would probably “look” better for them to have a credit card processor, but I actually preferred this because, again, I felt safer with my credit card information.

I think the question that may be the biggest issue in our difference of opinion is “what it’s worth.” For some folks, if a course doesn’t transfer to another university or have an accreditation stamp on it, it isn’t worth much. For me, I took the course because I was interested in psychology and wanted to have the accountability of an actual course (not just sporadic Wikipedia readings) to help me stay motivated and learn the material rather than just skip the parts I wasn’t as interested in. I paid, what was then, their $10 shipping and handling fee and got what I paid for - a certificate indicating I passed the course. I showed it to my employer and got some credit for continuing education. Could I have gotten the information online somewhere else? Sure… but I was drawn to the certificate; the very thing that seems to unsettle most folks on this forum. I studied, I learned, I passed the course; and in the end I was glad to PASS and have the certificate with my name on it that stated I did pass. It wasn’t easy, even for an old (62 years and still kicking) MBA like myself, now working as an auditor/investigator until my upcoming retirement. Would it transfer into a degree program? I don’t know; probably not. However, that’s not what I intended to do with it. If someone wants to take the course to learn a bit, test themselves on their learning, and don’t mind spending $20 on it, I say go for it. It’s not illegal or shady. It was worth MY time and a few bucks. I plan to take their next course. Do I find it strange they would make the materials proprietary and start charging more now? Not at all, especially not in this economy. It’s $20 now instead of $10 –less than a hardback book, and certainly less than an introductory psychology text which now runs over $100 (and again, no test or certificate). Universities have raised their tuition at a rate that has far outpaced inflation for years. Where’s the forum thread for that? Park Manor’s course is certainly not for everyone, but neither is anything else in this world.

Here’s what’s likely to ruffle feathers the most in this post: as an investigator who has seen lots of tactics used to discredit sources, what I find most interesting is why this thread gives the impression this school is something to be so suspicious about? So it doesn’t meet YOUR standards or have a use for YOU. Maybe it does for someone else out there. It’s NOT shady or illegal because of that, nor does it claim to be something it’s not. Their Better Business Bureau report shows no complaints. Like I said, I did my homework. I’ve read a lot on this forum and mostly enjoy it and the information it gives. I only decided to become active because of what I think is an unfair slant on this little school. The person who started this thread has asked about this small school twice now in different threads. I found that in both instances, replies were posted from different folks (including myself) that were positive about the school (or at least not negative). For someone who “isn’t interested in it,” that seems like a lot of attention. It’s fine to ask questions, but why the negative slant unless you have some reason such as a complaint that they aren’t providing the service they say they do or selling degrees (which they don’t, as far as I know, by the way)? I find it interesting that so many posters here seem to give a suspicious, negative attitude about a small school that charges almost nothing! Why not take on some of the big mills that (gasp!) have an accreditation stamp? Not as easy of targets, I suppose.

The only stake I have in this school is its reputation. Let me explain, for those like myself who studied and passed the course, such unfounded veiled (i.e., “I just find this odd”) and not so veiled (i.e., the credit card comment) reflects poorly on those who did take the course. Even though you’re questioning the school, what you end up doing is indirectly questioning the individuals who took the course. I’m not unintelligent or senile (I don’t think). I wasn’t mislead about what I was paying for. So, why should this suspicious questioning happen and throw a negative light on the folks, like myself, who took a course just because they wanted to, not out of any intent to deceive. Is it because we didn’t want to pay at least $800 to a university for one course that all we would get to show for it was a note on a transcript?

The school has done nothing wrong. We did nothing wrong taking the course. So, what’s the issue really? Why are you folks so intent on disparaging this little school and its students? Seriously… What kind of threat is it? Is it because they don’t have accreditation as one commenter noted? Folks, I worked in administration for a big, accredited, private school for several years (until I couldn’t stand what they were doing anymore). In the real world of corporate America, accreditation just means that someone at the university could write a self-study (or hire someone else to) that showed how the university passed its own assessments of its own goals AND could write a big check. My former employer was more of a mill than it seems this little school with its psychology course could ever be. I checked to see how many students they had graduated who paid the fee. Don’t ask how (did I mention I have some investigative background). It had 10 graduates at the time. Let’s see 10 grads x $10 = $100, which I'm guessing would might not cover their overhead -that's my MBA talking. Wow, that’s some scam they’ve got going, he said sarcastically. If they wanted to be a mill and do some “shady” work, why not just charge $800 for the course instead of $20? Just because this little school hasn’t paid thousands of dollars to get accreditation, to “legitimize it”, it (and those who took its course) gets a shadow of doubt cast on it. And for what? For trying to offer something that has a use to SOME OF US at least who don’t want to pay $800?

Well, I’m getting off point. Old, ignorant, senile, spendthrifts like myself tend to do that. I’ll shut up now and let you folks get back to your posts. Thanks for reading.

 

Welcome to DegreeInfo, Psyche. You may want to create shorter posts in the future. I would suspect that only a few people would read your whole post as it is, even though it is obvious that you put some great ideas into it.

 

Please understand that you are far from being the first anonymous newbie who has come to this site in order to promote some unaccredited entity. We've heard it all before. There is no objective way to measure the quality of the product that you are selling. The fact that it's unaccredited suggests that it's less than good. The fact that you are apparently not even trying to become accredited suggests that it's really less than good. If you want to give your real name, your position with the school, and the school where you were an "administrator" then you might buy yourself a tiny bit of credibility but right at this moment you a just another shill for just another unaccredited thingy. We've seen hundreds of these come and go.

 

Yes, thanks for the tip. The post was a bit long. Kizmet, nice slam. Like I said, I've seen many tactics to discredit. That is an old one. I am not "promotint" the school. However, I figured by standing up for it, I would get slammed. I have no credibilty here, I realize. I think your attitude just cost you some of yours as well. All I can speak of was my experience with the school. I don't work for them. I'm not a "shill." Just because someone defends something doesn't mean they are in bed with it. You make strong assumptions and accusations. You've also just served another nice thing to make certain that no one else comes forward to post anything that goes against your view as well. Nicely done... So much for promoting more than one side of an argument.

 

When I had gone to the site, prior to my first post, the fees,terms,and apply pages were giving page not available errors. Not page not found (404 errors) but page not available. That helped form my opinion (which I posted.). That being said...

I still have my reservations about this 'school'. I think it's great about you getting CE credit for it. No place that I've been employed would have done so simply due to it's lack of... Well anything substantial about the place.

It's got one 'class' so far. But once again you could easily get the same edification from iTunes U or YouTube. The certificate, well, you could do one up on your own or head over to kinkos and print out a doctorate while your there as well.

I'm not againt non-accredited learning environs, but if I'm going to pay for something, it's gonna have some sort of value to me, more than just a piece of paper.

So, we'll just have to agree to disagree on the perceived value of this place's experience.

 

Yes, we can agree to disagree. "Substantial" is in the eye of the beholder... At least you're civil. Thank you.

 

Ouch... A shill I am not. I tried to reply earlier, but my "moderated" post seems to have never shown up. I have no credibility here, I know that and I'm far too close to retirement to come out and get sued by calling my former employer a mill. I'm not selling anything. Are you? Accredited or not, all I can say is that they did right by me. I wouldn't assume to know their plans for accreditation. I do say that I find your tone offensive to say the least, bordering on abusive. What are your credentials that you can so quickly judge? Have you taken the course? I will gladly contact the director of the school and let him know that you have declared his school "less than good." Hopefully he won't file a libel suit against you. Enjoy...

 

Welcome to DegreeInfo. I've used this site to discuss distance learning in all its various forms. If you did your research then you see why I brought this thread up. Someone linked to it under the "Free Courses" thread but for some reason the post disappeared. Rather than discuss it on an unrelated thread I chose to create one for discussing this school and not hijack the other one. If you want to get technical I'll accept that I'm interested in the school. However, I'm not interested in actually taking courses. Can you see the difference?

I don't see where I gave this school any sort of negative slant. It is odd that just a few weeks ago the school was free, but now is charging (small fees) for courses. I am curious as to why, and I don't think it's asking something out of the ordinary. I could make assumptions but what would that accomplish?

I simply don't have the time to do this, nor would I want such a headache. There isn't enough time in the day for this type of work. I'll add that even though I commented about it being unaccredited I did not call this school a mill nor do I think it's one. From what I've read so far it's one guy who has a passion for teaching Psych and decided to start this school. I don't see anything wrong with that.

"I just find this odd" is perfectly acceptable in describing how I feel about the sudden charging for courses. From Merriam-Webster-- Odd: 4 a : not regular, expected, or planned. I think my word choice was more than appropriate.

I'm not questioning the person at all. Matter of fact I barely even touched on questioning the school much less the people who attend courses. You are drawing conclusions based on very little evidence and making giant assumptions about what they mean.


In closing, this is a distance education forum and Park Manor is a distance education school. I think this is a perfect medium to discuss the positives and negatives about places like this. I do find it odd that the school was free just weeks ago, but is now charging even if it's very modest fees. I have no ill feelings about the school and posted this thread to drum up a discussion about it. I think I achieved that goal.

 

As I said in my prior post, what I specifically found dodgy was the Page Not Available errors I got when looking at the Fees, Terms (which Google brought up as an entry when I searched on the site's name and accrediation), and even the Apply page. That combined with the 'We've got 1 class, and we're charging for it now' is what had thrown up the red flags for me at the time. I posted my opinion on the site, and people seemed to take umbrage with that.

That and the Courses page while saying 'Our course won't make you a psychologist, you need a degree for that, but here's this list of professions that use psychology' may or may not imply to people that their offerings prepare them to do those jobs. Which is a lot to accomplish, considering the one course available (with another coming in Sept.)

Shrug... As my sig says....

 

I'm not an expert at anything (nor have I claimed to be...that I can recall ) but I'll be more than happy to try and answer.

I'm not saying they should. When I hear the word "Academy" I think of an accredited school or place of higher learning. I may be completely incorrect with this thinking but it's simply what comes to mind when I hear the word. There's no more or less to this line of thinking. Merriam-Webster 1 a : a school usually above the elementary level; especially : a private high school b : a high school or college in which special subjects or skills are taught c : higher education —used with the <the functions of the academy in modern society>

This is what I'm referring to. I guess we could debate the use of the word college as well.

I'm not sure if this is a question or an accusation even with the question mark. I do not suggest that they are at all but I feel like I have the right to question the sudden change. If I don't get an answer then so be it but you cannot fault in any way for asking. This forum is to discuss distance learning right?

Nothing that I can see. I'm a huge fan of CE courses and enjoy the fact that so many of them are available via distance learning. Again, to go back to my main concern I never questioned this at all.