Park Manor Academy of Psychology?

Tone is difficult to gauge in postings. That is what brought about my reaction. I felt the tone was negative. I will say now, however, that I think your previous response to me was very well done. I don't think a school needs accreditation to offer one or two courses for $20 each, but then again, who am I to judge. I just looked at their website and noticed a tag that says they (or he) is still working on the new website. That might explain the file not found messages some of us were getting earlier. Red flags are everywhere. I got some when I researched this forum, but that doesn't mean what's posted here is of no use.

 

Never heard of it until now. I like the fact that it's currently only offering two classes and that it isn't offering phony degrees. This is the kind of thing that somebody with limited resources, perhaps an out-of-work academic or something, could realistically accomplish.

http://www.parkmanoracademy.com/courselist.html

The price certainly seems to be inexpensive as well. The proprietor isn't ripping anyone off.

Yeah, that looks like the format. Nothing wrong with that, assuming that the class has some value.

I don't expect that Park Manor class-completion certificates will have very much occupational value. The school's website probably does oversell them some.

This thing's value will consist in the content learned more than in any certificate that signifies it. Its utility will probably be greatest for people who just want to learn something more about the subject, I guess, for personal reasons and/or because they think that the knowledge might be useful somehow.

Libraries are filled with books that you can read for free. I think that the value-added in these Park Manor courses is probably going to be the interactive factor, the extent that they permit students to discuss their ideas with a subject matter specialist.

That's not something to sneer at. Education in general and DL in particular needn't always result in degrees. The pure-education aspect is why I remain interested in taking DL classes at this point.

So ultimately, the value of this Park Manor enterprise is going to largely depend on the identity and qualifications of whoever is teaching its classes.

I didn't see any names featured during a quick cursory look around its website. Who is teaching this? What might motivate a prospective student to want to study with him rather than just read a book from the library? That's my biggest question at this point.

 

I don't give Park Manor class-completion certificates very much credence. The school is totally unknown, so it's not really in any position to certify anything about the education that somebody may or may not receive.

That's how I think of 'legitimacy'. For my purposes, a class or a program is legitimate if it teaches suitable material, suitably well, at a suitable level. It shouldn't be excessively flaky either; some unaccredited DL programs turn out to be run by cranks in order to promote their own peculiar doctrines.

Just about all of my own interest in DL these days is in individual classes taken for continuing education purposes and in various non-degree, non-credit offerings. I'm not involved with any accredited university classes or programs at the moment and remain entirely happy.

Like I said, I consider certificates from an unknown and unaccredited class provider to be largely worthless. Whether or not you thought that the educational experience itself was worth while is up to you. If you want other people to accept the value of Park Manor and to believe that it might be an attractive educational resource for them as well, a more persuasive case remains to be made.

I have no argument with any of that and can definitely relate to it. What you just said sounds like some of the things that I've occasionally written.

But you did lose me a little with the remainder of your post. As your anger became more apparent your defense of Park Manor threatened to become a larger personality-battle with the board. That's counter-productive to your purpose. If you really want to defend your school's honor, then you should be posting in such a way that people will feel good about it.

 

Developmental Psychology

The content of the Developmental Psychology course looks compatible with the Dantes Lifespan Developmental Psychology challenge exam. Probably can't hurt taking the course than the DANTES exam if one desires college credit. On the other hand, you may consider going to the local library and checking out a textbook for free!