ManFromMars said:
Schools, and Colleges, charge outrageous prices for tuition and books,
I had a 13 week course, once a week, for 4 hours. The lab was open any week day daytime hours and some evenings hours. On 2 occasions, I used the lab during the day, once during the evening outside of scheduled class hours. That's 52 hours of instruction (not counting additional lab time) for $600, roughly $11.53/hour.
The text cost about $80 new. That is not out of line with text books, nor with technical publications in general. The college offers to buy back used texts. eBay, half.com and Amazon.com (among dozens of other text book sites) offer on-line options for purchase if the book store price seems out-of-line.
Why is a figure of $11.53/hour unreasonable for class room instruction?
ManFromMars said:
they waste a lot of time,
Classes started on time. Some class time was instruction, some class time was lab work on the PLCs. I don't even recall a formal break time. I suppose one could take a break during the lab. Class continued until scheduled finish time. I suppose anyone can goof off, and waste his own time, but there was no wasted time in a structural sense in the course I took. I consider myself an expert on wasted time, having wasted 3 years of my life in the US Army, from induction to discharge.
ManFromMars said:
they are usually mediocre,
The course was exactly as described in the course summary published in the catalog. It was a course for beginners. It covered some topics that I already knew, like number systems (binary, hex, decimal) or boolean, but that doesn't diminish the quality of the class or the instruction. The course covered what the summary said it was going to cover.
Mediocre means barely adequate, poor or inferior.
The community college course I took was none of those. It fulfilled its obligation according to its course description and reasonable expectations of what can be accomplished in 52 hours of instruction.
ManFromMars said:
and their main goal is profit.
While I disagree philosophically with a lot that our community college does, I would have to acknowledge that profit is not their primary or even secondary goal, hence the heavy tax subsidies it receives.
For those courses that are for-profit, thankfully they are there to offer the opportunity to those who wish to avail themselves. I personally think that intensive immersion in a topic is not my particular style for learning, but that's a choice attendees make up front, knowing what the curriculum covers and the time span given for it.
ManFromMars said:
Furthermore, they are short-sighted and don't see past their noses. If they could see any further, they would realize that honestly helping their students learn, instead of focusing on just getting them certified, would be a benefit to their fellow countrymen (and women), and thus to themselves in the long run.
The course desciption was well defined, hence no short-sightedness on their part. They understood their capabilities and expectations and expressed them precisely. There was no certification offered in the course I took, nor was it offered in the other PLC courses in the other community colleges nor at Norhtern Illinois, a state university. The purpose is not certification, it is instruction and practice in basic PLC logic and programming.
ManFromMars said:
The owners(s)of this site appear to understand that.
I don't know what this site's owners' opinion is on schools and courses offering PLC instruction. I'll the owners speak for themselves.
I do not concur with a blanket condemnation of PLC courses from brick and mortar schools for the reasons cited, having attended one in recent years.
