Oxford Distance Learning Reviews

It has always been my wish to be able to learn from a reputable college, i have a high regard for the academy keep up with the good work

Oxford Learning is a leading provider of distance education in the United Kingdom. They have a well-respected and outstanding education.

I believe the answer to the question should be solved easily for a student like me. Nice experience. Highly experience.

The job of the course is brilliant. A good variety of courses for everyone is available. I'd highly recommend it.

I am a mature Student and haven't studied for a long time. I wanted to do a course in Therapeutics. There are a good selection of courses for everyone, even ones I didn't think you could study online. My course materials were easy to understand and well written. My tutor was very helpful and gave lots of advice and guidance. When I was struggling a bit, I would message my tutor, who would help me. Student Services, well they were amazing. They gave me the willpower to continue and encouraged me when I was close to giving up. I have now finished my course and gained my Certificate and I feel so proud. I would certainly recommend Oxford Learning College, excellent service, keep up the good work.

I thoroughly enjoyed this course! Despite studying the A Level during COVID, there was no disruption at all. The tutor was really encouraging and helpful and the website really easy to navigate. Should I ever feel the need to do another A Level, I wouldn't hesitate to return to Oxford College! 😊

Great course and great course material.

This is one of the best online courses I have ever studied. I completed it before the course expired and I got a distinction! All thanks to my tutor who couldn't have been more helpful. I would highly recommend Oxford Learning.

I was looking for something to do during lockdown to keep my mind occupied and decided to enrol onto a course never done this sort of thing before and I must say I had a really great time on the course and found it interesting. My tutor was fantastic answering all my questions and providing me with a reference.
Students services were really helpful through out.
I would definitely recommend the Journalism course with Oxford Learning College.

For me, online learning is something new and has really been unheard of until the last few years. I looked into and there's honestly been a mixed approach towards online learning but I came across Oxford Learning. As skeptical as I was, I contacted them via email and they were able to answere all my questions, if not more, with a follow up on how online learning works and what I would need to do to achieve a great I would like and I'm glad that I did. I gained an insight in another field after getting my maths and I'm really happy that I reached out with them. Not only was the initial contact with them great but everything else was superb. Tutors were friendly and did their absolute best to allow me to get the grade I needed to get a job allowing me to get a job I'm happy with in the midst of a pandemic. For anyone looking for an online course especially in maths, look no further.

I enrolled on 3 A levels with the College, namely English Literature, History and Maths.
I found the materials really clear and follow building up of your knowledge as you work through the course and the different units which builds on your confidence.
I wondered if distance learning would be for me, but have to say all my tutors were fantastic and helpful, especially in Maths which was my weakest subject to take on. I asked so many questions that were replied to in good time and really supportive.
I only had to contact support before i signed in but the staff were helpful in explaining exactly the format of study.

I've had nothing but positives from Oxford Learning College.

I have gained an incredibly wide range of skills that I am able to transfer elsewhere. I am able to argue recommendations to help solve problems in any business management.

I am excited to get a profession using this new qualification that was well supported by my tutors.

Poor preparation, poor technology, poor content.

There was ONE great book recommendation. So they do actually deserve one star. If you, however, just read books on economics you will get more information from it, have more fun and the same amount of meaningful interactions with other human beings.

Apart from that...dont waste your time with this. HBX is a million times better.

So I was studying 3 A Levels with Oxford Learning College currently (cost me about £850). I'd seen some negative reviews, but they didn't stop me as I needed predicted grades and a reference, and this was one of the only distance learning providers who arrange this service. An exam centre near me was willing to give me predicted grades and a reference but would charge me £600 just for this. I thought it would be better to just pay an extra £250 so I'd have tutors and wouldn't have to buy textbooks. Man, was I wrong.

The "tutors" reply to questions only via text, and there are no sessions with a tutor. You just leave them a question and they'll get back to you in the following weeks pretty much whenever they feel like it. I'm not even sure how qualified these tutors are, because all three of my tutors seem like they haven't taught students in a very long time or have little teaching experience. They'll mark work to the bear minimum - just awarding marks and maybe one sentence about how to improve (even for essay based subjects such as English Literature).

The "textbooks" they provide are just PDFs that are 600 pages long and extremely difficult to use. They don't even provide an equipment list (calculator, novels, textbooks etc.). They have an assessment after every topic, and for subjects like Psychology, the sections in the textbook do not discuss exam technique. Maybe this is the reason that they cannot provide students with accurate marks according the actual exam board mark scheme. Instead, they follow the American grading system (awarding grades like B - or A+). I googled it and found that an exam I had been given a B on was actually deserving of an A* according to the AQA mark scheme (Psychology). Similarly, for Maths, my tutor had marked an exam paper as A -, and after checking the mark scheme I realised that it was in fact also an A* (I'd only missed out on about 11 marks, which is why I was surprised not to have got an A*). They then base your UCAS predictions and reference on these incorrectly calculated grades. The predictions I deserved were A* A* A*, but actually received an A A A* (luckily I got all five of my offers, but it was still inaccurate). Even my reference was so half-assed. I asked my Psychology tutor to provide it, and they just gave me two lines saying I had improved since starting with OLC.

The head office of the company is based in Gibraltar, and I don't think they've actually spent any time studying the UK A Level curriculum for any exam board. The work they provide for technical subjects such as Maths is extremely easy (GCSE level) work. Maths is already a subject that is hard to learn with no interaction from a tutor, but this tutor's ability to explain any issue I was having was also severely lacking. For English Literature, the tutor will only check your coursework once before submission, and barely corrects anything again. The tutor's responses are vague, and rather than telling me how to improve the problem, they'd just point out the problem. While I do think my Psychology tutor was more qualified, I do think they taught more at a university level (the way they encouraged me to write essays etc) as opposed to A Level work. This meant that if I hadn't studied on my own, without any influence from OLC, I wouldn't have learnt much to do with exam technique.

The cost of everything was crazy. It cost me over £300 extra just to get my predicted grades sorted (I can't remember 100% but I believe it was £20 per subject for a predicted grade (£60), £30 for a reference, then I had to complete 2 exam papers in each subject which cost £40 for the paper and marking each (£240)). If I had known I'd be facing that extra cost, I would have just gone with the exam centre near my house where they charged £600 for everything. At least this way, I could save the remainder of the money for some good tutors and legitimate textbooks which would have done the job, not to mention, got the predicted grades and reference I deserved.

The one thing I didn't hate about OLC is the fact that their admin and student service staff is very knowledgeable and very willing to solve any problems. They are quick to reply to messages and do their best to deal with any problems.

I would not recommend anyone use this distance learning provider. Do some research, and even if you end up paying more, definitely find a place that has tutors who actually care about their students and can provide some accurate information. I don't mean to be horrible about them, and this was just my personal experience - it may not be everyone else's.

I will never recommend The Oxford Learning College. oxfordcollege.ac

The students services were not very helpful, and abrasive to have to talk to.

The contact via the 'Campus' area (the area only enrolled students have access to) is adequate. Nothing more.

The chemistry course materials have glaring errors which I had to check against more reliable sources. A great deal of the chemistry materials were taken from an unaffiliated website which has far better explanations, examples, and general English language.

Some questions and calculations necessary for the assignments are not present in the course materials.

The cost of course enrollments gets you: an assigned personal tutor (to answer queries and mark assignments), and a PDF of course materials. Literally, every thing else is an added expense, or free for all via the website.

It is my belief that Oxford Learning College are riding on the good and reputable name of The University of Oxford and drawing in customers with a polished website.

Ultimately, the courses may be cheaper than other providers. But the money saved will greatly impact the quality of the course you enroll on.

I only gave 1 star as there is no option to give none.

This is the worst online course I have ever done, the materials given are poor and make no sense. They ask you questions in the assessments before they have taught you that part of the course, so it's just in random order. Graphs and figures are missing, with links that either do not work or go to Wikipedia pages! The whole course material looks like it's been put together by a 12 year old.

Tutor's are unhelpful and do not answer my questions properly, their answers are extremely vague or they tell me to use the links that don't work.

The administration team refuse to acknowledge my concerns and will not offer a refund. I am paying around £800 for this course and I have not learned a single thing.

Do not use this place as you will not learn anything and be out of pocket from it.

I have never been so disappointed in online learning as I am right now. I have been studying for Level 3 Counselling Diploma, and the whole experience was a complete joke, please do some more research before you pay, this company is a waste of time and money

Materials: online course materials (about 260 pages) are very basic and poor, towards the end of them I was just scrolling down as the information provided was just making me angry. Basically, you don’t learn anything during this course, and it is just for the paper. The ‘fill in’ worksheets are impossible to fill in as it won’t allow you in both online or PDF paid version. Assignments are optional, so you can just do exam in the end. I started submitting them from the beginning but then decided not to, they were ridiculous. Mind you, if you want just a paper, you can just buy a course and do the exam.

Tutor: I am sure more than half of people studying for the courses are more qualified than the ‘tutors’. Not reading my questions and answering absolutely something different, with grammatical mistakes (?!?!?!) in ever answer. I guess the tutors are just some people who have completed a similar online course to be a tutor and here they are now, ‘tutoring’ you. I have done other online courses and the tutors have been fantastic.

Value for money: my course was over £450, and my company has paid for it asa part of part of my professional development. If I have paid the money myself I think I would have cried. But I could have chosen another course and actually learned something which is now too late. If you want a PDF version of your course materials, pay extra, which is a complete nonsense as the materials online are very hard to read and you have to zoom in every single page, then zoom out, flip the page and zoom in again. If you want your certificate printed, another £35, a reference from a ‘tutor’, also costs money!!!

Exam: it was a joke. Questions completely not related to what was in the course, the exam is definitely not designed to ‘check’ your knowledge, they are just random questions with ridiculous options of answers which are just designed to trick you (the ones with very similar wording).

All in all, please please please don’t do a mistake like I did and do some research before you purchase your online course.

not worth the price but overall not bad content

Biology A level (Fast Track)
I'm so disappointed with what I (didn't) receive for my money with this course.
Maybe I've been spoiled in the past by The Open University, but at nearly £400 for what is essentially a pretty crappy book, I honestly feel sick.
My expectations for that money would be:
A course plan. I needed to know how much study I should be doing each week. I asked my tutor for this, and was told that they didn't make one for Fast Track courses (surely, with limited time, this is exactly the sort of resource that should be provided!).
Better course materials. The 'book' is crap. It is badly written, waffles about less important facts and skips over other bits. The actual way it is laid out is really cumbersome and impossible to bookmark or flick through quickly. It is a super boring format with a few pictures (all from Wikipedia), that do nothing to explain any of the topics. I very quickly realised that buying the official textbook and revision guide is the only way to learn anything.
Past papers. You have to pay extra to get past papers here. Yes, there are a couple of TMAs, but these are badly formatted and short. It would be far more useful to have actual Edexcel past paper questions as the TMAs.
Revision. There are no summaries, no key points, no revision pages in the long-winded book. No little questions, no keywords, nothing that will get you thinking at the end of each topic.
Practicals. Most at home students will not actually get the practical endorsement, but as there are many exam questions on techniques, I actually think that it would be essential to make simple videos showing the course practicals.
Communication. I actually didn't use my tutor, as it was easier to just go online for help when I needed it. However, my lowest expectation would be maybe an email halfway through asking how I was getting on, and a note to say good luck with your exams! Got absolutely nothing. I am genuinely gobsmacked that I didn't even get an automated good luck email...
Basically, I feel embarrassed that I trusted them and gave them so much money. Totally scammed is the only way to describe how I feel.

Biology A level (Fast Track)
I'm so disappointed with what I (didn't) receive for my money with this course.
Maybe I've been spoiled in the past by The Open University, but at nearly £400 for what is essentially a pretty crappy book, I honestly feel sick.
My expectations for that money would be:
A course plan. I needed to know how much study I should be doing each week. I asked my tutor for this, and was told that they didn't make one for Fast Track courses (surely, with limited time, this is exactly the sort of resource that should be provided!).
Better course materials. The 'book' is crap. It is badly written, waffles about less important facts and skips over other bits. The actual way it is laid out is really cumbersome and impossible to bookmark or flick through quickly. It is a super boring format with a few pictures (all from Wikipedia), that do nothing to explain any of the topics. I very quickly realised that buying the official textbook and revision guide is the only way to learn anything.
Past papers. You have to pay extra to get past papers here. Yes, there are a couple of TMAs, but these are badly formatted and short. It would be far more useful to have actual Edexcel past paper questions as the TMAs.
Revision. There are no summaries, no key points, no revision pages in the long-winded book. No little questions, no keywords, nothing that will get you thinking at the end of each topic.
Practicals. Most at home students will not actually get the practical endorsement, but as there are many exam questions on techniques, I actually think that it would be essential to make simple videos showing the course practicals.
Communication. I actually didn't use my tutor, as it was easier to just go online for help when I needed it. However, my lowest expectation would be maybe an email halfway through asking how I was getting on, and a note to say good luck with your exams! Got absolutely nothing. I am genuinely gobsmacked that I didn't even get an automated good luck email...
Basically, I feel embarrassed that I trusted them and gave them so much money. Totally scammed is the only way to describe how I feel.

Since I've been on this course I have been generally unsatisfied with the standard of support. Whenever I asked my tutor a question, I always get the impression that I am disturbing her. Her answer is short without hardly any in-depth descriptions that would help and support me with my queries. She doesn't teach me anything.

Also, there is no relationship between tutor and student. My tutor cannot be bothered to address me by my name, half of the time, when she emailed me, I find this extremely disrespectful. She will never even say, "Hi (name), I hope that you are well." The other thing is when I submit my work, she never acknowledges the fact that she has received my work. I submitted my Unit 2 assignments on Monday the 29/01/19, and I didn't hear anything back until I sent her an email 15 days later. Even after emailing her, it was the student services who got in touch with me and told me that the document that I sent was a blank document. This was obviously a huge lie when I submitted my work; I went on to check several times if my coursework was adequately submitted and it was. So, not only I have been lied to that the document that I have sent was blank, but also shouldn't my tutor have the common decency to tell me that my work document is blank?
I am an independent student, and I have completed, a distance learning, access course to a very high standard and my former tutors all had one thing in common, and that was their love for teaching. So, I do know how distance learning is supposed to operate.
With Oxford college campus, there is a considerable lack of consideration for students. The cost of the course is expensive, while the standard is next to none. Here are a few factors where I believed they are lacking;
1) First and foremost, I don't think Oxford learning college care about their students at all.
2)Students don't receive a weekly email from their tutors and see how they are getting on.
3) They aren't allowed to receive a weekly phone call, to support students on things that need advice.
4) Students and tutors don't have a forum where they can talk to each other. Even traditional colleges have forums for students. Inclusion is essential for everyone, but the Oxford learning college promotes exclusions.
5)Another thing that is absurd is the ridiculous website. I seriously, cannot believe whenever I need to submit my presentation, I need to send it to Student Services.
6) Individuals who study with Oxford learning college are nothing but a number.
7) Every single universities and college, that provide higher education courses, here in the United Kingdom, provide students with Turnitin accounts, for them to check their work for plagiarism and Oxford college doesn't offer such thing for their students.
If your future academic and career prospects mean a lot to you, do not even think about studying with them. You will regret it.

I believe that their 5 stars reviews are fake reviews that have been purchased online.

I just finished my Family Counselling level 3 course. From my experience you look into approaches and theories of counselling, person-centred approaches, concepts of family counselling and how to focus on specific elements of family issues during your counselling sessions. You learn how to organise sessions and what you will discuss during them, and how this helps communication between families.

The course was a great addition to my current knowledge as I was already working within the counselling field. The course material was designed for both fields of work and training. The course materials are presented clearly using unit numbers. Within the units you have self assessments to complete, these helped as revisions aids at the end of the course.

A great course for anyone in the industry or for those who have an interest in this type of course.

I took this course as a add on for my own professional development. I have just started to work as an apprentice in the science facilities at my local college. I am interested in the human body and everything which goes with it such as this course, diet and nutrition and exercise.

The material given online was good quality, easy to read and easy to put into action (for my course at least).

Accredited Level 3 Forensic and Criminal Psychology

I chose the forensic and criminal psychology as i have always found this type of crime and forensics interesting. I enjoy watching forensic programmes which inspired me to complete a course in this field. I have learnt so much so far and there are still some units to complete before i finish my course and are ready to take the exam.

I have worked through various units so far which were clearly labelled online and the instructions were simple to follow for anyone using the online studying programmes. I was surprised by the level of content and quality of the material. I have recommended it to several work colleagues and friends,its certainly the best online college I've studied with yet.