PSA e-learning courses: Don't. Bother.

[phoenix]

I signed up for one of these today, as I have a student just starting sit spins & I thought it would be great to get some new tips for teaching it. The PSA has an e-learning course just for sit spins. Great! I paid $30.00 for it. They send you a link to the "course."

.....it's 3 pages (one if which only has 1 short paragraph of type, the others each have 4 paragraphs). One page for 'preparation' (that's the short one...summary: 'do shoot the ducks'), one for forward sit, one for back sit. And all it does is give you a very detailed *description* of a proper sit spin ........ as in, "step from a right back inside edge to a left forward outside edge with the skating knee deeply bent, into a 3 turn. As the turn is finished the skating knee bends more deeply into the sit posititon and the free foot is drawn around in front, with the foot turned out."....etc, etc, blah blah blah.

The ONLY teaching tip it mentions is that it's good to do shoot the ducks to build the muscles, & practice the getting up at the wall holding on to the boards or off ice. No mention of common errors, intermediate steps, technique tips, etc. Not even a video clip to show a good sit spin. What a rip off. I can only assume the other "courses" are just as weak.

[Clarice]

Do you get credit for having done it, though? I seldom can get to PSA workshops, so it might be worth it to me if I just had to make up a credit or two to keep my rating active. I'm disappointed to hear your review - I was really hoping to use these online courses to learn something!

[phoenix]

Yes, this one was worth 1 credit, some are worth 2 (those cost a little more). For keeping your rating active I can see doing it, but it won't help you be a better coach! Of course maybe some of the others are better, I don't know. I didn't care about the credit, I wanted some real info I could use.

It took me less than 5 minutes to read through it--so it is an easy way to get some credits, that's for sure!

[Clarice]

I might do it, then... but it feels like it would be cheating, somehow. I don't like the idea of essentially "buying" a credit. I guess, since there are not that many courses available, at least you can't get too many credits that way - you still have to actually attend workshops or something.

[dbny]

I think that's a pretty steep price for only 1 credit. If you can manage to get to a seminar, and ISI seminars count too, you can pick up maybe 6 credits at once. The ISI seminars are free.

I must say I'm not surprised at the poor quality of this product, but that I do appreciate the warning in case I got tempted. I bought the PSA study guide for the group instruction test, and it was nothing but questions with no answers 8O. I also thought their study guide for the BA test was a joke and in fact had things in it that were just plain wrong.

[Mrs Redboots]

That is infuriating for you, especially as it's a professional qualification - have you expressed your disappointment and dismay to them?

[phoenix]

Yes, our state seminar generally costs only $25.00 for a full day & gets you 6-8 credits depending on the year. However I thought the e-learning would be great since you can pick the topic you need brushing up on.

And yes, Mrs. Redboots, I sent an email to the PSA & asked if there is a person in charge of their distance learning stuff.....turns out that person is no longer there. I told them I'd like to contribute ideas for a template and structure, & they said they'd love to hear my suggestions. So I'm actually going to put together a proposal & a quick 'demo' web page on a CD to show my thoughts on how those could/should be structured. Maybe I'll get some work out of this!

The distance learning is a great idea & it isnt' rocket science to put together a valuable tutorial on a website. Just takes some thought and a motivated (!) coordinator. Look at the response to the adult moves videos. Those are great & that's the direction the PSA needs to go in.