Open Colleges - Opinions and Experiences (Possible Alternatives)

Hi Guys!

I'm currently going through a career change and looking at community services courses. (Diploma in Community services)

I have the dilemma where I want to do a diploma and because I have a higher qualification, I'm not eligible for government funding or support - so I approached universities and they want 18,000 for a diploma course full fee - which I think is daylight robbery.

I also approached some other educational providers by distance education, and one had the cheek of offering the same 18,000 price tag for a distance education style of learning - which is even worse!

I continued to look around and I came across Open colleges (http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/) who are offering the course by distance education and seems like a reasonable price. I was looking on their facebook page for previous reviews, and appears the company is censoring negative feedback - as some of the posts which asked for other students' experiences and feedback had replies hidden by the page moderator. (which leads me to here to get an objective idea).

I'm wondering if anyone else has done training through open colleges and feedback in terms of: - quality of content provided, learner support, were you able to obtain employment upon completion of the course and also general satisfaction with the course.

and if unsatisfied - which other alternatives would you suggest - which is priced well, distance learning (ideally) and provides great content?

One thing which is annoying me at the moment is what appears to be the push from the sales people to sign up and also offering 25% to pay upfront in one go. My hesitation is to have feedback first, as once they have my money they probably won't give a toss.

Look forward to hearing your views and feedback.

Thanks :)