Each day more people search the web for color therapy home study courses. But without guidance how do you know which course is right for you? Where do you begin, and what are the pros and cons of color therapy home study courses overall?
Let's begin, I'll assume you've already decided you want to study color therapy at home, and this is about how to choose the right kind of course and delivery method for you.
*** Training Levels: Personal or Practitioner
Before we discuss delivery methods, we should consider the level of learning you want to experience. Are you seeking color therapy education for personal use? Because if you are, it increases your choices. Alternatively, if you want to train as a color therapy practitioner, the decision making process becomes more involved because you need to consider whether the course is accredited, whether you'll get certified - and if so, by whom? Color Therapy is still a self regulated profession and not all color therapy training is created equal. More about that later...
*** Practical or Theoretical
Let's assume you want to study color therapy at home for personal use and enjoyment. When you are reviewing a home study course, you need to consider the training offered, is it all theoretical? Will you get reading materials and be expected to simply digest the information?
A so-called 'self-paced' home study course might work for some, but think of this: if a book of information was all it took to be smart, then why are libraries unpopular, and why do people languish with so many self-help products? Simple really, learning is a participatory activity.
A professional educator, trainer or teacher will tell you "doing" helps reinforce learning. Reading provides limited retention of the subject matter, whereas a home study course encouraging participation ensures a higher, and more satisfactory level of learning.
*** What's a Fair Price For a Color Therapy Home Study Course?
At the time of writing there are color therapy home study courses priced for less than $100, to courses priced well over $1,000. And many courses hide their true total cost by offering segments!
Each course creator is entitled to charge whatever they consider fair, however having experienced many of the courses - both cheap and outrageously expensive, I have found the main differences are customer service, interactivity, and support.
And NO, price does not indicate the levels you can expect to receive. More money paid, does not mean more service rendered. In fact, one of the most expensive courses I ever bought simply provided me with a single CD - no printed materials, no email support, no phone support. I'd spent over a thousand dollars and I was on my own!
*** Guarantees
Remember, many color therapy home study courses are not guaranteed. Their creators will sell you the training materials "sight unseen." Caveat Emptor - buyer beware is good advice.
Guarantees are not required by law in many countries. If you are dealing with a trustworthy business, they understand a strong guarantee is great for business. A strong guarantee speaks volumes about them, the course and finally it provides you with a level of comfort reducing any concerns you may have.
*** Delivery & Teaching Methods
Mail order is probably the oldest delivery method available for home study. Today many courses offer this option and if you are located in parts of the world where Internet access is unreliable or limited, it may be good choice. Remember though, the mail can be slow, customs are often an issue, and it's not an interactive medium by modern email or web based standards.
Mail order can deliver course materials in a timed or sequential fashion, but the logistics are tricky. It is possible for one lesson to arrive before another. If you are simply getting the entire course materials in one batch, then out-of-order lessons is not a problem.
The best way to study color therapy at home is via an Internet training model. The web offers excellent opportunities for students, and teachers alike to interact and train in ways which until recently were not possible.
Lesson and other materials are delivered only when appropriate, students are not deluged with information, and tools like email, websites, forums and pod casting makes for a rich learning environment.
Of course, training like this is not for everyone, but for ease of use, interactivity and price - yes, a home color study course delivered via web technologies is often better value than a printed and mailed version.
*** Conclusions
Here's a summary of the things to consider when deciding on the pros and cons of any color therapy home study course:
1. Choose a study location that is quiet, free of distractions, and comfortable- As entertaining as it is to watch American Idol or overhear your sibling's latest school stories, it's not going to help you ace your next exam. You want to be sure you're in a quiet, well-lit place where you're sitting up (preferably at a desk or table) so that you can focus on the material. The only thing that should be on your mind is finishing your degree in criminology. Eliminate IM, TV, radio, and music.
2. Create and save your study guides and class notes- Studying success is an ongoing process and starts with preparation. You should create study aids and review your notes for each quiz and test. Keep them in a folder so that when you have the bigger tests, you will save valuable time that you can use for studying. (More to come on making study guides)
3. Separate your study time into "power blocks" and take quick breaks- The best way to use your time is to study for 30-45 minutes in a "power block" set where you only focus on the work at hand. Then, take a 5 minute break to reward and refresh yourself. Grab a snack, check your phone, look up the score of the game. It's up to you. Just keep it short, then jump back into the studying.
4. Study when you're rested and alert- Are you a morning rooster, a day eagles, or a night owl? If you hit the snooze button multiple times before waking, chances are studying in the morning would be a challenge. If you're dozing off after eating mom's pasta dinner, night time might not be the best option. Figure out when you have the most energy and study then. Obviously, if you're schedule doesn't allow much wiggle room, study when you are free. As a general rule of thumb, morning roosters: study 30 minutes before school, day eagles: study during lunch and free periods, night owls: study after dinner.
5. Don't wait until the last minute!- If you know you have an upcoming quiz/test in a few days, prioritize your tasks so that you'll spend some time each day preparing and going over the material. A gradual review of the information is much more effective than a last minute cram session. As Ben Franklin once said, "You may delay, but time will not."
In Part 1 of this series, I asked if you had ever read a list of study skills but just didn't know how to go about making them happen. Like me, you've probably read a list of study tips and thought, 'Yes, I've read all that before'. And you probably remember two weeks later being just as stressed about study and wondering what you could do to improve your study skills!! Well, I realised later that I had been reading that list of study skills and not really knowing how to put them into practise.
In this article, I continue with my idea of talking with people who have been very successful in their careers and finding out what study habit they thought was the biggest help in their student days. Here in Part 2, I speak with an older family friend (Robbie) who studied as a mature age student. What she first told me blew me away.
Robbie's best study tip was this: Do the ironing!!!
At first I thought she had misunderstood but when I repeated the question she laughed and said, 'Do the ironing - I mean it!!' As she talked through how she approached her studies as a mature age student, I began to see that there were similar elements to Uncle James' approach but she had modified it to suit her situation.
Here's Robbie's story: Although she was a good scholar, Robbie had not finished her business degree as she had decided to start a family early. When her daughter started school she found her brain was hungry for something new in her life so she decided to finish her degree. Full of eagerness to start her new challenge she soon found that there was just never enough hours in the day to do everything she wanted.
So study time and family time were now her priority after she left the office. She began to approach her study time in a 'must do' methodical manner reaching all the study deadlines imposed so she was rarely behind in her study schedule. Robbie then rewarded herself each day with precious family time as her way to relax. In this way, Robbie's family time acted like Uncle James' car time (see Part 1 of this series). Robbie's family was her passion.
She soon realised that she'd made more and more short-cuts in the housework to keep up her family time. As she finished her last assignment, she found herself stressing about the pile of unironed clothes, the grubby bathroom, the messy pantry, etc, etc. She felt so full of restless energy the thought of having to force herself to sit and study for the final exams had her feeling stressed big time. Then Robbie hit on an idea which became her sanity saver at every exam time - she did the ironing!
First she gathered all the notes she'd made on each subject and read them out aloud recording herself at the same time. Her thinking was that she would play the recordings and just kick back and relax as she listened. As she read aloud, she found there were parts in her notes which she really didn't understand so took time to go over these points. Once all the notes were recorded, Robbie said she instantly felt less jumbled in her brain. But as she began to play the recordings back she began to feel restless in her body and felt she needed something to occupy her hands and body while her brain was free to listen to the recording. That's when she got out the ironing board!
Each set of recordings per subject covered 3 or 4 hours and as she played and replayed the recordings, she did the ironing. Then she did the pantry, the bathroom, and the clothes mending. When she felt really tired she allowed herself to doze and kept the recording playing. So by the time the exam day came around she had listened to the recordings perhaps 6 or 7 times while she was doing what she began to call her 'mindless activity'. When Robbie walked into the first exam she really had no idea if her study strategy was going to work. All she knew was that she had done her best.
In that first exam, Robbie astounded herself with how easily she was able to answer the questions. She wrote furiously for the whole allotted time and just knew that she had given the right answers. But the best was still to come. When the results came out she had aced both subjects!!
When I asked Robbie to summarize what she had done, she came up with these pearls of wisdom:
Now you may not be a mature age student who has a pile of ironing to do at the end of the semester but it should be possible to find your own 'mindless activity' to do while you listen to your recordings. You could clean your bedroom, work on a hobby, cook a meal, do some gentle exercise, or like Uncle James, work on your car. Robbie continued to study in this way for the 5 years that it took her to do her degree part time and she continued to get good grades. She has no doubts that doing the ironing was her best study strategy!
WHY STUDY GROUPS ARE SO USEFUL
A study group for a college class is very useful for many reasons. A study group can help you get a much better grade. Also, you can meet people from your class in study group sessions and get to know them better. In addition, people in your group can help you focus on the important study topics in class so that you can cover more in less time. Nontraditional students can meet other kinds of students in a study group. Also, you will even feel more comfortable in class after you have met in your study group a few times.
IN-PERSON STUDY GROUPS VS. ONLINE GROUPS
You can form study groups in person or online. I find that in person study groups are easier, but both kinds of groups are good to have. Most of my experiences using study groups come from groups made for face-to-face classes, but I did have at least one online study group. Both were really helpful to me. If you have a choice of having your study group either meeting online or in person I would choose in person, because it's a lot more fun. You can talk and get to know each other a lot easier. But online study groups are also good. You can make a profile on these groups and they help to break the ice with other members of your group.
CHOOSING A GOOD TIME TO HAVE A STUDY MEETING
Most often, when a study group was formed, everyone got together first after class to decide when we would meet. Some people would want to have the study group meet after class. Some would want to meet before class (that was usually my idea). Others thought meeting an extra time before a test of quiz would be helpful. We all voted for which time everyone could make it. Most times, my groups decided to meet before class every week or two. This would not require an extra commute to school, and it was handy to meet at an area in the same building as the class so we could go right to class after we met.
DIVIDING UP THE WORK
We had some hard tests and quizzes to prepare for; so my study groups usually divided the work in to sections. One person covered one subject or question, and the others did the rest. We made quiz cards up, too, and brought them to the meetings. Sometimes we quizzed each other, using cards or questions we brought in. This helped a lot to focus in on what we did and didn't know - and helped each of us know what we needed to study the most.
Plus, making the cards helped us learn the material, too. The effort of writing down questions helped me learn the facts better. We also helped each other by reminding each other about assignments and answered each other's questions.
MAKING THE MEETINGS
Sometimes, work or family responsibilities interfered with meetings, and some people could not come to one or more meetings. But usually, we still had enough people there to make each study group worthwhile. I found that having more than two total people in the study group really made sense. If I only had another person, if that person missed the study group meeting, I wouldn't be able to study with someone at all, and it was a waste of time. This didn't matter as much with three or more people in the group.
ASKING PEOPLE ABOUT BEING IN A STUDY GROUP
I was shy at first to ask people around me about being in a study group. But I knew I needed the help, and I knew that others probably did, too. I had to force myself to ask people around me. I tried to ask people before class, or at least before the teacher got there. And, of course, I asked people who I thought were smart, had a good work ethic, and seemed friendly. Also, because I asked people who were there early, I got the most motivated students to join. I would stop asking after four or five people said yes, because a larger group than that seemed too big.
Then I made a list with everyone's name, phone number and email on it, and gave everyone mine too. I asked everyone if we could talk after class and decide when to meet after that. If anyone had a class right after that, we offered to phone or email that person to find out when was good for him or her. But usually it didn't take long to decide when was good for everyone.
Everything just fell into place easily after that. We all decided when to meet and how often, and whether or not to have special study sessions right before a test. Sometimes we met in the class building, and sometimes other places on campus.
After I started my first study group, other groups became easier to start, because I got used to it and wasn't so shy or nervous about it. I was surprised to find that a lot of other people thought a study group was a good idea, too!
SOME PEOPLE SAID NO
Not everyone wanted to be in a study group. When I asked people around me in class if they wanted to be in a study group, some people just said no. I didn't let this bother me. Even if only two or three people would be interested, I figured that it still was a big enough group. The biggest group I had when I was in college was about six people. The smallest was two (which I don't recommend because sometimes somebody forgets about it, and then you don't get a good benefit from it. But if that is all the members you can get, then I would do it anyway.
WHAT MY STUDY GROUPS ACCOMPLISHED
I truly believe that having study groups for class (especially for difficult classes) made a huge difference in my grades. I think it helped at least one grade mark every time I was in a study group. Also, study groups really helped before tests. Talking with others and hearing what they thought would be on the test really made me remember facts a lot better than just trying to cram them in on my own.
Plus, many times, the people in the study group had noticed points the teacher said that weren't even in my notes at all! Then I would see these things on the test and remember them. What a great boost that was. I found that I felt more prepared and wasn't so nervous before tests, too. That helped me so much.
The other people in my study groups told me that they were also glad they joined the group. They said it made learning so much easier for them. I agreed with them!
AN ADDED BENEFIT TO STUDY GROUPS
I believe that I really connected better with other students by being in a study group with them. We would sometimes talk about other things besides class, and that made the study groups a lot more fun. We got to know more personal things about each other - like what everybody's lives were like at home, and what people's hobbies and interests were. It was a great way to make friends. Most of the people in each group were a lot younger, but when we had the time (at study group time) to get to know each other, it make it easy to be friends. That made going to class and studying a lot more fun.
I now had people I actually KNEW in class with me. It made being in class a lot more comfortable. I found that it was more fun waiting for the teacher to get there, and also made group work more enjoyable. And today some of us still keep in touch. I feel like I really made some good friends this way. I also felt more connected.
It was just easier to be in class, and also less intimidating. I was so much more comfortable - - and people talked to me more, too. It was a win-win situation to get to know people in my study groups, plus it really helped improve my grades.
So... I would definitely recommend being in a study group if you are taking a face-to-face class or in an online class. It sure helped me!
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Plants are shaped by cultivation and men by education. .. We are born weak, we need strength; we are born totally unprovided, we need aid; we are born stupid, we need judgment. Everything we do not have at our birth and which we need when we are grown is given us by education.
(Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile, On Philosophy of Education)