A few weeks ago, I posted a review for an online class that I had completed from a UK-based company called The Centre of Excellence. The class was a self-guided correspondence style class administered through printed text and short quizzes. When compared to more sophisticated classes (ones that use videos, for example) that are technically free through sites like Coursera and EDX, I felt that it fell a bit short considering the cost, but since I was able to get a steep discount through a coupon code it was alright. The class itself was VERY introductory, so I breezed through it, but as an introduction or even the basis for a High school or low-level college class, it would be great. Overall solid experience despite my hangups.

One thing that I did not discuss, due to it not being present for the review, was the fact that I also ordered a physical course material package when I ordered the class. This was fairly cheap, and even with shipping from the UK it was like $30.00 total. As you would imagine, this is literally just the material from the class edited into a book with a plastic spiral bound binder.

Everything is organized very well, and set up exactly like a number of college classes I have taken. You have your chapters to read, followed by a chapter test. Repeat that a dozen times, and that’s basically it.

The quality is pretty good, They could have easily just xeroxed a bunch of this and slapped it together, but it looks pretty professional and has a bit of color every once in a while. There are a few typos that were also in the original online class, but these aren’t too egregious nor do they ruin the experience.

All-in-all this is a good option for somebody that may not have access to their computer and would like to make progress with a class they are taking, or if they’d like to share what was learned to somebody else. The only issue is that, due to international shipping and Covid-19 slowdowns, I received this book WAYYYYY after I completed the class. Its a nice option to have, but its not wholly necessary or convenient.