The Facts about Distance Education 

Physiotherapy = four years   \
Chiropractic = five years        | = Face-to-face tuition
Osteopathy = five years       / 

• Massage Therapists treat a lot of the same disorders as the above professions therefore they must be highly skilled to cater for clients who have the same musculoskeletal disorders.
• The above professions require a high level of hands-on training and developed proficiency in dealing with clients with complex needs. This is accomplished by in-depth training and lots of clinics. This cannot be done by Distance education or home study.
• Massage Therapists require even more development in palpation skills (palpate means to touch). Clients expect this of the massage profession more than any other health profession.
• Therefore quality of touch and communication skills can only be achieved through practice and interaction with others. This cannot be done by watching a DVD or through home study learning assignments.
• Interactive classes to develop these skills take time. The quicker and easier the training for a qualification (such as distance education can provide) often means that there is less depth in the course: something has to be left out or not discussed.
• Some health funds do not accept courses completed by distance education.

If you would like to know more, read on...

To be self-employed, a high degree of skills training, communication skills and business management is required to be successful. So let's take the case of someone doing a subject by distance education and another who learns face-to-face with flexible delivery.

A. Mary likes home study and lives in the country. She enrols in a Massage course via distance education which includes the subjects Manage a Practice and Clinical Practice. She is sent notes, textbooks and assignments. She completes the assignments for her Manage a Practice and is then passed as "competent" for that subject.

She did not have any class interaction with fellow students or the trainer of the subject. There were no verbal communications involved, only lots of swotting and assignments. What Mary did not know is that there is a large dropout factor in those doing distance ed, so the assignments were simplified so the subject is not too hard as to prevent her from "giving up." Mary has just learnt "book knowledge" and had no direct experience or advice from any peers.

During her course, Mary was curious and visited the city. She has a massage at a clinic of another training institution and discovers that her practical clinic time was very limited due to the distance education. Mary discovers the quality of touch that the students have developed at this institution, is not something she has experienced before and relates it to that fact that they do a lot of clinic. Mary eventually gains her Diploma, but upon graduation seems a little confused about how to start her own business and not too confident as to how to promote herself. Mary decides instead to apply for a few jobs but does not hear from the employers. Some how she feels that something is "missing" from her education. She approaches one employer who reluctantly informs her that the massage was not as good as some others interviewed.

B. Conversely, Bill, who also lives in the country, decides to do the same subjects by going to a series of short weekend workshops. Bill drives for two hours to the workshops. One of the workshops is practice management which is taken by a business guru who happens to be a massage practitioner with a busy practice. Bill immediately finds the the trainer is genuine and is very knowlegable about the industry. Mini interactive workshops were held over the weekend on brainstorming and other subjects related to developing your own business.

The subject matter becomes more real to Bill and he realises the importance of the subject and it is not "just an impost" subject to be completed. He realises that he is 'on to something here". As he is going to be on his own after graduation he now has some great ideas of how to go about marketing and setting up his own business. His trainer has guided him through how to do the assignments and what is required to be competent. Bill then goes and does the assignments at home in half the time that Mary took even though they cover more material and information!

Bill gains competency and confidence with insider information on how to develop a practice from a Master Trainer. Meanwhile he has also completed extensive supervised clinics that he thought at the time were a little lengthy. He soon realises that he has developed a good rapport with a lot of clients in the clinic who ask for him by name as they like his treatments. Bill also notices that his he feels more confident from all the clinics and his hands feel different when touching people.

Bill feels he now has developed some quality of touch. He graduates with a Diploma and sets up his own clinic immediately and also works for someone else due to the connections that he has made in class. He is very confident about the future as his own clients are rebooking with him and soon he has a regular clientele at the two clinics. Bill has realised that the quality of touch does make the difference!

The Benefits of the classroom

One of the best things about being in massage class is having the opportunity to deepen the learning experience with fellow learners and interaction with the trainer. Learning the particular set of skills it takes to be a good massage therapist is an extremely complex undertaking, as it takes place on many levels simultaneously - (visual, auditory and kinesthetic, not to mention emotional, intellectual and spiritual). The studying of these skills, therefore, should take place on a multiplicity of levels as well. Participation in different groups with like-minded learners helps reinforce the learning experience.

 Being in a class gives you real bodies on which to practice new skills. This is beneficial not only to practice your modality technique, but also to enhance your palpation skills

 Classes take the sometimes abstract concepts that make up much of anatomy and physiology and places them squarely within a practical realm. You're no longer reading about the infraspinatus muscle; you're experiencing it! Another way classes reinforce learning is they give you an opportunity to practice and use the vocabulary of the modality subject you are learning. Just as with learning any new language, proficiency is the result of continual usage. If you have someone with whom to practice all of your new found nouns and predicates, they will become ingrained in you. Your study partners may also have developed their own tips, tricks and techniques for learning particular concepts that they can share with you and vice versa.

These are one of the many advantages of group learning and another reason why other tactile professions like Physiotherapy or chiropractic are not taught by distance education.