Learning Exchange

Caution/​Warning: I was charged twice for a class taken on January 21, 2016. Office said the problem was their system crashed three times that day. I tried to sign up in the office and was told the system crashed so my information was taken and was then to be entered later. Never do that and I will never do that again. Called this morning to resolve problem and office person kept talking over my words; asked her to stop; it was rude. I did not try to sign up online myself nor did I sign up for two people’s attendance. A refund or a credit can not be issued until the accountant comes in on Monday, January 25, 2016. Have taken classes there since 1980 and they are usually very good, but this one office person was very rude and offensive. Check your credit/​debit statements for any classes taken and in the future.

I love that I can take a Spanish class here one week and a cooking class the next. I am looking forward to taking more classes here and to teaching a couple of my own. The owner was very communicative when we were working on scheduling and class formats. I was impressed.

My husband and I teach here each fall. We lead a unique ghost tour and paranormal investigation once a year as well. The exchange has been very fair with our pay rate and took less money to donate to the hosting investigation location. I’m happy to be a part of the learning exchange.

I took two writing and publishing classes here. As you can imagine, the quality of the instructors and content is pretty shallow. In my experience, the instructor I had was mainly there to sell her own books, require us to buy one of them for the class, and then literally read from it for the entire day of classes. Not sure why I needed to spend an extra $ 17 for some hack author to read to me.
Additionally, the instructor based everything off of her extremely limited experience, and threw in shameless plugs for her own business while teaching the class. I got the vibe that she was just preying on the ignorance of others and left there feeling like I had been had.
Again, I only speak for the writing and publishing classes offered at the Learning Exchange. If you see any classes there taught by Bobbie Christensen, don’t sign up.

I have taken a few classes and they were fine. In my opinion the cost is often just a bit more than I am willing to pay. If the prices were lower, I would take more classes. =(

I took my fourth class via Learning Exchange a week ago on Cold Process Soap Making. The class was a gift from my husband for Christmas, and I loved it. I learned a lot. The instruction was a bit dry, but the topic was very interesting and very hands on. The only issue was that the room was very crowded and it felt a little too much so when we were actually going through the soap making process. I will definitely take a class here again though.

The quality of classes varies too much according to which class you take. I’ve taken two classes and both instructors seemed to be there mainly to drum up clients for their businesses and sell their books. The content and instruction were thin. Nothing I could not have learned from scouring the internet or viewing a handful of Youtube tutorials. In talking with others, it seems like the very best bets are on cooking classes from chefs/​restaurants you respect. They were much better satisfied with those than I was with the hair class and the music class I took. I was just looking at the Learning Exchange’s offerings tonight and it appears to me that some for-​profit adult-​ed schools are giving classes that, by all appearances, seem to be little more than sales pitches for their certificate courses. I think the rise of Youtube gurus means the LE needs to retool its business model and implement some minimum quality standards for its instructors and classes.

I attended «Learn to Paint the Bob Ross Way» on 10÷28÷09 taught by Linda Andrade. This was a wonderful class. I have never painted before and I learned so much that I am going to take even more of her classes. This class was a lot of fun! Linda is a very good teacher. She is friendly, knowledgeable, and clear in her instruction. I highly recommend her classes. The only down side was that we were charged $ 25 for materials but didn’t receive any to take home. We brought our own canvases to class. The brushes that we borrowed in class were old and barely functional. Unless the small amount of paint that we were given to use in class was extremely expensive, I can’t justify the $ 25 materials fee charged on top of the class fee.

These people suck ass! They are rude and never call back. And I believe they are ripping some of the teachers off since they will not reveal their pay scales or process. Also, when asked what format they want their class proposal in, they wouldn’t tell me because it was a secret too. They are completely unprofessional. And their lack of transparencey makes one question their business ethics.
Don’t teach here, don’t call becasue they’ll never call back. I’m spending my energy elsewhere.

Much more comprehensive than many adult education programs I’ve seen. I’ve been able to take classes from «Intro to Legal Research and Law Library Basics» to exotic dance, boxing for women, and beginning kayaking. Other workshops like «Travel the World for $ 20 a Day» and «French Cooking at Rolle» (with menu items such as chicken forestier with mushroom & red wine sauce, salade grenobloise, and peach clafouti) sound intriguing, too. I like the hands-​on nature of the courses; the Learning Exchange offers such a plethora of options to whet your curiosity, as opposed to similar operations like Learning Annex.
Occasionally they host foodie seminars with Biba Caggiano of Biba Restaurant, Taro Arai of Mikuni, and Mai Pham of Lemon Grass Restaurant, all of which I want to attend someday. It’d be like Food Network West.