I have spent the past several months writing about my
experiences at Penn Foster
College, and while doing so I have
often wondered “Exactly who is reading this thing, anyway?” Well, apparently the good folks at Penn
Foster College
read it, that’s who.
A few days ago I posted a rant about the fact that it had
been more than a month since I had submitted an essay, and it still had not
been graded. I also mentioned a few
other areas that I thought need improvement.
One of those who posted a response to my comments was Jane:
“I work in the marketing department of Penn Foster. Thanks for sharing
your experiences with Penn Foster
College and the process of changing
your career. We welcome the feedback; it motivates us to always get
better. It certainly motivated my boss to visit me first thing this
morning with your latest post in hand.
You are correct that the July issue of Penn Foster News is not currently
available on the College student portal. As the party responsible for
making the student newsletters available, I apologize for the glitch. Thanks to
your post, our IT department is now working on the problem and it should be
resolved by early next week.”
Just a few hours after posting to my blog, I also received my grade for my
essay. Coincidence? Perhaps.
I actually have to give Penn Foster
College kudos here. They could have just blown me off and taken
the attitude that my concerns were not valid and not even bothered to respond
to the ranting of one student. But…they
didn’t. I have read about many other
distance learning institutions where “customer service” is simply a course in
one of their degree programs. Apparently,
my concerns were valid enough that Jane decided to respond to my post.
As a student, I really appreciate that.
It could be because I have a “soapbox” here at eLearners.com on which to
vent my frustrations and relate my experiences with the school. But, the fact they bothered to say anything
at all indicates to me that the administration at Penn Foster DO want their
students to have a positive experience.
As I have said many times before, I really DO enjoy my studies with the school. The materials have been very informative, and
I have learned a great deal that I have been able to apply at my place of
employment.
I hope that Penn Foster
College will continue to address
certain areas of their programs, such as the response time to student emails
and the timeliness of grading certain assignments which need to be submitted to
instructors.