CLEA Masstercursos master course

[nykorn]

I've signed up for the 64 ECTS Child Psychology "Masters" course, which cost €239.20 on the Black Friday sale. The learning material is mostly PDFs with a few videos. The coursework is a few essay assignments, case studies, and a final exam. So far the material actually seems quite good. They aren't hand-holding as much as ENEB does - they're assuming you already know stuff like what "zygotes" are, whereas ENEB explains even extremely basic concepts. As a result I need to go revisit jr. high school biology...

I don't know Spanish. I turned all the PDFs into .epub files, and read them on my e-reading device, using the Spanish to English pop-up dictionary on it. I found that a lot of the technical vocabulary as well as a bunch of other random words (gestational, zygote, condition, etc) is the same as English, or close enough for a correct guess in context, to the point where I can understand about 60% of the text without using a dictionary at all. I'm very quickly learning the false cognates and other main words (like "also, within") used this way. After reading through a chapter once in Spanish with the dictionary, I then use DeepL to translate it to English and read it a second time. Hopefully this way I'll learn Spanish as I go along, which I can use to get even more cheap titulo propio later.

I plan stretch out the time to completion so it looks like it took a full 9 months (school year) to get, and then I will see if the credits transfer in to University of the People, as my degree there will take 2 years or more. Basically, if I get to like 99% complete, I'll just pause. I will also see if the ECTS transfer in to Sweden, although I don't plan on getting another degree from Sweden due to time zone differences making the live lectures and group work too difficult.

---

ENEB still offers the traditional/original program. For people who want to use their ENEB degrees to pursue further/additional education and/or employment, they recommend choosing the traditional option so they can have a transcript with grades.

...when all they had to do was make a multiple choice exam of 50 or more questions per course and they could've accomplished the exact same goal of reducing their grading staff and making more money. Just by not doing it that way, I question their intelligence now...

ENEB is a separate 50 question exam per course, except for the MBA which gets lumped in with one of your other subjects at random. I enrolled in the MBA and 2 Master's, and I had 2 separate final exams. Most people on these forums are only enrolled in the MBA + one Master's at a maximum, so they end up with only 1 final exam, which looks misleading. I assume if you sign up for their special set combo "Global Master's", which combines 3 certain courses into 1 degree worth 90 ETS instead of 72, you would have 1 final exam. So if you signed up for 10 Master's at ENEB, you would have 7-10 final exams.

Also the reason for getting an unfavorable result by FCEs is probably unrelated to the exam. I personally know someone in the USA who got a Business Administration degree at an accredited, local college in the US, and they tested out of 10 classes - if test outs made a degree invalid, this method would not be possible. Also, at least some major FCEs do not research anything about the courses or syllabus, nor how classes are conducted, meaning they wouldn't even know ENEB has an exam method (I have gotten normal degrees, not titulo propio, from normal accredited European universities, evaluated in a ludicrous way by WES USA, and my school claims they were never contacted by WES for clarification on anything).

[bjcheung77]

Yeah, Masstercursos still has the BF/CM week sale going on for some reason or another (I just checked a minute ago), it's not as great as their 30% off deal for BF though, a few other Spanish sites also had the 30% off as well, but any discount is better than none.

[eLearner]

ENEB is a separate 50 question exam per course, except for the MBA which gets lumped in with one of your other subjects at random. I enrolled in the MBA and 2 Master's, and I had 2 separate final exams. Most people on these forums are only enrolled in the MBA + one Master's at a maximum, so they end up with only 1 final exam, which looks misleading. I assume if you sign up for their special set combo "Global Master's", which combines 3 certain courses into 1 degree worth 90 ETS instead of 72, you would have 1 final exam. So if you signed up for 10 Master's at ENEB, you would have 7-10 final exams.

Also the reason for getting an unfavorable result by FCEs is probably unrelated to the exam. I personally know someone in the USA who got a Business Administration degree at an accredited, local college in the US, and they tested out of 10 classes - if test outs made a degree invalid, this method would not be possible. Also, at least some major FCEs do not research anything about the courses or syllabus, nor how classes are conducted, meaning they wouldn't even know ENEB has an exam method (I have gotten normal degrees, not titulo propio, from normal accredited European universities, evaluated in a ludicrous way by WES USA, and my school claims they were never contacted by WES for clarification on anything).

I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to say in that first paragraph, but it's well-understood that the exams are 50 questions for one Master's degree (e.g. 50 questions per degree program, I've seen the ENEB emails) and that's laughable and unacceptable. "Per course" would mean 50 questions per MBA course, so in that context it would equal 650 questions based on 13 courses, and that still wouldn't be acceptable. 100 questions per MBA course (1,300 questions), then they'd be onto something. But they were too lazy and greedy to do that. This is just a money grab by them, and I don't consider anyone who does the 50 question test to have a Master's degree. That's not a Master's degree. A Master's degree, heck an Associate degree, requires rigor. There is no rigor with a 50 question exam and that's just the bottom line truth. It's a total mockery and a disrespect to the necessary work it takes to earn a college degree, and to all of the students who have done that necessary work to earn theirs.

"So if you signed up for 10 Master's at ENEB, you would have 7-10 final exams."

Not even a definite 10? LOL!

Anyway, you don't see the problem with that? Getting a bunch of milled degrees by taking single 50 question exams multiple times doesn't change anything. It's simply the same problem multiplied.

"Also the reason for getting an unfavorable result by FCEs is probably unrelated to the exam."

ENEB has had favorable results from FCE's for years, so that's not the issue. The issue is that the 50 question exam is going to close the door on favorable results if that hasn't already happened. The FCEs are rightfully going to look for rigor, and a 50 question exam does not provide that. With ENEB foolishly handing out transcripts that don't differentiate between earning the degree properly by writing papers and improperly with a 50 question exam, the FCEs are not going to play the game of trying to figure out which earner is real and which one is a fraud, they will simply blacklist the entire school and move on, and the FCEs will be doing the right thing when they do it.

"I personally know someone in the USA who got a Business Administration degree at an accredited, local college in the US, and they tested out of 10 classes - if test outs made a degree invalid, this method would not be possible."

Incongruent comparison. You can test out of 10 undergrad courses (I did it myself once), but you can't test out of an entire degree with a single 50 question exam. If any school in the United States tried that, their accreditor would swoop in and shut that down immediately and demand it stopped for the diploma mill operation that it is. And if they didn't stop, they would be stripped of their accreditation. I'm sure the same would happen in most other countries, and I know this would happen in Spain as well, I'm just almost certain Spain's government doesn't know what's happening here yet, but that's only a matter of time.

When they find out, the hammer will be dropped and I wouldn't be surprised if they do as they have before and show up with Government Police, guns drawn, and drag school officials out of the building and nail the doors shut, because that's how they've been known to handle schools there when they step out of line.

"Also, at least some major FCEs do not research anything about the courses or syllabus, nor how classes are conducted, meaning they wouldn't even know ENEB has an exam method..."

They research a lot more than you think. They know a lot more than you think they do. What happens at times is what happens with any other business: one person knows what's happening, another one doesn't and things get slipped past them. But that doesn't last long. Eventually, the information becomes known to all and the school gets blacklisted. Schools get blacklisted by FCEs all the time.

 (I have gotten normal degrees, not titulo propio, from normal accredited European universities, evaluated in a ludicrous way by WES USA, and my school claims they were never contacted by WES for clarification on anything).

WES sucks. Everyone knows that. They're not the best example to use. However, contact isn't necessary when the FCE has already evaluated degrees from a school and has a predetermined stance on that school. WES has probably evaluated degrees from every school there is at this point. Whether we agree with their decisions or not, they more than likely have a predetermined position on any school we can think of.

[nykorn]

eLearner, you are wrong on some points. For one, I was the first to ever have a degree from my university evaluated by WES USA (this was this year btw, and coming from a Nordic country). As you know, WES is the only FCE that some schools and employers in the US accept. They might not be the best choice but I was required to use them, so that is what I used. I'd jump for joy to be able to use Validential, who'd probably equate my Bachelor's to a Doctorate's ;D

I was typing out a long answer, but in the end none of this is relevant to the thread topic so I'll stop replying to those aspects here.

I honestly expected reading in Spanish for Masstercursos to be a lot more work, but it's really no problem with the pop-up dictionary. I encourage anyone who's considering these courses to just take the popup dictionary route. The only problem I'm having is I think the standard Kobo popup dictionary must be a different sort of Spanish than what the texts are using, because it can't find a couple of the common words. There are various solutions to that however so it's not impeding me.

[eLearner]

eLearner, you are wrong on some points. For one, I was the first to ever have a degree from my university evaluated by WES USA (this was this year btw, and coming from a Nordic country). As you know, WES is the only FCE that some schools and employers in the US accept. They might not be the best choice but I was required to use them, so that is what I used. I'd jump for joy to be able to use Validential, who'd probably equate my Bachelor's to a Doctorate's ;D

I was typing out a long answer, but in the end none of this is relevant to the thread topic so I'll stop replying to those aspects here.

I honestly expected reading in Spanish for Masstercursos to be a lot more work, but it's really no problem with the pop-up dictionary. I encourage anyone who's considering these courses to just take the popup dictionary route. The only problem I'm having is I think the standard Kobo popup dictionary must be a different sort of Spanish than what the texts are using, because it can't find a couple of the common words. There are various solutions to that however so it's not impeding me.

eLearner, you are wrong on some points.

But you don't mention which ones, so I'll have to disregard that.

For one, I was the first to ever have a degree from my university evaluated by WES USA 

If you say so. I'd be interested to know how you would know that for sure, but to be honest it really isn't relevant to the main point. And me saying "WES has probably evaluated degrees from every school there is at this point" isn't negated by that. If anything, it's strengthened by it since a degree from your school has literally been evaluated by WES, you said so in your own case...

(this was this year btw, and coming from a Nordic country). As you know, WES is the only FCE that some schools and employers in the US accept. They might not be the best choice but I was required to use them, so that is what I used.

You're missing the point. The examples you used about what WES does are not the best examples because WES is a terrible evaluator, therefore terrible outcomes are expected from them. You choosing them or having to choose them to evaluate your degree isn't the issue.

I'd jump for joy to be able to use Validential, who'd probably equate my Bachelor's to a Doctorate's ;D

I'm sure you're kidding, but this would never happen. Validential makes mistakes just like all the evaluators do, but it wouldn't go that far. But it is likely for WES to evaluate a legitimate Doctorate from a good University as a Master's or lower and with ridiculous reasoning behind it because they've done it before. WES has had some of the biggest doozies ever.

[nykorn]

For one, I was the first to ever have a degree from my university evaluated by WES USA 

If you say so. I'd be interested to know how you would know that for sure...

Because my school told me so when I asked them to send my documents to WES, and also my school was not listed on WES' unofficial degree evaluation database (the one with past results from other people).

---

My course is 25 chapters total, but each chapter is only a few pages long - the ebook reader estimates you could finish them all within 5 hours at the speed I read in. I'm already on chapter 8 or so. I'm very surprised to say I'm actually learning a lot of useful information that will help me in my job, but I think anyone who's had a baby "from scratch" and talked to a doctor about it probably already knows all this stuff (how a baby develops in the body, the age at which kids learn which motor or speech skills and which parts of speech they learn in what order, what various famous philosophers and psychologists like Freud have said, etc). I haven't had a kid however so a lot of it is new info to me. I will say that the course material is in no way difficult, but it does reference back to things learned in previous chapters while assuming you have remembered all the information.

Comparing the curriculum to real college classes I'm currently taking on a similar subject, I'm surprised to say that I think the number of credits could be accurate - only if credits were awarded based on the amount of information conveyed in a course, which is not how credits work. ECTS are based off the amount of time it takes to study the material and do the homework etc, so a course with a lot of busywork but imparting almost no information could give equal credits to a course with a high amount of summarized information and little homework. The contents in this course could actually equal to 1-2 semesters of credits at a normal college if the method were different. The difference is a college gives you more homework and more "busy reading", saying the same stuff in 100 pages instead of 10 pages. Meanwhile Masstercursos is like reading someone else's notes that were summarized from the real textbook. I really prefer the Masstercursos style of imparting information, but we'll see if the credits actually transfer when I finish the course.

The major problem academically is there are NO sources listed in the back of the textbook, nor scattered throughout the text. Some information is clearly based on Hispanic culture or outdated ideas (stuff like sexism regarding a mother-child relationship), and it could be that these are justified by scientists, but again there are no sources listed.

Sometimes in the back of a chapter there's a sort of outline of important information you should have remembered from the chapter in question, which I assume will be on the tests or that you should include in the homework assignments.

The Spanish is moving along VERY swiftly as well, much faster than I anticipated. I have already had 3 whole pages where I could read the entire page without using the dictionary whatsoever!! Again this is despite starting out with no grammar study and no knowledge of Spanish. As a result I have decided to not even attempt machine-translating the text to English, instead I will just re-read the PDFs for a second round after I finish them the first time.

[nykorn]

ECE (a NACES member) has evaluated a titulo propio taken at ENEB Business School as equal to a regionally accredited USA Master's. As Masstercursos are all titulo propio, I would be interested if anyone who has gotten a Masstercursos Master's sent theirs in to ECE for evaluation. I will do so with mine whenever I graduate.

[eLearner]

ECE (a NACES member) has evaluated a titulo propio taken at ENEB Business School as equal to a regionally accredited USA Master's.

Can you tell us which specific ENEB degree? And the site where you read about this outcome?

[bjcheung77]

Replace the word Masters with the word Bachelors... There was some minor confusion with that, the info on the WIKI is still most updated in regards to ENEB and the ECE evaluations...

[eLearner]

I figured as much. I do remember the ECE-Bachelor's nonsense (their explanation for why they evaluate it as a Bachelor's being the nonsense part) but I always leave room for the possibility that I just haven't heard about something.