When it comes to selecting the right way to take your next continuing education class, you may be advised to reflect on the most effective learning method for you. This means deciding whether you tend to learn the most when you are learning through sight, sound or touch.
For quite a few professional massage therapists and bodyworkers, the easy answer may be touch, but that answer could depend on the topic of the continuing education class itself. You may be able to save time and money on continuing education classes if you can figure out which classes you can effectively take online and which ones you need to attend in person.
In general, it seems that if you wish to take a continuing education class on a hands-on technique or modality that is brand new to you, it may be best to take that continuing education class in person. This means signing up for a continuing education class you can attend on site. There may be such a continuing education class you can take locally, or you may want to sign up for a destination continuing education seminar.
Once you gain some familiarity with the new hands-on modality, then you can decide whether you would be comfortable learning more about this technique by taking further continuing education class online. However, if it is possible to take more advanced continuing education classes on the modality in person, you may feel it is more effective to go that route.
As for which kinds of continuing education classes may be perfectly acceptable to attend online, in general it is the continuing education courses that focus on such topics as ethics or marketing—topics that do not have to do with actual hands-on therapy. For many massage therapists and bodyworkers, these types of continuing education classes can be effectively taken online.
Of course, these are not hard and fast rules, and quite a few massage therapists and bodyworkers may find that they are comfortable taking an online continuing education class that is based on a touch technique, as long as there are plenty of visual aids.
Another factor that may override your preferred method of learning when selecting a continuing education class could be the topic or provider of the class. For example, if you have been wanting to learn basic shiatsu techniques for a long period of time, but there is no local continuing education class on this topic and you cannot afford a destination continuing education seminar, then taking such a continuing education class online could become a definite possibility.
As another example, if there is a particular continuing education instructor you really want to learn from, you may be more willing to invest the money to travel to a place where that instructor is teaching a continuing education class.
The bottom line here is that it is important to consider your favored method of learning, but you also need to weighseveral other factors when it comes to selecting your next continuing education class.