Free online training or a tutored course? An honest comparison
There's more free property training online than ever, and much of it is good. So when does it make sense to pay for a tutored course? Here's what the evidence says, fairly.
The question
Portals, software providers, associations and YouTube all offer free property training now. Some of it is excellent. So if you're thinking about Level 3, or about how to train your team, it's a fair question: why pay for a tutored course when so much is free?
What the evidence says
First, the good news for online learning. The biggest review of the research, a 2013 analysis of 50 studies, found that purely online courses produced about the same learning as face-to-face teaching. The format itself isn't the problem.
The same review found something else, though. Courses that combined online material with live teaching did noticeably better than either on their own. The researchers were careful to say why: those courses tended to add more learning time, more resources and more interaction with other learners. It's the support that makes the difference, not the screen.
The bigger issue is finishing. When MIT and Harvard looked at 5.6 million learners on their free online courses, only about 3% completed them. Among learners who had paid and committed, completion rose to 46%. Free is easy to start and just as easy to drift away from.
What it looks like in practice
This is why we built the LETiQ course the way we did. You learn online, but you're never on your own:
- Live teaching, not just videos. Twelve live mornings on Zoom with a tutor, and every session recorded in case you miss one.
- Something to fill the gaps. Videos and podcasts cover the whole course, so you can learn on the commute or catch up on a quiet afternoon.
- Testing, not just reading. Quizzes, flashcards and three mock exams per unit. Testing yourself works better than reading again. In one well-known study, students who practised recalling what they'd learned remembered 56% a week later, against 42% for those who simply reread it.
- Someone keeping you on track. Drop-in clinics between sessions, and we book every exam for you.
That support is the difference. Of the learners who complete the cohort, 96% go on to pass.
None of this makes free training a waste of time. It's great for a quick refresher, a specific topic or keeping up to date once you're qualified. That's why our own Annual CPD for qualified learners includes online courses as well as live webinars. Where free training struggles is getting someone all the way through a qualification.
Try this
Whatever you're studying, close the book and write down everything you can remember about the last topic you covered. Then check what you missed. It feels harder than rereading, and that's exactly why it works.
Over to you
Have you started a free online course and never finished it? Or found one that really worked? Tell me in the comments. I'd love to know what kept you going.
Our next open cohort starts on Tuesday 19 January 2027. Find out more about the course.
Questions? Email claudia@letiq.co.uk
Sources: Means et al. (2013), Teachers College Record, Reich and Ruipérez-Valiente (2019), Science, via Inside Higher Ed, Roediger and Karpicke (2006), Psychological Science
Claudia Brown, Director, LETiQ
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