Massage Education That Fits Your Schedule, Not Ours
Whether you have soccer, or your kids do, whether you live downtown or in the mountains, you’re busy. We get that. That’s why we have never offered conventional Monday to Friday classes. Blended learning has been our core offering for 25 years—because it works, and it doesn’t waste your time.
What is blended learning?
For core sciences and other theory at Vicars School of Massage Therapy, you will work online, with the support of faculty and your classmates. Each month, you will be in the classroom for four days. You can choose a class schedule that suits your needs: a four-day weekend once a month, or one day each week. You will also be on campus for supervised student clinic shifts.
schedule 1
Monthly: Four-day weekend
schedule 2
Weekly: One day a week
Supervised student clinic shifts start midway through Year 1 and continue until the end of Year 2. These shifts are outside of your regular class time, and scheduled separately.
Including online assignments, classroom sessions, and clinic shifts, you should plan to invest 30-35 hours a week. You will be busy, but never bored!
30-35 hours a week
Blended learning: how it works
Online courses
Most of the academic work in our program happens online. You will complete the science and theory courses by interactive home study. On Moodle, our online learning platform, your directed reading assignments will be enriched by our custom-made videos, recorded lectures, and other online learning resources.Â
You will follow your own schedule, but you won’t be learning alone; you will have faculty support online and can collaborate with your fellow students in virtual chat rooms and study sessions.
Start your online learning now
Our classes start in March or September each year, but you never have to wait to get going! As soon as you are registered, you can get a head start on your online Anatomy & Physiology course.
This is a huge advantage because it will reduce your first-year workload. Best, you won’t pay any tuition until your first day in class.
Classroom learning
Because we teach many subjects online, including the core sciences, when you do come to school, you won’t find many lectures. Instead, you’ll work with your classmates on assessment and treatment planning and techniques. What you are learning about the human body through reading and assignments, you will put into practice in class. You will have four full in-class days per month on the class schedule you’ve chosen. You will develop your hands-on skills through demonstrations and by working on each other.Â
Clinical experience
Beginning partway through first year, you will begin to add time in supervised student clinics to your schedule. At Vicars, our student practicum is not just a job placement or internship. It is a fully integrated part of our curriculum! Every shift includes specific learning goals, faculty supervision, charting, and a group debriefing session.
If this appeals to you, our Admissions Team would love to hear from you. Our admissions advisors know the program inside out, and can answer your questions about the career, the program, and the student experience at Vicars School. We would love to see you at one of our virtual or in-person information sessions.
Blended learning may be a good fit if you:
- Want to complete your massage therapy diploma in less than two years but can’t be in class every weekday
- Have responsibilities or interests that make it better for you to study outside a rigid 9-5 schedule.Â
- Live more than an hour away from the closest accredited massage school or college
Yes. Our blended massage diploma meets the same high standards as fully in-person programs, preparing you to practice as an RMT anywhere in Canada. Vicars School has always been a blended-learning program, because it works, and it doesn’t waste your time.Â
Yes. Vicars was the first private massage school in Alberta accredited by the CMTCA. Regulated provinces, including BC, recognize our program and give our grads access to their RMT entrance exams. Passing an entrance exam in one regulated province allows you to work anywhere. Â
Nope! Moodle is the portal and platform that students use to work online. It is the school’s brain vault! It holds all the academic and support materials students will need, while connecting them to their fellow students and instructors.
Even if they have not experienced on-line learning before, we have found that students quickly become familiar and comfortable with using it. Zoom or in-person tutorials are available as soon as a new student registers. These are 20-minute sessions and Heather, our systems coach, says that’s all it ever takes!
Practical and oral exams are conducted on campus, during classroom hours, and your instructors will assess your hands-on skills regularly when you’re on campus.Â
Let’s Connect
Our friendly and knowledgeable admissions advisors will help you decide for yourself if Vicars school is a good fit for you.