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Open University - looking for opinions

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  • 23-06-2008 3:31pm
    #1
    mika27
    Registered Users Posts: 417 ✭✭


    I'm considering doing a course with the Open University (specifically Postgraduate Diploma in Software Development) but I don't know a lot about them so I'm just looking for opinions from anyone that's done a course with them.
    Is it worth the cost? Did it help with your career? etc.
    Thanks! :D


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    #2
    hayser
    Registered Users Posts: 393 ✭✭hayser


    I'm doing my BA with them at the minute andd their notes & books are very good. As far as I know anyone doing a ccourse with them has found them to be very good. However this was at a degree level, I'm not sure about postgraduate. Good luck with the course :)


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    #3
    Iorana
    Registered Users Posts: 26 ✭Iorana


    Hi guys, after some time now, would you be still posting positive opinions about the OU?
    I am thinking to take up statistic and computing and I would appreciate some more opinions about courses there?
    And how does the diploma do on the job market?


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    #4
    shoegirl
    Registered Users Posts: 2,018 ✭✭✭shoegirl


    I'm onto my 3rd course. Did MST121 Using Mathematics, initially intended it as a once off, but I was so impressed I went on to start planning a B.A. in Business Studies with Systems Practice. I've since completed T205 (Systems Thinking) and am most of the way through T306 (Managing Complexity, A Systems Approach). The courses get much much tougher at level 3. I'll have a diploma out of this when I'm done later in the year, so I am going to do B120 Introduction to Business Studies to finish out the certificate in Business Studies and take a few months break as I've been continuously on OU courses since Oct 06 with no break!

    Some people find them expensive but the quality of the courses are good and they are less Mickey Mouse than some of the part time 3rd level courses on offer here, which quite frankly are often offered more for the benefit of the staff teaching them than students.


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    #5
    Vcom
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭Vcom


    I am someone who has studied computing, via distance learning, with both the OU and with the Irish alternative Oscail.

    In terms of student notes the OU are beyond compare - they are always up to date and easier to read than the Oscail alternative. In fact they often read like a Grisham novel. The OU programming courses at Undergraduate level are ideal preparation for working in Industry. In all modules I have done they always seem to try to balance the necessary academic overview of stuff with also teaching you a skill – using all the latest industry thinking and up to date case studies.

    Oscail notes, on the other hand once you get past level one, are very often described by students as “skimpy” and “confused”. You will have to end up Google-ing vast quantities of stuff just to fill in the blanks with up to date information.
    Of course as the exams approach you will end up with long lists of website addresses written scraps of paper… the stuff of nightmares.

    Definitely -Go with the OU –with their colossal resources they can afford some of the best academics who are at the top of their game and who are up to date with everything in industry!!!!!


    The alternative presented in Ireland both via distance learning and in normal brick and mortar third level colleges can sometimes give the impression of something rusting slowly in a "never-never” land of academia, swimming in a treacle-like sea of bureaucracy, and slowly edging towards the truly golden gates of the Civil Service State pension for academics.

    I have to say that the OU is definitely the better and well worth coughing up the extra few quid.

    See my other long-winded post on Oscail http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055244400) where i break down the content of all the Oscail IT degree modules individually. To summarise it and save you the pain of reading it -in essence i spent an awful lot of money over 5 or 6 years, LEARNT NOTHING and have no industry relevant skills after it ....well none that I could use to land me any type of well paying employment anyway.

    Still at least you get free burgers when you work in the fast food industry. Every cloud has a silver lining etc.


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