Graduate Diploma in IT

bookworm192398

Hi, I'm looking at various IT courses and was wondering if anyone here had any experience with the Graduate Diploma in IT in DCU? Any opinions/advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

AlanSparrowhawk

I'm just about to start it, so I'll tell you in a few months.

irish59575

I am about to start this course and any opinions from people who have taken it would be appreciated. Is it a well recognised qualification?

Royale with Cheese

Woohoo I'm doing it too. I was planning on just getting a grounding in I.T. and deciding which route I want to go down, then going on to do professional exams to get there. Or just getting an entry level I.T. job and working my way up to whatever area of I.T. I want to be in.

friday1

I am doing this course in September also. Not sure if you noticed but the course has been changed. There is now eight modules instead of ten.




Here are the modules on the course now:


CA668 - eCommerce Infrastructure 7.5

CA665 - System & User Interaction Development 7.5

CA664 - Advanced Programming 7.5

CA651 - Introduction to Networks & Op Systems 7.5

CA669 - Web Design and Implementation 7.5

CA667 - Information Systems Framework 7.5

CA662 - Database Design 7.5

CA591 - Object Orientated Programming 7.5


I can't find anything on these modules on the dcu website. I presume the moodle system has more info. I can't access that at the moment.

irish59575

Yes I see that, registered online today, didnt get any info in the post yet or anything. Looks like they have changed the modules to 7.5 credits instead of 5, seems like a better setup. Dont like the look of the second semester timetable though, its all over the place

H2G2

irish59575 wrote: »

Looks like they have changed the modules to 7.5 credits instead of 5, seems like a better setup.

Yup, all postgrad programmes in CA have been altered from 5 to 7.5 credits. Net effect is less modules (and exams), but more contents per module. Should be a more "student friendly" system.

irish59575 wrote: »

Dont like the look of the second semester timetable though, its all over the place

Thats last years timetable for semester 2, not this years. This years semester 2 timetable won't be out till January.

irish59575

Are you sure about the timetable, it seems to be reflecting the new modules, and I am pretty sure it was different to that when I looked at it a couple of weeks ago

Royale with Cheese

Yeah I noticed that. What modules did they drop?

doranusan

Hey all. Looking forward to starting at the end of the month. The dropped modules were Computer Architecture and Operating systems (CA582) from Semester 1, and Software Engineering (CA586) from Semester 2.

CA582 was a 7.5 cred module introducing assembly languange programming, and computer architecture, basically learning what all the parts of a computer do, and an intro to how processors work. It had 3 hours of lectures, and 2 hours of labs per week.

CA586 looked like an intro to the sort of stuff you'd need to work in industry as a programmer. How to work in a group, how to check for bugs and other stuff. It was 5 creds, and had about 4 hours per week in lectures, and little or no labs.

Maybe the material from these modules is being split between some of the other modules, but the 1st and second semester programming were already 7.5 credits implying a fair bit of learning, and so was the networking module. The networking module was changed to networking and Operating systems however, and almost all of the modules had their codes changed to 6xx numbers, so all in all, I'd say this course is going to be quite a bit different than previous years.

AlanSparrowhawk

doranusan wrote: »

Hey all. Looking forward to starting at the end of the month. The dropped modules were Computer Architecture and Operating systems (CA582) from Semester 1, and Software Engineering (CA586) from Semester 2.

CA582 was a 7.5 cred module introducing assembly languange programming, and computer architecture, basically learning what all the parts of a computer do, and an intro to how processors work. It had 3 hours of lectures, and 2 hours of labs per week.

CA586 looked like an intro to the sort of stuff you'd need to work in industry as a programmer. How to work in a group, how to check for bugs and other stuff. It was 5 creds, and had about 4 hours per week in lectures, and little or no labs.

Maybe the material from these modules is being split between some of the other modules, but the 1st and second semester programming were already 7.5 credits implying a fair bit of learning, and so was the networking module. The networking module was changed to networking and Operating systems however, and almost all of the modules had their codes changed to 6xx numbers, so all in all, I'd say this course is going to be quite a bit different than previous years.

Thanks for that. I'm not sure what to make of the course changes, have to wait and see I suppose. Anything we need to do before sept. 29th?

irish59575

Don't think so, there is no orientation as far as I can see and student cards are being given out on the first day

friday1

BTW, the descriptions of the modules on the course has been updated here:

http://www.dcu.ie/registry/module_contents.php?function=4&programme=GDF

2Poc

Hi, I'm starting year 2 of this course (part time) this year.

On the whole the course is good, I already work in IT & have done for 9 years so for me this course is moreso a route to the MSc course after the diploma, as although I have a lot of experience & have done lots of technical courses I presently don't have any formal qualifications.

If you are doing this course as a route to get into IT then its not a bad place to start but be prepared to put in a lot of work.

The programming skills you will learn are useful but basic and while applicable in the real world won't be enough to enable you to jump right in.

I.e. you won't find many people programming DOS style interfaces in Java these days

Anyway, good luck to you all & if I can answer any of your questions let me know.

doranusan

Thanks 2poc. Does anyone know anything more about the Msc? Basically, what I'd like to know is, what are the hours like on it, evening or day, and would it be possible to hold a full time job whilst doing it? The prospectus says it's part time but that's all I could find.

2Poc

No probs.

Don't know much about the MSC beyond what you mention above other than it will be suited to someone with a full time job.

The impression I got is that it is mostly done in your own time with just some periodic meetings with your DCU Mentor along the way.

Are people here mostly doing the part time or full time course?

doranusan

Sounds Good. Have any changes been made to the part-time course similar to the ones made to the full-time one?

irish59575

Thanks 2Poc for the info, I am starting the full time course next week and also plan to aim for the MSc next year, all going well with grades of course!

2Poc

No changes to the part time course structure that I'm aware of.

I think its a good plan to go for the MSc alright, keeping up your average is very important & will require lots of hard work if you don't have a technical background.

The modules in the first semester are simple enough, so you should be Ok with these. It gets trickier in the second semester, I found the network side of things quite difficult.

To do well on the course you need to get a good grasp of programming concepts from an early stage as Java will be used throughout.

So if you are struggling in the first semester - sort it out.

I'm not sure who your lecturer will be as Nora who was teaching it last year has since retired.

I would be happy to help out people if they're stuck (in what limited time I have available) - just give me a shout via PM or something.
I'll be in DCU 3 evenings a week too so if people are really stuck on something I can give a dig out in one of the labs some evening.

Best of Luck !

Jewelsster

The MSc in IT is a part-time RESEARCH degree so it's not taught classes. You would meet with your supervisor as often (or as little) as you need to so you could certainly work full-time while doing it but will need to make sure you set aside a certain amount of hours a week to work on it.

irish59575

Thanks 2Poc for the advise and no doubt you will be taken up on that offer of help, will keep in touch as the year goes on

davty10

i graduated in this course in 2002, tough course , long hours. I have been in It for last 5 years and am considering a career change. Be careful before you take this course, its a career of staring into a computer screen for 6+ hours /day....think about it..

2Poc

davty10 wrote: »

i graduated in this course in 2002, tough course , long hours. I have been in It for last 5 years and am considering a career change. Be careful before you take this course, its a career of staring into a computer screen for 6+ hours /day....think about it..

IT can be tough but if you get the right job there is good money involved.
You need to make the right moves from early on in your IT career & never stop learning & taking courses.

[throws money in the air as maidens feed him grapes]

davty10

I agree it can be and is now paying above average for me, however I stare into a computer all day and its extrememly draining, do not follow money!

2Poc

davty10 wrote: »

I agree it can be and is now paying above average for me, however I stare into a computer all day and its extrememly draining, do not follow money!

Can be draining alright. Horses for courses though.

Not to go off topic too much but what end of IT are you working in Davty10?
Are you software/hardware/programmer/qa/designer/manager ?

davty10

I am in infrastructure support for a multi-national organisation. I suppose the industry tag would be a Senior Systems Admin. What about yourself? However I hasten to add that skills in IT will allow you travel the world as you can pick up work very easily.

2Poc

davty10 wrote: »

I am in infrastructure support for a multi-national organisation. I suppose the industry tag would be a Senior Systems Admin. What about yourself? However I hasten to add that skills in IT will allow you travel the world as you can pick up work very easily.

I'm currently working as lead developer in a large online services company.

Haven't done much with hardware/sys admin myself, started off in QA, moved into Development & progressed from there.

I guess systems admin is quite different from the role of a programmer or QA.
I think the main problem with being a sys admin is if you have to support users.
"Each time they build a better system, they build a better idiot" & all that...

Its a tough & responsible job too with a lot of you guys having to be available for outside hours support too.
Great for 'hands on' people though & I've worked with some very good guys in the past.

I think QA is by far the easiest way to get your foot in the door & a good starting point for someone to get experience in a software company.

The key thing about doing well in any IT role is that you have to be smart.
If I am interviewing people I am looking for 'cop on' more so than specific skills in a particular programming language.

Unfortunately, 'cop on' can be thin on the ground at times

Anyhow, if you are changing careers - good luck with it. Its a brave move but one to be respected if you're not happy enough in what you're doing.

davty10

Yes, I agree with alot of what you say, horses for courses etc . I am just advising people to be cognisant that working in IT is largely dealing with problem after problem and I would question where the Job satisfaction comes from sometimes. I often equate some of these large applications that service an entire organisation to a large snowball rolling downhill, our Job as IT professionals is to ensure the ball keeps rolling without gathering to much snow by triming the edges but at the same time running back to pick up sections of it that have fallen off and re-locate them into the exact same spot they de-attached from as the ball is moving. This as you can imagine could become a pain in the posterior after some time and may make one cynical!

Anyway this is just my view!!

2Poc

Good analogy

I think therein is the difference between systems admin & software development though.

Developers are building things & improving things, each time they release a product there is a sense of achievement & completion & if you're on time & lucky - bonus

QA is quite like systems admin in that it is constantly working with problems rather than actually building anything.

Which I can well understand would get *tiring*

irish_boy90

2Poc wrote: »

Good analogy

I think therein is the difference between systems admin & software development though.

Developers are building things & improving things, each time they release a product there is a sense of achievement & completion & if you're on time & lucky - bonus

QA is quite like systems admin in that it is constantly working with problems rather than actually building anything.

Which I can well understand would get *tiring*

Thats where money comes in?

davty10

Irish_boy - Thats the point I am trying to make, when you are sitting at your desk midway through the week looking into some random server blue screen issue that has happen for the nth time this week after several attempts to fix it, then and only then does job satisfaction raise its ugly head and money does not come into the equation!

Anyway I'm quite enjoying this little rant about pro's and con's of IT, underneath all the cynicism I do appreciate that I actually have a Job that pays the bills..but hey its fun to moan!!

rwisaplank

hi I'm currently do this course part time, would you be able to give me any advice on the modules in particular CA664?

doranusan

If you like programming, this will probably be interesting. Probably the hardest module on the course too. I'd break it down mainly into problem solving and design.

Starts off with problem solving and applying problem solving in a simple program.

For the first project we had to write a Java program that demonstrates the birthday problem.

You also look at the basics of computational complexity, ie how different operations will scale and how efficient is your code going to be.

You then learn some of the basic common data structures and algorithms, and get some examples on situations for use.
Things like lists, hash tables, trees, stacks, queues, heaps, and the ways you would/could implement them and situations in which such structures are useful.

The algorithms are mainly search algorithms and sort algorithms. This all ties in with the data structures ie how to sort a list, how to search a tree.

You don't really need to be able to write the code for them, just understand how to use them and the actual procedures that they all involve. You do need to write a few programs on the module, however we used java, and the lecturer was ok with us just using the java api.

The year i did it (09), there was a choice for the main project:

1. Write a program that parses a text string and determines what language it's in by measuring the occurrence of certain letter combinations etc.

2. Design a program that can calculate the optimal arrangement of letters on a 9 digit keypad for texting (I did this one and really liked it)

3. Forget, but it was along the lines of counting letters in text again I think

jimiwhizz

hi there,

i am interested in this course as I would like to get into IT or programming but i feel like i need more info before I make a decision. From what I understand, IT focuses more on the impimentation/use of hardware and software to meet specific business needs within a company, whereas computer science is more about the actual design of this hardware and software. Would that be a valid definition?
It seems to me that this course does have programming elements albeit fairly basic so is there a certain degree of overlap between the IT and Computer Science worlds?
So what would be the main differences between this course and the MSc in computer Science in UCD for instance? and what kind of roles are typically open to graduates from either course?

thanks a mill in advance... and help would be great!

James

Pygmalion

jimiwhizz wrote: »

hi there,

i am interested in this course as I would like to get into IT or programming but i feel like i need more info before I make a decision.
From what I understand, IT focuses more on the impimentation/use of hardware and software to meet specific business needs within a company, whereas computer science is more about the actual design of this hardware and software. Would that be a valid definition?

Your IT definition seems about right.
You seem to be confusing software development/engineering with computer science though, Computer Science is generally used to mean the theoretical side of things, as is the study of algorithms & data structures, complexity theory, cryptography, AI, language processing etc.
Software development and programming would be separate again.

There's generally a decent amount overlap between all 3, a good course in one area would generally go for at least the basics in the other 2, but keep the distinction in mind.

I can't really say much about specific courses, still doing an undergrad course.

doranusan

Hey,

This diploma won't stand for much on its own at the moment without experience or a relevant background. Main difference between the two courses you mention is that MSc looks better than Diploma on the CV.

Nothing you do on either of the courses is really likely to be used in the work place. The graduate dip is a good intro to IT but is fairly basic. You do stuff from 1st and 2nd year computer apps in dcu. A lot of lads I know did this as a stepping stone to a msc.
- Personally, I felt that this course was geared toward people with jobs who wanted to work closer with IT on projects etc. There's nothing in it to really equip you to work on a software project without training or anything.

The msc in ucd really lets you just pick stuff from the final few years of the ucd comp sci degree. Good course, they try really hard to give you stuff you can sell to employers on it too, just kinda painful to manage, and sometimes a bit airy fairy.

In a choice between one or the other, I'd do the UCD one.

irish59575

Hi, I did this course and went on to do the MSc in Networks and Distributed Systems the following year in Trinity. The MSc made the previous course feel like nursery school. Not putting it down though, it definitely gave me the basics that I needed. As a standalone course though you won't get many job offers from it alone. I just noticed this yesterday http://www.ictirelandskillnet.org/uploads/MSc%20AST%20Student%20promotion%20Final.pdf and if it were up to me this is what I would recommend given that they seem to find a job for you!!

jimiwhizz

thats really helpful lads thanks a lot for the info and advise. i think the grad diploma followed by an MSc will probably be the best option for me. i need something part time right now as i cant afford to leave my job. that skillnet MSc looks absolutely crackin tho... mybe if its still on the go when i finish the diploma ill have a go at it!

cheers

Noodleworm

This course is on my list of possibilities after I finish my B.Sc in Multimedia. Want to do something to expand my skills but not totally unrelated to what I've done.

rwisaplank

hi
I just completed this course and would advise you to talk to someone in UCD before you consider doing this course. if you have a programming background you will fly the prog elements of this course if you dont you will have a lot of trouble.The lecturers overall are very weak.some of us tried to rate them from worst to best and we couldnt. Only one was any way decent and he never saw the slides before the lecture (free from author of book).Overall it´s a completely self taught course.I´m not sorry I´ve done it but I wouldnt recommend it, the Java course in UCD might be worth a look if you are thinkning of doing programming (http://www.crovan.com).GDF will give you an introduction to IT, give you the skills to find solutions. To be honest I didnt have an IT background before this course and really dont feel like I have one now.