Oscail

Goldenegg

Hi everyone!

I'm currently going into my second year in dcu studying through their oscail programme. I'm aiming to get my degree eventually. Just have a quick question on how many credits does it take to gain your degree?

Last year I did two subjects and got my 30 credits. This year I only selected one as I am working full time and found it difficult to balance everything. Hopefully when completed that will give me 15 credits. I could be wrong, but I'm thinking around 200credit Mark for degree?!?

Thanks in advance for replies!

claire h

http://www.oscail.ie/ba.php

180 ECTS credit points are required for the BA (Hons) and 120 ECTS credit points are required for the Diploma in Arts.

fifijolie

Hi Goldenegg,

just started course in English with OSCAIl and I already find it very difficult.
I paid my fees, the courses start in 2 weeks but there seems to be nothing at all in my moodle.
Do I need to worry just yet?
phewwww
cheers

narky

Hi fifijolie,

I'm starting this course aswell along with History and my moodle has nothing in it either! Have you received any course material in the post yet??

cheers

fifijolie

Hi Narki,

there will be nothing till next monday (27th sept) till the course starts.
so no need to panic just yet;)

looks pretty complicated though.

where r u based?
and where is your course center?

narky

Thats great fifijolie. I'm looking forward to getting started on it, even though it is a bit daunting. My course centre will be up in DCU, how about yourself??

Pimp Ninja

I'm starting the IT course. DCU is my centre.

I'm finding moodle pretty unclear and hard to navigate.

Logged into the DCU email and saw nothing there. Should we be expecting some form of communication from them?
Also what's the story with student cards?

narky

From what I can see on the course material will not be available on Moodle until the start of the course which is Monday. I think we should be receiving some course material in the post aswell.

I haven't received my student card yet either.

Pimp Ninja

I got an email last week about student cards and a request for those who have not yet submitted photos to do so.

brappacino

Hi everyone. Good to find this thread! I'm also starting my first modules in the BA. Looking forward to getting going!!
I have a query though. I have my student ID number, as well as my Username and Password. This lets me log onto Moodle. How do I check my emails though? On my personalised portal page I click on the email link, but it won't accept my username/password!

narky

I logged in ok using my username and password that was sent and used the DCU apps page. I've put the link below.

http://www.dcu.ie/iss/dcuapps/

brappacino

I knew it would be something obvious like that!! Thanks.

Goldenegg

Has everyone received their course work by post yet?I have been on to oscail time and time again and still waiting!just think it's really unacceptable when they want our course fees by a certain date but haven't posted our curriculum for the year!!

Pimp Ninja

Ho Goldenegg
Im in the same boat, doing 2 modules and have only got the course materials for one of them.

The course materials are available on moodle - yes, its not the same as reading the printed version - but its enough so you dont get left behind.

I called the helpline last week and was given an email address to check.
Ill PM it to you so maybe you can follow up that way ??

Hope that helps.

silver campaign

Hi,

Sorry to be dragging up old threads. I was thinking of starting this course next September. The IT Degree. Just wondering how ye find it one year on.
I realize it will take time and commitment. I don't mind that and I can prepare myself for that even though I am still working full time.

I'm just wondering what the support from oscail / DCU / NUIG is like. Is your curriculum clear to you all now. Do you know what you need to do in terms of study hours per week, tutorials per week / month etc. In general do you find it difficult to work on your own and learn to necessary modules or is there always someone on hand to give you a hand if your stuck on a particular subject.

I heard someone mention the IT Degree is very business orientated and less IT, is this true? Finally, does anybody know how employers rate this degree. Any help much appreciated,

Cheers.

FitzMorgan

Hi Silver Campaign

I have just finished my first year with Oscail, but it was the Art Degree not IT that I did.
I found Oscail great. There was problems with the notes in that they were all changed last year in the BA course which resulted in them being not available until the start of the course and then not all of them, i.e. you got them in stages.

Besides from that, the content of them was great. Really interesting and insightful. My tutor really knew his stuff.

Any problems I had with administration were answered promptly i.e.e registering for exam centres and changing tutorials

I'll be going back next year.

summ3rbay

Hi

These previous Boards.ie treads may be good http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=64346029
and
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055320288

Also http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=57256845
seems to go into a lot of detail about the specific Oscail Information Technology degree course you are considering. It does not seem to have a very high opinion about the course tho.

d4v1d

summ3rbay wrote: »

Hi

These previous Boards.ie treads may be good http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=64346029
and
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055320288

Also http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=57256845
seems to go into a lot of detail about the specific Oscail Information Technology degree course you are considering. It does not seem to have a very high opinion about the course tho.

I'm currently in the degree stage of this course, 2 more years to go, and I have to say that I don't consider it as time/money well spent. It's very focused on the business aspect and not on the technical side of things. There's nothing in the way of labs or hands on work on anything technical related. There seems to be more of a requirement to format reports and correct referencing in assignments than anything else.

For an IT degree the exams are all long (3 hour) essay based questions that need to be hand written. For some reason the course organizers haven't been able to use IT to facilitate an IT degree. The assignments too also require long essay based answers and are very time consuming.

On the plus side, if you're just looking to get a degree, any degree, to have on your CV then this is a good one to do. There's a strong chance you'll end up with quite high marks if you stick to the prescribed course notes and don't think for yourself. Also, while copying text directly from the course notes is frowned upon, simply paraphrasing what is in the notes is fine and often this is all that is asked in some assignment answers.

My advice would be to decide on what's more important to you before committing to this course, a good education or just to get any degree.

Other people may have something positive to say about this course but I know for a fact that many other students also studying this course, that I have spoken to, share my views.

cathal79

d4v1d wrote: »

I'm currently in the degree stage of this course, 2 more years to go, and I have to say that I don't consider it as time/money well spent. It's very focused on the business aspect and not on the technical side of things. There's nothing in the way of labs or hands on work on anything technical related. There seems to be more of a requirement to format reports and correct referencing in assignments than anything else.

For an IT degree the exams are all long (3 hour) essay based questions that need to be hand written. For some reason the course organizers haven't been able to use IT to facilitate an IT degree. The assignments too also require long essay based answers and are very time consuming.

On the plus side, if you're just looking to get a degree, any degree, to have on your CV then this is a good one to do. There's a strong chance you'll end up with quite high marks if you stick to the prescribed course notes and don't think for yourself. Also, while copying text directly from the course notes is frowned upon, simply paraphrasing what is in the notes is fine and often this is all that is asked in some assignment answers.

My advice would be to decide on what's more important to you before committing to this course, a good education or just to get any degree.

Other people may have something positive to say about this course but I know for a fact that many other students also studying this course, that I have spoken to, share my views.

I have to agree. I'm almost at the end of my first year and to be honest don't feel I have learned much. We done PHP programming in our last assignment and I have absolutely no idea how to do it now. Although I done well in my assisngment this was mainly thanks to stuff I'd learned on YouTube.

The worst part for me is a module called Human Science which drives me nuts. It's more about psychology than IT and all it does is puts me off the course. I'm considering moving to ITB which is more orientated towards real life IT skills. My biggest fear is that if I do complete the degree program is that all I will have is a piece of paper to say BSC in IT and not actually have any skills that would be required to work in IT. Human Science takes up so much time that my other subjects suffer.

My two cents.

Agent J

Re the Human Sciences?

It get worse.

The HSA degree level module is a fate worse than death(Not really). I would love to see the numbers of how many people end up with this as their lowest score. Good news is you only need 40% to pass. Just don't count on it for degree marks.

I see what they are trying to do with the HS stuff and on paper it's interesting & some of the reading material has really go me thinking. However the organisation & structure is horrific and will eat your life if you let it.


I already had 2 years of computer science elsewhere where i picked up the basics of programming, logic etc. so i'm coming at this from a different angle.
I know the tech stuff but i need the piece of paper.

I'd agree broadly with what d4v1d says though not so much on the assignments. I've found in order to break 70% or so you really need to do outside independant work but that might be down to individual modules.

The thing to bear in mind is the exams are only 50% of final mark(usually). The rest is on assignments so you are at full pelt for the whole year.

The course content really looks like it was designed by committe( This isnt a compliment)

The CT1,2,A stuff. There is some real low level electronic engineering stuff in there. Some of it is useful to know but it seems so remvoed from the rest of it

HS 1,2,A . Sweet merciful Jebus. I could write tomes on this stuff. Best piece of advice is to just aim for the pass. It'll suck up your life otherwise.


Overall it has some usefull stuff in it but it is more aimed at Business Analysis or people who are on the Business side but want to learn the basics of IT.

I'm almost at the end of the IT degree now. Would i recommend it? Recommend is a strong word. If you need the piece of paper then go for it. The part time options are quite limited in Ireland and OU is much more expensive.

If you want to learn programming: Go elsewhere

Agent J

I'm just going to add this as well.

The continual assesment modules HSA & MSB

Do not under any circumstances do them together. They require about 6 assignments each and either one of them alone is a lot to do.

Don't underestimate the amount of work needed.

Mimbo

Hi,

I know this is a fairly old thread but maybe some one can help me. I am currently doing a couple of English and History home study courses that I got online with Kilroys College and ITEC. After these were completed I was thinking of following that up by pursuing my degree in these subjects with Oscail.

I know a few of you on here have done this course or are currently doing it. I was wondering if you could tell me all about it. What is the course like, the exams etc.

I suffer a bit with panic/anxiety and I don't know if the thought of putting myself in for torture would be the best idea so I want to do a bit of research first.

Does home study actually mean home study?

krisbecs

Hi
Apologies for dragging up this thread but hope there is someone who can help.
I applied to do the BA Humanaties in April and got an e-mail saying I would get a letter shortly still waiting. I am a very organised person and have ocd like tendancies where I need everything planned out in advance so this is really getting to me now. Are they this slow about everything? Am I going to have a crazy rush of paperwork, fees, running to get books etc.
All the threads I found are old is there anyone currently doing this course and if so what do you think of it?
Also with regard to the psychology modules has anyone actually gotten recognition from the UK?