Oscail

Originally posted by Moonbeam
Anyone done a Degree thru Oscail?

I did the BSc in IT a while back.

Don't know about expemtions, though.

I am currently on my 1st year of a degree in IT.

There have been a number of problems, but broadly speaking, it is do-able.
I think the course itself is quite good, broad enough to cover the wide spectrum of IT, rather than a degree in computing etc.

The price is reasonable too.

All in all, i chose it over open university, and i belive it was the right decision.

X

I am currently on my 1st year of a degree in IT.

Hi Xt, me too are you doing CT1 with Ciaran Motherway by any chance ?

I agree the course text isn't as modern as it could be but the principles and theories aren't to far away. My main gripe is COBOL ! WTF is that all about ?

You also need to be fairly strong-willed to study in-between assignments - the academic year ran from Janaury to Novemebr with assignments due during the summer. If you're going to do it do it before you have kids !

It depends on the type of person you are and how tolerant your partner is. I've been very fortunate in that my wife and 2 kids give me plenty of slack to study and do the assignments. You need a lot of self-discipline to study on your own and for this reason I think these courses can make for some pretty sought after talent. I mean anyone who has the motivation to study for 20 to 30 hours per week while doing a full time job - I do shift work - and read everything in sight without someone to remind them has to be strong willed. It's very very easy to let things slide until the week before the assignments are due.

Essentially as the others are saying. Extremely arrogant administrative staff/support staff, extremely dated material (ISDN is going to be huge, they told us).

For most part of this country ISDN is all they have !
You don't say how long ago you did the course but I haven't had these problems, the staff have always been friendly and courteous when I spoke with them - how did you do by the way ?

Actually, the BA in Humanities degree is from Maynooth, at least it was the last time I looked (a year or so ago).

I think Oscail does this one as well, I remember at the first tutorial there were 2 middle aged (50 ish) ladies sitting at the back of the room looking bemused by the introductory talk our tutor was giving, it took them over an hour to realise they were in fact in the wrong room and enquired about the Humanities tutorial as they rushed out of the room - certainly broke the ice

ZEN

Originally posted by ZENER
My main gripe is COBOL ! WTF is that all about ?

It just shows you - Oscail are going backwards, not forwards.

For most part of this country ISDN is all they have !

Yes, but ignoring our third-world communications infrastructure for now, the point is that they were making ISDN out to be this all-encompassing, digital network that would bring high-speed internet to the masses. Not one iota of a mention of DSL of any shape or form. It was obviously written in the 80's when ISDN was only beginning to appear. My point is how out of date the material was (COBOL - need I say more )

the staff have always been friendly and courteous when I spoke with them - how did you do by the way ?

One incident that springs to mind I had was just after a Maths exam (like a lot of people, my worst subject). I rang the student counsellors because I was a little upset. I told him I felt the exam was unfair and had in it some material we had not covered. He was quite dismissive of me and said that of the couple of hundred of people who did the exam, I was the only one who felt this way. Extremely unsopportive, quite blunt and an ignorant b*****d. In fairness, there were one or two (Rosemary?) who were quite good.


I got a second class honours and I only finished it three years ago. As with others, I was working shift, with no kids and a very supportive wife, so it suited me.