Oscail

flywheel

Originally posted by BuffyBot
Oscail is also an option, but the range of courses they offer is smaller than the OU

Oscail courses seem to vary in quality though...

have experience with the MSc Internet Systems they offer, had tutors going AWOL, assignment feedback was unhelpful, lack of tutorials (only available as short online chats) - pretty much here's a book list and PDF Notes - upload your assignments on these dates kind of course - fine for some i suppose but definately not how it's presented before you enrole (and part with your money)...

BrianG

ZENER

I've taken the BSc IT Management course with Oscail but opted for the hardcopy notes/tutorials. Was that not an option for you course Dubwireless ? I'm happy with the tutorials so far plus having a broadband connection to the internet is a major help for books I cant get here in Ireland.

Tinky

ecksor

It sounds a lot less comprehensive than OU courses which provide all course materials necessary in hardcopy booklets, audio and video cassettes (CDs would be nice though) and necessary software on CDROM. tutors give you their phone number, provide face to face tutorials. There are also online support forums for each course (which tutors read and participate on) and in one of the courses I'm doing there's an extra forum specifically for my tutor's group of students.

The course I did last year had a one week residential school at an English university with lectures, clinics and projects which was brilliant.

The downside seems to be that it's more expensive for an Irish student.

ZENER

Yeah I was surprised at his description to be honest. Mind you this is the first course of this type I've taken on so maybe I'm just not clued up on what the norm is.

The courses I enquired about at the OU involved travelling to England and thats what put me off initially. I work a shift roster so I dont have easy access to time off as day workers do. I might look again after I've completed the diploma stage and see if the OU offer better facilities for attempting the degree stages.

Tinky

flywheel

Originally posted by tinky
Was that not an option for you course Dubwireless ?

unfortunately for the MSc Internet Systems no

all totally remote - no face to face - had to print out your own notes (not a biggie but thought they would be included and working from home it all adds up) - although they were generous enough to post out two empty folders during the year!

the tutor going AWOL for one subject was pretty bad - left assignments unmarked and emails unanswered - even the course "coordinator" didn't realise until weeks later - which shows how much "coordination" was going on :rolleyes:

looks like the other courses are grand - and the testimonials for them are good - hope this year goes well for you

have decided to drop their MSc Internet Systems course so as not throw good money after bad

BrianG

BuffyBot

looks like the other courses are grand - and the testimonials for them are good

Seems like a bad experience alright. Maybe someone else will come along who's done the same course and share some info.

flywheel

Originally posted by BuffyBot
Maybe someone else will come along who's done the same course and share some info.

yeah - sure why would you want to believe me

BrianG

BuffyBot

yeah - sure why would you want to believe me

I didn't quite mean it like that. It's always helps to have views from different people. They might agree with you

flywheel

Originally posted by BuffyBot
I didn't quite mean it like that. It's always helps to have views from different people. They might agree with you

true - although i notice you didn't hop on tinky and say "Maybe someone else will come along who's done the same course and share some info" when he praised the particular course he took with Oscail... just me when I wasn't praising mine

also my comments weren't really an opinion - more an outline of what took place while taking the course

all the best,
BrianG

Tom Dunne

Originally posted by DubWireless
Oscail courses seem to vary in quality though...

I did the BSc. in IT with them and I would totally agree. I finished it about 3 years ago and always remember a little gem from the computing course material that was about "Intel's newest and most powerful processor - the 386".

I believe some of the material has been updated, but some of it is still woefully out of date (they are still promising ISDN will be the "next big thing" in communications technology).

While the material can be questionable, it's the administration staff that really, really challenged me. I cannot think of a more incompetent shower of half-wits. If you play by the rules, get 60% in you assignments and exams, everything will be fine. But if you have a problem, not matter how trivial, forget it. There is just no compromise. I found them to be incredibly frustrating to deal with.

For a brief moment of insanity, I considered doing the MSc. in Internet systems, but then I saw the light and did the MSc. in Griffith. Now there is a well run college.

ZENER

computing course material that was about "Intel's newest and most powerful processor - the 386".

It's been updated a bit since then . . . now its the Pentium II
Seriously though a lot of reseach is going to be required no matter what course you take on. I don't mind this too much as it helps the information you find stick in the old grey matter for longer !

As I said earlier this is my first attempt at this type of education so I'm not really sure yet what is the norm. The people I've met with so far have been A1 and there's a nice feeling about the place.

Tinky

Wolfie

Originally posted by DubWireless
true - although i notice you didn't hop on tinky and say "Maybe someone else will come along who's done the same course and share some info" when he praised the particular course he took with Oscail... just me when I wasn't praising mine

also my comments weren't really an opinion - more an outline of what took place while taking the course

all the best,
BrianG

My experience with oscail was bad... looks like oscail is more about the business plan than it is about education. They seem more interested in getting money than providing you with support to complete your course. There were also very different standards of marking/expectations from different tutors. The tutorials you receive at the odd weekend (if the college can provide a room) is more geared towards giving you the answer to assignment questions rather than explaining how the answer was reached.

Not great tbh.. but it would suit those who have motivation to work completely on their own, and look up concepts etc on the net rather than have someone explain them to you. Possible to do this of course, but more time consuming and frustrating.

ZENER

As I mentioned earlier this is my first foray into this form of education so I'm not 100% sure what I should expect. Could you give examples of better courses/institutions so I can compare.

BrianG What were your experiences of Oscail, what turned you against it? As above can you give examples of good courses that you took that impressed you and made you realise that Oscail was as bad as you say ?

Tinky

flywheel

Originally posted by tinky
BrianG What were your experiences of Oscail

ermm... that was someone quoting one of my posts and replying to it - so are you asking them or me

think i've covered why the particular Oscail course I took didn't deliver for me... but will go through it again if anyone want's

BrianG

ZENER

Oscail courses seem to vary in quality though...

have experience with the MSc Internet Systems they offer, had tutors going AWOL, assignment feedback was unhelpful, lack of tutorials (only available as short online chats) - pretty much here's a book list and PDF Notes - upload your assignments on these dates kind of course - fine for some i suppose but definately not how it's presented before you enrole (and part with your money)...

BrianG

This is what I was referring to, I asked what other courses you took that made you decide Oscail was so poor. Has anyone had experiences like this with OU etc. As I said I don't have much experience of this type of learning so I'm interested in finding out what I should expect.

Tinky

BuffyBot

Originally posted by tinky
This is what I was referring to, I asked what other courses you took that made you decide Oscail was so poor. Has anyone had experiences like this with OU etc. As I said I don't have much experience of this type of learning so I'm interested in finding out what I should expect.

Tinky

Well in the three years I've been with the OU, I've found the course material and support to be extremely good

flywheel

Originally posted by tinky
This is what I was referring to, I asked what other courses you took that made you decide Oscail was so poor. Has anyone had experiences like this with OU etc. As I said I don't have much experience of this type of learning so I'm interested in finding out what I should expect.

ah ok

I said "Oscail courses seem to vary in quality", in that other courses they offer appear to get good feedback (you mentioned the one you are taking was grand?), whereas my experience with the course I took was far from good - so I made the comment to highlight this - i didn't generalise about Oscail and made a point of being specific about the particular course I had experience with

I wouldn't expect a course, that you pay a couple of grand for, to have tutors disappear, leaving emails unanswered and assignments unmarked and have a co-coordinator who takes weeks to realise what is going on

the course description (both on-line and on the phone) painted a picture of a modern, proactive, on-line learning experience - it ended up to be little more than a on-line discussion board with a handful of less than engaging java chat sessions, pretty unconstructive assignment feedback

hope that clarifies things

BrianG

ZENER

Quite a few of this years students opted for the online course for the introductory modules and said they felt disconnected from the whole face to face thing and did not like the way assignments had to be delivered in installments. For these reasons I opted for the hardcopy/face-face method for this year.

The whole "online" thing sounds very modern and attractive but at my age I prefer to talk to people with my voice rather than a keyboard to be honest. I also like the feeling of the place and can judge people's attitudes towards the course when they are sitting beside me.

As I've said before this is my first attempt at this, who knows maybe in the coming months I'll have bad experiences of the place and you can be sure I will let people know.

Tinky

ecksor

Originally posted by tom dunne
OU materials tended to be so out of date (see my earlier post).

Did you mean oscail there or else I'm completely misunderstanding your post.

BuffyBot

If it is Oscail you meant, I agree - some of the discussion on this thread makes me glad I chose the OU, as I can only imagine their Arts/Humanities courses are run in a similar manner to their IT/Computing ones.

If it's the OU that you mean, I'd have to say I'm surprised. Like ecksor, I might just be misunderstanding your post.

BuffyBot

Originally posted by tom dunne
OOps, sorry, yes I did mean Oscail (somebody was talking to me when I was typing).

I find it interesting the both ecksor and BuffyBot are doing courses for interest. I finished my MSc. in computing last year and am thinking of doing something completely unrelated to my job. Something like, dare I say it, the BA in Humanities that Oscail run (but in not with Oscail)

Well, I started off with the OU with the intention of doing IT/Computing, but a combination of not being very good at it and being fed up of working in the It/Internet business led me back to Humanities (which I studied, albeit briefly before I dropped out, in UCD). So, I'm studying Literature for the moment, simply because I find it interesting, and a bit of a brain-stretching exercise.

DapperGent

Thread split off from the options thread to decrease confusion and encourage discussion.