I’ve been looking at OU courses this morning, most notably B44, the BSc Hons in Computing and Design.
I’m not even going to start talking about how the course materials require Windows. That’s an entirely different debate.
I’m wondering whether I, with 12 years of industry experience, all of it in computing (and with 3 years of teaching IT part time) really need to do the Level 1 course which will teach me how to:
- keep in touch with your tutor and your fellow students
- find resources on the world wide web
- gain experience of generic software tools (such as spreadsheets)
- use online and computer-based learning materials
- work collaboratively with other students in your local tutor-group.
I’ve asked the question. It seems to leap from that to the level two course ‘Object-oriented programming with Java’ which assumes:
- knowledge of, and facility with, basic programming concepts such as sequence, selection, iteration and data types
- a general familiarity with the basic components and working of a computer
- study skills appropriate to Level 2 study.
Seems like quite a leap (and yeah, I’m sure I fulfill those requirements too).
A couple of years after getting my Degree in Software Engineering, I went back to uni part time to get my MSc. Apart from being a massive drain on my time and money for the best part of 3 years, I came out of it mentally exhausted, with virtually no new skills. In fact, it prevented my from staying up to date with ‘real’ industry skills/trends so I felt like I had taken a backwards step. Still at least I have MSc after my name, which by the way is totally irrelevant!
I hear you, Conor. That’s the problem with Game Development course, the universities are years behind the industry in this.
I’m just very conscious that I have a degree in Genetics and not something IT-related. And I enjoy learning in a group setting.
I’m with Conor – granted I dropped out of my last year of my computers degree – but it was constantly playing catchup with the real world – and only really got interesting in the final year – I found the first couple of years were so easy as to be laughable and the final year, which touched on stuff I’d never done, was wildly complex and no fun at all.
Maybe better to do some shorter more specific courses?
-pj
Obviously with only two points of data it’s hardly a trend but still.
Any suggestions on course? To be honest I could care less about the qualification – I just need some help in doing the whole programming thing.
Well, I can tell you to steer away from the HNC in Software Engineering – little bit of database, little bit of java and not an awful lot else.
But not sure where I can steer you towards.
– pj
Well, I used to teach in Lisburn Tech and the depth is not what it should be.
I guess I need a Cocoa trainer!
There is a Cocoa course taught at Stanford. The course materials are on the web at:
http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs193e/
No lectures on iTunesU though.
You can see some of the OU course materials at:
http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/home.php
Scott Stevenson does Cocoa tutoring (or used to):
http://theocacao.com/document.page/274
Ian
Cheers Ian – we’ve a lot of Cocoa learning links on xcake.org already but I’d not seen that Stanford one before!
Do you have any IT qualifications that you could use to apply for credit transfer and thus skip the level 1 courses? Have a word with the regional office.
That said, it could be worse: you could have Team working in distributed environments (M253) as a compulsory course.
http://www3.open.ac.uk/coursereviews/course.aspx?course=M253