School Funding an OU Degree

[featured_spectre]

No I mean the full amount covered in the module. They may have additional items in there not covered by your exams

[Gardinho]

That sounds plausible, but silly. What would happen if I chose that module? Surely I wouldn't be expected to sit those exams again...

[featured_spectre]

you would have to check with the module tutors.

[Gardinho]

OK. Thanks for your advise.

 

Impressed you're going to fund it yourself. The fees are huge!

 

How are you going to juggle it with family time\social life etc? Most people I have spoken to have taken about 6 years to complete. That doesn't worry me though, I'd only be 35 by then so still would have 30+ years of work!

[featured_spectre]

I will be about 35 when mine is completed also, plus with current job I can afford to do a 2 modules per year and still have enough for family, holidays, social life etc.

[ChrisH]

The foundation degree has slightly different modules (some I'd be interested in - ie Project Management).

 

Would you advise going down that route and upgrading in the future once I know I can stomach the work load?

 

I'm doing the project and service management module at the moment you can fit the modules to suit you so you do the foundation degree and then continue on it's just satisfying the ones the FD qualification needs. This is the first run of this particular module and I can't say I enjoy the book they are using as it is really focussed on software projects and find it presumes a prior knowledge of project management in some cases; that said I am getting what I need out of it but will be disregarding a lot at the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed doing the CCNA module last year apart from doing a written exam on it which was challenging, especially when the paper contained obvious errors like an invalid wildcard mask, I did feel sorry for a lot of the people though who had no IT experience and were suddenly doing the Cisco course, it totally blew their minds with subnetting etc.

[ChrisH]

I've just had an email from the OU:

 

"I am sorry to say we cannot approve credit transfer in respect of Microsoft training courses, as they are not listed on our website as being assess or eligible."

 

Strange, as I thought they are assessed under TM128?

 

Those are some of the exams I have.

 

There are pre-requisite courses to cash in those credentials such as the MT127 (I have this one, it cost me £80 to get 30 points just to prove I passed and write some short statements!) You need to have done one of their specific modules to qualify for the MT127 which is the first 60 point module in the Computing degree/foundation degree. I have similar MS certificates to you and should qualify for cashing in some of my higher level qualifications for a further 30 points but I can't unless I do one of the Java and other related modules, I complained to the OU that this was totally biased to the software development track and not the networking track, but nothing came of it.

[GREED]

A suggestion for you: are you looking to do a specific degree, or is it 'a degree' you want? If the latter consider the Open Degree. It is just as recognised. What it means is you can pick and choose the modules you want to do from ANYTHING (could be Spanish history IT whatever, as long as you have the points). I did this and concentrated on more programming languages than IT stuff if that makes sense. It is a very good option if you are not after a specific qual.

 

In addition, and if you choose the Open Degree it makes this easier, check out what other, usually lower level qualifications you can get with the same points. So for the 300 points of my Open degree I also got a certificate in something and a diploma in something (I can't remember the names!) This was for doing the same work same modules I just claimed them as they were also the requirements for those qualifications. So get the most out of it you can. Don't let that influence what you do but is worth a consideration when choosing, particularly later modules. Hope that makes sense if it doesn't let me know and will describe better.

[Gardinho]

Again, all excellent points raised. Thanks for your input.

 

I would really be looking to choose the modules that best match the job role here (IT Manager). There seems to be a lot to choose from. There isn't anything too specific I'm looking at. Nephilim's suggested modules look like a good starting point (apart from the German - my grasp of foreign languages is rather poor!).

 

I'm going to put something together tomorrow and let the HT have a look at it.

 

Will keep you all posted. Likewise would be nice if other geeks obtaining a degree could post an update on here every now and then to see how everyone's doing.

 

Many thanks,