Charles Sturt IT Masters : comments?

Mike7

Charles Sturt is based in Australia. Has anyone tried their IT Masters distance education program?

Each Master's program has 12 subjects and you can claim up to 6 subject credits with your IT certs.
For example, for the Master of Networking and System Administration, you can claim credits with your CCIE, ITIL Expert, CISSP, CEH, CRISC, VCP and CCNA:R&S.

They do have short free courses and some are on YouTube

OctalDump

I've actually had a reasonable look at these programs, myself.

Well, it's a bit "depends". It isn't exactly the most rigorous Masters program. On the one hand you get to say you have a Masters, on the other it's from CSU. U Wollongong, UTS, UNSW all run similar programs and they seem to be better. There also a couple in Victoria (RMIT? and Monash?), and I think at least one of the Queensland universities (SQU? or QUT) runs a program.

The big plus, is that they are quite liberal in giving you credit. Other universities are much stricter and will limit what you can get credit for and put other hurdles. For example, UTS has a challenge test if you want to get credit for CCNA or CCNP. It's all a little controversial, on the one hand why study things you already know, on the other hand does a 2 week crash course in networking really equal a whole 130 hour+ university level subject and are vendor courses really academic (they all contain a level of sales pitch and ignore alternatives).

That extra credit also means it can be pretty cheap to get a Masters degree, maybe for around $16k.

The other plus is that some of their 'industry' courses are certified courses. So, for example you can do their Hacking Countermeasures course and it is EC Council CEH course. I think they also have CHFI and CIH. There is also a CAPM/PMP subject. So, for $2700, you can do a course that might easily cost twice that at a training provider.

They also run three sessions a year, so if you did have the 6 subjects worth of credit, you could get a Masters in a year at 2 subjects per session - about 20 hours/week study. And it's all distance/online, so quite flexible about when/how you study.

Some of the courses aren't really at a postgraduate level. For example, they have introductory level courses in Networking and Linux (probably other things), that are similar to 1st year undergrad courses, or even in some cases Cert IV level. Strangely many people who could get credit for these, still do the subjects, so you literally do have CCIEs studying CCNA level stuff just so they can get the credit points.

Their security program (Master of Information Systems Security?) is quite good for collecting a bunch of half decent industry certifications. It seems a bit more rigorous than the Networking and Systems Administration course. A graduate from that will be ready for ENSA, CISSP along with maybe ECIH/CEH/CHFI, Linux+, VCP, CAPM/PMP etc depending on the electives they take.

Looking at what you have, you'd get credit for at least 3 subjects - MCSA, CEH, CISSP. Depending on how prepared you feel, you could do a couple more exams and get more credit at cheaper than the ~2700 they charge per subject. I think CCNA, VCP, Exchange server, ENSA, CHFI, ECIH, and CAPM/PMP all get you credit (depending on degree/stream).

The other consideration with both those Masters, is that they are much more focussed on technical skills. If you already have the qualifications, something to consider developing at that level is softer skills, management etc. They do run a Master of Management (IT), a Master Project Management, and a MBA (Computing). If you were looking for C level positions, or senior exec positions, then those other programs might be a better fit. And there are, of course, other options from other universities.

They also have a Masters of Information Technology, which doesn't have the industry subjects (certs), and has a bit more traditional IT subjects like programming, databases etc. That degree also allows you to specialise in up to 2 streams. Very broadly speaking, the more general the degree title, the more 'prestige' it carries.

At the end of the day, you are sometimes paying a lot of money for someone to basically say "yeah, we're convinced she read the textbooks and understood it".

Essendon

A friend of mine did his accounting degree from CSU, he did his on-campus though in Sydney. He was happy with the course and thought highly of his professors. I'll ask about the distance education program when I next talk to him.

Mike7

OctalDump wrote: »

I've actually had a reasonable look at these programs, myself.

They also run three sessions a year, so if you did have the 6 subjects worth of credit, you could get a Masters in a year at 2 subjects per session - about 20 hours/week study. And it's all distance/online, so quite flexible about when/how you study.

Their security program (Master of Information Systems Security?) is quite good for collecting a bunch of half decent industry certifications. It seems a bit more rigorous than the Networking and Systems Administration course. A graduate from that will be ready for ENSA, CISSP along with maybe ECIH/CEH/CHFI, Linux+, VCP, CAPM/PMP etc depending on the electives they take.

At the end of the day, you are sometimes paying a lot of money for someone to basically say "yeah, we're convinced she read the textbooks and understood it".

Thanks! Glad to have someone from Down Under to comment.

My understanding is that they provide official certification training material and exam voucher, so $2,900 for GCIH based Incident Response is not a bad deal. There are some subjects such as Hacking Measures (based on CEH) where it is cheaper and better to self-study and get the cert.

There is also some common subjects among the Masters program. So it is possible to get a few Graduate Certificates, technical Masters (Networkin, InfoSec) and management Masters (IT, MBA) after a few years if you select the appropriate subjects. Not that I intend to study all of them and get all the Masters.

Yes, this isn't exactly the most rigorous or prestigious Masters; it is however very flexible and can be cheap. I do want to be sure that this is a decent program and not a degree mill. And also claim CPEs.

OctalDump

Mike7 wrote: »

Thanks! Glad to have someone from Down Under to comment.

Yes, this isn't exactly the most rigorous or prestigious Masters; it is however very flexible and can be cheap. I do want to be sure that this is a decent program and not a degree mill. And also claim CPEs.

Yeah, degree mill this isn't. They still expect you to do assignments and pass their exams. CCIEs doing entry level network courses does bother however 'legal' it might be.

The ability to cross transfer credits and subjects between the degrees does mean that if you plan it out right, you can get the 2nd degree with the full 6 subject credit. So, a whole other Master degree in 1 year. Which might make up for the prestige problem.

I haven't looked into a great deal, but other universities do generally look more favourably on credit transfer from other universities than they do from industry certifications or work experience. So, you could get the cheap and cheerful CSU masters and then sign up for something more rigorous at another university and get 1/3 to 1/2 credit.

vJosh

I'm currently studying the Bachelor of Information Technology and working full time.
Each subject is different but generally there is an online meeting every week on a Wednesday or Thursday and a number of assessments that need to be submitted throughout the semester. I've been doing 2 subjects per semester, which has been pretty manageable. I was able to get credit for my VCP, ITIL and CCNA certs so I'm expecting to be competed around this time next year.

Overall I found the course material very good and the weekly online lectures help to keep you focused.
As for the Masters, some of the subjects for post grad courses are similar, only the assessments vary. So I would imagine it would be similar experience.

Mike7

Thanks for the comments.

Anyway, I email them about credit eligibility. There are some ground rules as follows

You cannot use lower certifications on the same vendor stream to also gain credits when the higher certification is used for credits – e.g. If you have CCIE Security (3 credits) you cannot use CCNA Security for extra credits.

So you can use either CCIE or CCNA to claim 1 subject credit but not both to claim 2 credits

All exams or certifications listed on this credit map must have been passed within the last five years (or Recertified or Maintained as per Vendor’s requirements) from the time of application for you to gain credit.

Makes sense here. They implemented this in 2013

OctalDump wrote: »

Their security program (Master of Information Systems Security?) is quite good for collecting a bunch of half decent industry certifications. It seems a bit more rigorous than the Networking and Systems Administration course. A graduate from that will be ready for ENSA, CISSP along with maybe ECIH/CEH/CHFI, Linux+, VCP, CAPM/PMP etc depending on the electives they take.

To claim 6 credits for their Information Systems Security Masters, can do CISSP (2 credits), CRISC or RHCE, ENSA and either 2 of the GCIH, CHFI/CCE and CEH.

True, fairly decent certs. EC Council quite well represented which seems to be the similar case for WGU. Some may comment about the value of EC Council's certs and we will leave it as that.

OctalDump

Mike7 wrote: »

To claim 6 credits for their Information Systems Security Masters, can do CISSP (2 credits), CRISC or RHCE, ENSA and either 2 of the GCIH, CHFI/CCE and CEH.

True, fairly decent certs. EC Council quite well represented which seems to be the similar case for WGU. Some may comment about the value of EC Council's certs and we will leave it as that.

The Info Sec and the Net/Sys admin course both have an industry Virtualisation subject, which I've been told you can get credit for if you hold VCP. I'm not sure if that works the other way, ie the course is VMware endorsed and allows you to sit the VCP exam. I was also told that CCNA Sec can be used as credit for the Info Sec Masters, but not sure for which subject. Some of the subjects have more than one option for credit.

My understanding is that ITMasters is the separate entity that runs the "industry" component courses. It seems that they are accredited by EC-Council, so that probably makes them a bit biased that way, since it's easier to get 3 courses from one vendor than 1 course from 3 vendors. Interestingly, they run an 'academic' (CSU proper) course in Digital Forensics and also the EC-Council CHFI course (ITMasters). I'm not sure what the overlap would be. Gut feel says that the academic course is probably better.

UnixGuy

It's not a bad program, similar to WGU in the US.

I found the programs at Edith Cowan better to be honest. Personally I decided against technical masters and found certifications to have better ROI.

Mike7

OctalDump wrote: »

The Info Sec and the Net/Sys admin course both have an industry Virtualisation subject, which I've been told you can get credit for if you hold VCP.

I was also told that CCNA Sec can be used as credit for the Info Sec Masters, but not sure for which subject. Some of the subjects have more than one option for credit.

They have 3 categories: core, restricted academic electives and restricted industry electives. The Core and Restricted Academic have exact requirements in terms of the certification you can use for credits.
The Restricted Industry Electives are the subjects which have more than one option for credit.


The best way is to fill in the form with your certifications and they will compute the credits you can claim

OctalDump wrote: »

Interestingly, they run an 'academic' (CSU proper) course in Digital Forensics and also the EC-Council CHFI course (ITMasters). I'm not sure what the overlap would be. Gut feel says that the academic course is probably better.

Course details at ITC597 Digital Forensics | IT Masters and ITE513 Forensic Investigation (CHFI).

This is for the CHFI industry elective.

Included in this subject is the Official EC Council Courseware which includes an Exam voucher to the sit the EC Council Industry Exam. While you will be assessed in the subject via Academic Assessments, this Exam voucher will allow you to sit the exam externally at your leisure after completing this subject.

Seems to be the only elective that has exam voucher.