A MSc rant - Distance learning GCHQ courses
si20
Member Posts: 543 ■■■■■□□□□□
Hi guys,
I'm normally very positive about university, exams, certs etc. But i've been caught out recently and wanted to make sure you don't get caught out too. In the UK, some universities are advertising their courses as "GCHQ Certified". For those who don't know, GCHQ is the UK's version of the NSA (and may be even better than the NSA, depending on your definition of better). A "GCHQ Certified" course must be insane, right?? British newspapers were referring to the courses as "courses for real life spies!" and so on. Whilst I wasn't sold on the "spies" part, I was sold on the "GHCQ" part. So, I enrolled on a masters course, fully certified by the famous aforementioned acronym.
My experience of a distance-learning masters is this:
So, why are these courses GCHQ certified? How and why does this happen? If you click here , you'll see that Universities wishing to apply for full certification must submit an application which includes:
a) academic team: Bob, Alice, Joe, Ben (plus some background history on the team)
b) networking, forensics, security, databases (breakdown of content)
c) 50% practical, 50% coursework
d) research in own time 80%, 20% taught
e) send example dissertations, list of entry requirements e.g 2.1 or above, amount of students on course / grades achieved and feedback from students (i've yet to meet a group of students who give bad feedback. Most give good feedback for some reason).
All in all, i'm now seeing that it looks relatively easy (at least on paper) to become GCHQ certified. For anyone out there in the future who is considering one of these courses, all i'm saying, is to do your research. Research the university, research your lecturers, look at linkedin and former students and where they work now. If you don't go into some serious depth when choosing a MSc, you might end up in my situation where you've wasted a ton of money and gained very little.
Has anyone else got a good/bad experience of masters courses, or distance-learning courses?
I'm normally very positive about university, exams, certs etc. But i've been caught out recently and wanted to make sure you don't get caught out too. In the UK, some universities are advertising their courses as "GCHQ Certified". For those who don't know, GCHQ is the UK's version of the NSA (and may be even better than the NSA, depending on your definition of better). A "GCHQ Certified" course must be insane, right?? British newspapers were referring to the courses as "courses for real life spies!" and so on. Whilst I wasn't sold on the "spies" part, I was sold on the "GHCQ" part. So, I enrolled on a masters course, fully certified by the famous aforementioned acronym.
My experience of a distance-learning masters is this:
- Lecturers take a VERY long time to respond - sometimes days
- Sometimes, lecturers don't respond at all - I am still waiting for a reply to an email I sent on September 2nd, 2015.
- Tuition - the tuition is via videos you download which were recorded in lecture theatres. Get ready for the coughing and spluttering of students who are physically there. Get ready for the long pauses which you are much more aware of on a video. Get ready for the class asking questions - and the lecturer answering - with you, the viewer, unable to hear what was said
- Get ready for elitism. My lecturers are hell-bent on using the CLI. Want to drag and drop a file?? Get out! No. You must use 'cp'. How dare you want to use a GUI.
- Lack of communication - i'll split this into two parts - many distance learning courses have forums for students to communicate on. The forums are marmite. Some love them, some hate them. What does this mean? Well, during a trimester, you might go days, if not weeks without a message on the forum. Students tend to ignore the forums, which means that everyone is isolated and there is zero .....ZERO interaction between students.
- Lack of communication from lecturers - covered a bit of this on the first point - Lecturers are teaching other students physically and via distance learning, plus they're researching themselves. They have a very, very limited time for your queries. For example - i've asked my lecturer for a skype call - 7 weeks later - it hasn't happened.
- Teaching material - varies with every university - but let me say this from the bottom of my techie-heart. RESEARCH your potential lecturers. If they haven't worked in industry - don't consider that university. I hate to say this, but my experience of lecturers without any industry experience is a VERY bad one. They have absolutely no understanding of a 9-5 job. They will often tell you: "tell your employer you want some extra study time". Really? If I went into my employer's office and asked for "extra study time", he'd smile, before pulling out a piece of paper with my last paycheque on it, and promptly fire me. Ok, I exaggerated a little, but the lecturers don't work on a 9-5 like us.
So, why are these courses GCHQ certified? How and why does this happen? If you click here , you'll see that Universities wishing to apply for full certification must submit an application which includes:
- the academic team delivering the Master's degree
- the subject areas taught
- the examinations used for assessment of students
- how students undertake their original research dissertation
- example dissertations*; entry requirements for the Master's, student numbers*, grades achieved and student feedback.
a) academic team: Bob, Alice, Joe, Ben (plus some background history on the team)
b) networking, forensics, security, databases (breakdown of content)
c) 50% practical, 50% coursework
d) research in own time 80%, 20% taught
e) send example dissertations, list of entry requirements e.g 2.1 or above, amount of students on course / grades achieved and feedback from students (i've yet to meet a group of students who give bad feedback. Most give good feedback for some reason).
All in all, i'm now seeing that it looks relatively easy (at least on paper) to become GCHQ certified. For anyone out there in the future who is considering one of these courses, all i'm saying, is to do your research. Research the university, research your lecturers, look at linkedin and former students and where they work now. If you don't go into some serious depth when choosing a MSc, you might end up in my situation where you've wasted a ton of money and gained very little.
Has anyone else got a good/bad experience of masters courses, or distance-learning courses?