BU Realtime Review

I've been making these posts for a few weeks now so I've decided, at the suggestion of +idr0p, to start a single thread to make it easier for interested folks to keep track of everything. The next few posts will be bringing the conversation back up to speed and then I'll have the new post for week 3.

Thanks all. I've really appreciated the positive feedback.

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grauwulf

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Original Air Date: Sep 2, 2011

A few people have asked for reviews on how things work out with my M.S. program at Boston University. With that in mind I'm going to occasionally post real-time review pieces so you can get an idea of how the program compares to traditional courses and other online programs. Hopefully it will be found useful.

As general information; I completed my Associates degree through almost all brick and mortar course work (Community College). My Bachelors of Science was then completed almost entirely online (UMUC). My certifications have all been self study, and I've passed about 10 DSSTs in addition to my professional certifications. Given all of this I consider myself to be at least generically qualified to present an 'across the board' perspective. Those are my only credentials, so you've been warned

Before the storm:
Classes start next week so I'm pretty excited. BU uses the Blackboard system that just about every other college uses. It has it's problems but it's not terrible. I received my welcome packet about a week or so after being accepted and was very underwhelmed. I wasn't expecting bars of gold bullion or anything, but all you get is a welcome letter and a reusable shopping bag. Now don't get me wrong, my wife and I are big recycle types. We have a compost pit and rain collection barrels and all that jazz, but really? a tote bag? ... Welcome to Boston University's NPR school of technology ... On the other hand a day later I got my student ID in the mail. It's a simple part-time student ID with your name and ID number on it but it does let you go to sporting events and any other school activity it you happen to be in the area which is really cool. If you want a "real id" you can just stop by campus and pick one up. I know, it's just a card, but it does make you one of the team / part of the family and I really appreciate that after some of other online programs where you aren't 'part' of the program, just taking part 'in' it. I plan to go to at least a few hockey games

So-far so-good, but what about class? Well my first class starts next week so I don't know. What I do know is that A) the blackboard system is pretty easy to use. All new online students are in an online orientation now so folks in the various programs are starting to form up a bit and chat which is nice.

The books are current but not bleeding edge. This is good for a few reasons. First, you can get them cheaper. I got my $133.00 book on ebay for $25. Second, the teachers and online facilitators, might actually 'know' the material if they aren't swapping out books every semester.

This brings up another point. Facilitators. It seems that each class has a professor (the same person who teaches the class in real life - the prof for my first class is the CS department chair... no pressure), a facilitator and a lead facilitator. As far as I can tell the prof is a manager and the facilitators will be the primary points of contact. I'm guessing that these are PhD students so we'll see how well that goes.

Lastly - schedule! Holy $chnikies the schedule is INTENSE. BU online graduate courses are 4 credit hours and only 7 weeks long. That's 2-3 chapters, a quiz, 4-6 discussion threads, and ongoing project work - every - single - week. Add in that I have a wife and a job as a security/development consultant that has been 60+ hours a week for months now.... yeah... bring on the red-bull. If you maintain that pace you will finish the program in a year and a half, and potentially go insane. I like pressure but wowie.

OK folks that's what I've got. I'll keep you posted. Like it or not

grauwulf

Original Air Date: Sep 16, 2011

Week 1 is over. All in all it's about what I expected. The assignments are very detailed and the course is very structured. There is an assignment and a quiz every week, and every other week you need to provide a rough draft for a section (called an aspect) of the term project. On the opposing weeks you provide comments on your group-mates efforts and then do your rework. There is a 'virtual lecture' held twice a week that isn't required but is "strongly recommended". The final is closed book and proctored.

Those are the gory details but really it seems like just about every other online class you've taken.

Lots and lots of reading (two chapters a week + 20-60 pages of lecture notes + a the virtual lecture & notes) and the TA's are really looking for detail in the answers you give. I lost several points on my assignment this week because "the answer was right but you could have told me _why, a little be more".

Downside: I've mentioned this before but this is a 7 week 4 credit hour course. If you get behind, even a little bit, you're hosed. Time management is critical.

One other thing and this may just be this class, assignments are due at 0600 on Tuesdays - which TOTALLY nailed a number of people in my class. "Assignments are due tuesday. OK I'll turn it in on tuesday afternoon. *BZZZ!* wrong again bozo! The late policy is also crazy strict. late assignments must still be turned in but you get 0 credit for them. Ouch. The online quizzes are also set up so that you can take as long as you want, but if you take more than 50 minutes (I think, it's something like that) you automatically take a 40% grade penalty, so you ahve to be careful to manage your time there too.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the class and the school. I just need to pay more attention to my schedule :-/ Anyway back to work.

Current Scores:
First assignment was an 87%, first aspect PASS, first quiz: still waiting on grade.

grauwulf

Thoughts:

Week three is coming to a close and the course has hit that point where the long haul is starting to set in. Every class, in person or on-line, always hits a tipping point for me. Somewhere along the line I just want to do other things with my time and I have to convince myself that school is important. Now is that time. This is actually, probably, not a terrible thing because next week is the official mid-way point of the class. So just about the time I'm resigning myself to a life of school work - I'm already looking at the downhill dog-leg. I'm pretty familiar with the material so this first class has been really good for me to get into the groove so to speak. So far I've only spent about 12-16 hours per week with homework, reading, online posting, quizzes, and such.

Downside?:
The quizzes are murderous affairs born of bloodshed and the pain of a thousand silently weeping widowers - who are left alone with only their thoughts and memories of a once happy life. Left alone to wither away. slowly. so very slowly. .... I effing HATE the quizzes. I keep seeing questions like "what are the 3 things about X that you book doesn't mention?" where you're presented with 3 right answers, 1 valid choice to anybody but a person who is reading it at the time, and an answer that is totally BOGUS. In at least that regard it is very similar to the CISSP exam, so I guess that's good? On the other hand, I kind of want to learn something here. On the other-other hand (Zaphod Beeblebrox, OSCP, CISSP) I guess this is a graduate course so they should be sticking it to you somewhere.....

My wife had a fantastic insight about this actually. I said "blah blah blah knit-picky TAs..." to which she posited "well, I guess if I was vetting people that I might have to do research with one day I'd be pretty hard on them too."... clever person that she is

Upside?:
The pacing takes a bit to get used to but once you get it, it's great. Next week I'll have completed 5% of my degree. 10 classes makes it super easy to visualize the goal. Teacher seems smart and the program seems well structured so far. A little time examining the calendar has also reviled that although the schedule is tense in the short-term, there is time built in to make sure folks keep their sanity. I approve of this.

Current Scores:
Second assignment was an 81% (would have been a 91 if the guy had not docked me 10pts for something really stupid), second quiz: 75.
Overall grade in the course at this time: 80%

grauwulf

First one to make a Digital Underground joke gets a digital cookie

Thoughts:
Things are moving along and I'm starting to eyeball that final in three weeks. So far the material still isn't really hard there is just a lot of it (as I said before). Something that is really standing out now is how gun-ho some of my classmates are. If you make a single slip up people will dog-pile on you to try and make themselves look more "authoritative". I've seen a few folks just get pounded, and once one person says something everybody else has to chime and with another reason why the stated goof-up really is a goof-up. It's quite obnoxious actually, the level of pretension in this class is a solid .8 maybe a .9. Were we in a regular class I'd just tell them to shut up but you have to be careful about that kind of stuff on a chat board.

Upside:
Nothing to crazy yet. Still just chugging along.

Downside:
The TA's continue to be nit-picky as hell. For example we have these aspects that aren't graded they are just pass fail. If you make a "good faith effort" you pass. Well I submitted my section and was given a grade of "needs work" WTF? Could you possibly be more confusing?

Scores:
last week's assignment was a 94% & quiz was 100%

idr0p

Finals coming around your almost in the Danger Zone, (digicookie collected), sounds like your clients lack the *** packets. (x2)

grauwulf

Thoughts:
In general things could be worse. The past two weeks have been very busy for my outside of school and my school-work has suffered. I've lost quite a few points over the past weeks because I just haven't been posting to the boards, and participation counts. Overall I'm kind of "blah" at the moment, but then again I'm 5 weeks into a 7 week - 4 credit hour class..... I think this is somewhat expected. The one thing I would really like to see more of is the actual professor. The TAs are all cool and everything, but it would be nice to have a bit more interaction with the guy making the lesson plan.

Upside:
The class is very detailed, but so far I havent seen anything out of the ordinary.

Downside:
Apparently some folks in my class, that are close to graduation, think this is one of the hardest classes they have ever taken. It's my first class in the program so I don't have anything to compare it too really, but the difficulty as I see it is in the volume of work rather than the complexity of the work.

Scores:
Still waiting on the last batch, but so far I seem to be pulling a B overall. If I rock the last assignment and do OK on the final I can still pull down an A.

Devilry

grauwulf wrote: »

Thoughts:
In general things could be worse. The past two weeks have been very busy for my outside of school and my school-work has suffered. I've lost quite a few points over the past weeks because I just haven't been posting to the boards, and participation counts. Overall I'm kind of "blah" at the moment, but then again I'm 5 weeks into a 7 week - 4 credit hour class..... I think this is somewhat expected. The one thing I would really like to see more of is the actual professor. The TAs are all cool and everything, but it would be nice to have a bit more interaction with the guy making the lesson plan.

Upside:
The class is very detailed, but so far I havent seen anything out of the ordinary.

Downside:
Apparently some folks in my class, that are close to graduation, think this is one of the hardest classes they have ever taken. It's my first class in the program so I don't have anything to compare it too really, but the difficulty as I see it is in the volume of work rather than the complexity of the work.

Scores:
Still waiting on the last batch, but so far I seem to be pulling a B overall. If I rock the last assignment and do OK on the final I can still pull down an A.

Well if your fellow students are correct on the difficulty of the class, you might be in luck for somewhat of a downward ease of work!

Thanks for keeping us updated, this is great information.

Good luck on pulling up your work to an A! I'm sure you can do it.

grauwulf

Thoughts:
This week, the last week (that's why 6-7 is blended), I'm not going to offer pro/cons - think of this as more of a Jerry's Final Thoughts. I think the program is pretty good so far. I do have some complaints. I'd like to hear more from the actual professor. The TA's are sometimes wrong and not always willing to admit it. The material is somewhat dull and there is a great deal of it. That being said this course is the exact same material that BU teaches in the full 14 week class, condensed into 7 weeks. If we had more time to explore the technology I think that would be great, but I honestly don't see that happening in an online course either. For people like me: I think this is a fantastic program. If you're fresh out of undergrad and looking to roll into a program then I would not recommend this one. The compression of the course requirers one of two things to succeed, either a strong background in the material or a LOT of time to study. Next semester I'm taking quantitate analysis (*blarg*) so I should get a better feel for the overall student population, as quant-**** is a cross discipline course, and I'm really looking forward to that... if not 7 weeks of discrete math

.

I may post one more review after the final but at this point I would recommend this program to anybody looking into grad school who has a few years under their belt. I think the work load may be a bit much on somebody who is new to the material... it could be done, it's just a bit much.

Scores:
So far I have a course average of 89% BUT the term project and final exam are worth 50% of your grade. So if I ace them both, I get a 97% for the class but if I bomb them both I get a 75%. No pressure

My final is tomorrow so we'll chat again soon I'm sure

idr0p

Good Luck on the final. I am actually going to be starting this program in Jan. with Web App Devel.

grauwulf

I didn't want to post my review of the final right away because, well, my brain was still a little bit melty. Without a doubt this exam was one of the most comprehensive and 'deep' school exams I've ever taken. As a special added bonus there were 50 questions but close to 2/3 of them were actually question groups, for example:
#1 Answer the following 10 questions about carrier line switching: (2pts)
CSMA/CD uses a 32-bit Jam Signal <true/false>
etc....

So 50 questions was actually closer to 200.

Some of the questions were very general and some very specific. With difficulty ranging from something really simple like how many addresses are in a given subnet to something rather specific like "Multi-mode fiber has a core of X and single mode fiber has a core of Y, select the correct answer." These are not actual questions, of course, but they do represent the types of questions you could see.

I don't have a grade for the exam or course yet so I don't know how I did at this point. If I scored a 15% or better I will pass the class, and it's still very possible for me to get an A. The final exam is 25% of your grade so it is a really big swing right at the end of the class. In any case I'm fairly sure I got at least a 15 I'm not too worried

My overall assessment is that the material is great and should not be taken lightly. If you have a background in this arena then it may be very tempting to push off assignments, but don't. The term project is a great example of something that is set up to be completed in a certain way and you need to pay attention to detail.

Anyway, at the end of my first class I'm feeling good about my decision to go to Boston University and that my choice of a distance education program was a good one for me. I have decided that if I choose to go on to a PhD I will attend a brick and mortar university but for me the online program is a good call. If you can self-motivate and learn through a Blackboard environment (some people hate it) then most people will learn a lot and get a great education value.

That is what I've got. Thank you for following along and if anybody has any question's about the program or how the BUniverse works I'd be happy to help out.

joneno

Good job, im following your progress even if I haven't posted on it. I'd be moving to the Boston area next year when im down with Maryland, this was also one of the graduate schools im looking at including penn state, umd, umuc, gwu and RIT. Good luck man, i'd be praying for u.

grauwulf

joneno, If you're considering staying in Maryland (I live just outside of Baltimore) I would also encourage you to look into UMBC. They have a great cyber program if that's your thing and they have been ranked #1 for 3 years running as best up and coming school, and are tied nationally at #3 for the best education... tied with Yale. BU has many other assets, but if you're in the area and can make it to class (UMBC is not as flexible with scheduling as BU is) then you could do MUCH worse than UMBC.

In any case, thank you for your kind words and good luck in your academic future.

joneno

I currently live 5 mins away from umbc. LOL ! What is the meaning of MPS that umbc is offering, why not just MS?
MS sounds sexier.

Devilry

Thanks for your continuing review.

Let us know how you came out with your grades!

grauwulf

joneno: the difference between an MS and an MPS is largely in how the programs are structured.

With an MS there is a certain degree of cross domain work that is expected. For example, in my MS program I have to take some high level project management types of classes but I have a concentration in security. I think this is a pretty good balance because to be a competent leader in a given field you need to know how to work in that 'field', not just your specialty. You could think of this as an extension of the Bachelors program where they are trying to turn you into a "well rounded professional". Well, most MS programs are trying to turn you into a "well rounded [whatever] leader" - it's about building a balance between building depth and breadth. An MPS on the other hand is more focused on building a depth in the focus area so that when you walk out of graduation you are ready to perform a very specific job function very well.

There are positives and negatives to both programs. I chose the MS program over the MPS because I think it provides a broader base to build my career on. An MPS will provide a deep focus in your given area but you could be held back by not knowing, for example, how to create a useful system analysis report. Additionally MPS programs are so focused that I don't know how much value a given degree will have in 5-10 years time.

*shrugs* that's just my take.

joneno

Thanks Grauwulf. I didn't know that. I keep that in mind when making my final decision. I'd also post my decision here for you/techexams to critique.
Thanks again.

grauwulf

So this bit is new, and I thought it was worth sharing.

In undergrad I had a generic 4.0 scale: A=4.0,B=3.0,C=2.0,D=1.0,F=0.0. With that you averaged everything up and that's how you got a fractional grade. In my case I got an 89. something or other so I expected to be rounded up to a 90, which would have been an A, which would have been worth 4.0 grade points.

This is not the case however, as BU does not use this system.

( Boston University - Office of the University Registrar - Grades and Transcripts - Explanation of Grades for more information)

Letter Grade Honor Points Explanation Grade
A 4.0 Excellent 93-100
A- 3.7 Excellent 90-93
B+ 3.3 Excellent 87-89
B 3.0 Good 83-86
B- 2.7 Good 80-82
C+ 2.3 Good 77-79
C 2.0 Satisfactory 73-76
C- 1.7 Satisfactory 70-72
D 1.0 Low, pass 60-69
F 0.0 Fail, no credit 0-59

Whole numbers, so an 89.9 is still a B+. This is just something to generally keep in mind because it can have an effect on your overall grade. I can see a benefit to both systems, and I do think that this is a bit more accurate. Especially when you consider that a graduate program is only 10-11 classes. In any case my first course outing netted a B+, which is kind of grumble educing but whatever.

Like I said; just something to keep in mind because it may be different from what you are used to.

Devilry

grauwulf wrote: »

So this bit is new, and I thought it was worth sharing.

In undergrad I had a generic 4.0 scale: A=4.0,B=3.0,C=2.0,D=1.0,F=0.0. With that you averaged everything up and that's how you got a fractional grade. In my case I got an 89. something or other so I expected to be rounded up to a 90, which would have been an A, which would have been worth 4.0 grade points.

This is not the case however, as BU does not use this system.

( Boston University - Office of the University Registrar - Grades and Transcripts - Explanation of Grades for more information)

Letter Grade Honor Points Explanation Grade
A 4.0 Excellent 93-100
A- 3.7 Excellent 90-93
B+ 3.3 Excellent 87-89
B 3.0 Good 83-86
B- 2.7 Good 80-82
C+ 2.3 Good 77-79
C 2.0 Satisfactory 73-76
C- 1.7 Satisfactory 70-72
D 1.0 Low, pass 60-69
F 0.0 Fail, no credit 0-59

Whole numbers, so an 89.9 is still a B+. This is just something to generally keep in mind because it can have an effect on your overall grade. I can see a benefit to both systems, and I do think that this is a bit more accurate. Especially when you consider that a graduate program is only 10-11 classes. In any case my first course outing netted a B+, which is kind of grumble educing but whatever.

Like I said; just something to keep in mind because it may be different from what you are used to.

Thats for that update. I don't particularly like that system, they should at least round up. Total bummer they could not have given you a well deserved A.

WFMAH

Thanks for the "blow-by-blow" coverage! I want to comment on the grading scale.

How can a 93% be an "A" and an "A-"? I spent about 30 minutes searching the BU site and the google-net and couldn't find a published break down like you posted. Same grades and quality points, but not the percentages.

I did find this article talking about grade deflation at BU, 201 Magazine | Features & Profiles | What's an A?, By Jessica Craver lots of other articles like it.

I'd definitely call or e-mail a member of the student assembly to check out the status of not rounding the numbers. Couldn't hurt!

grauwulf

WFMAH, mis-type on my part. A- is 90-92. I guess I just fat-fingered it. Grade distribution was taken a course syllabus. You really spent 30+ minutes trying to fact check an anecdotal forum post? I'm not sure if I should applaud you or set you up a Steam account with Portal

In terms of rounding, I'm actually not that worried about it. If you're concerned about fractions of a single point I would think that you should have worked a little harder to begin with. I'm not, so I didn't

this may come back to haunt me but I'll live with the B+. First course in the program, lesson learned.

idr0p

What are you taking Fall 2?

grauwulf

idr0p, I'm taking quantitative methods for information systems, CS 546, starting today. Actually, starting 2 hours ago

Methodikal

grauwulf,

I'm loving your thread, as I'm looking to start this program in 2012. Quick question, what course was this realtime review for? CS520? Thanks in advance, and keep up the good work!

Methodikal

idr0p

Im starting cs601 (Web App Devl) in jan at BU anyone taking that?

snakeuptilit

Methodikal wrote: »

grauwulf,

I'm loving your thread, as I'm looking to start this program in 2012. Quick question, what course was this realtime review for? CS520? Thanks in advance, and keep up the good work!

Methodikal

This.

Also, any more updates? This is awesome man.:)

phaneuf1

I have a question about BU online. Is it the same diploma/degree as the one offered on campus, like penn state?