Anyone done University of London External Programme Degree?

truthseeker

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And if so - how did you find it?

I am considering signing up for a Diploma with a view to going forward to the Degree if all goes well with the Diploma course.

If anyone has done any of their courses Id be interested to hear of your experiences - specifically, how difficult is it to complete the required amount of study in the minimum time frame? Is there good communication between tutors and students? How do you get a 'feel' for how well you are doing if you are not in a classroom environment with peers?

If anyone has done any Open University courses Id also be interested to hear about those experiences.
 
I did my MSc there (University of London), purely for the fun of it rather than advancement.

I loved it, I found it quite tough but enjoyable. The material was v good and there were virtual sessions where we would log on and discuss various academic issues. I found these a bit tedious to be honest as I thought the interface was a bit dated.

I'd recommend the college.
 
London University External is essentialy the distance arm of the University of London Colleges e.g. Kings, Goldsmiths, Birkbeck etc - all these colleges have good academic reputations. I dont have first hand experience, but for me it's all about quality of materials and support.

As for the OU, your academic progress is through feedback from assignments. A tutor will give you reasonably detailed feedback on your work and how you could improve the next time. It'a actually part of the tutors role to do this, if they dont you can go up the line and complain. On most courses it's a 50:50 split with continuous assessment and exam in terms of the final grade for a module. It'a all quite transparent, you get a study guide and assignment guide and everything is clear re what they expect from you to achieve a good grade.

From my experience it's important not to overload yourself with too many modules at once. You may want to get a qualification quickly, but a full-time degree takes 3 years, so if you are starting from scartch with the OU i.e. no credit transfer, getting a degree in 4 years will be heavy going.
 
Thank you for the feedback, very interesting stuff.

Mimmi - thanks particularly for the feedback regarding not taking on too many modules at once.

After some consideration I have decided to sign up for the Diploma to start with (min of 1 year, max of 3) and see how that goes, it will give me an indication of how long to stretch the degree over (min of 2 years after Diploma, max of 5).
 
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