OU IT Accreditiation

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I've been looking at some Open Uni course and saw that they do an Accreditation of It practioners course. This allows you to take various IT certs already gained and countthem towards soem OU courses.

This is the course details

http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?C01MT127

Now it does say its uses ICT Vendors such as Microsoft and some of thier certs to help get that accreditaion but when you follow this link for applicable vendors

http://www.computing.open.ac.uk/Course/MT127

It only lists MS as a Vendor and then only some of the courses.

So it seems any one with a Comptia, Cisco or anyother Vendor can not be acreditted.. so whats they point? Why only MS? were they the only ones willing to stump up for this???

 

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I 'did this course' a few years back.
It's a handy way of bumping up your OU points if you are already a student, but pretty pointless otherwise.

You just send them the course fee and your transcript details and you pass.

Seemed to cause them some confusion though, eventually I had to send them a link to their own website so they knew which course I was on about.

There were a very limited number of certs that they would accept if I recall.

 

I would consider yourself lucky the OU will give you any credit given all the braindumping.

They do not give credit for CCNA for instance, you have to take their CCNA course.

They also refuse to give any credit towards masters level qualifications.

With these courses they are making it pretty easy to get an IT foundation degree, I'd be happy, looks like much less effort than the 2 years fulltime most people have to put in (providing you have an MCSA) :-

Pathways
http://ict.open.ac.uk/g04/
http://www.mcs.open.ac.uk/Qual/G06

MCSA basically gets you 60 points straight off the bat which is a whole years OU study off.

That leaves 180 points worth of study, which is three years normally, but a lot of that will be level one stuff, and the level two stuff looks pretty easy too, so possible in 2 years part time probably.

From nothing to foundation degree in two years part-time distance learning sounds good to me.

 

Level 1 is pretty 'easy' I guess for higher education.
I've done a couple of level 2's and they were pretty tough.

It's the pace more than anything - keep up with the course material and submit half a dozen TMAs.
It doesn't sound like much, but the TMAs are like mini exams with some of the longer questions being projects in their own right.

You can't make a head start on the TMA as you won't have covered all the necessary material, and they're pretty strict on their deadlines. Some people played the numbers game and worked out that they could skip a TMA in which case they give you an average mark for it - but then that gives you no room for manouver in the future...

Each module I did had people falling by the wayside and probably only 40% or less of my original tutorial group made it to the end of year exams.

But certainly a more viable option for some than 3 years at uni.

 

Well I must say I'm finding MS221 pretty tough, but I reckon I could walk an OU IT foundation degree.

Mind you I do already have a Computer Science degree an MCSA and can code in Java so that may be a little unfair.

 

Thats a great find twizz thanks (repp'd) just signed up for the network living module (thought I'd give it a whirl). Wonder if Arroyn would find the link useful too.

 

I keep looking at the OU courses. I tried one years ago, it was Music technology or something and was teh fisrt time course was run. Cant fault the material supplied but the TMA's were hard work (at least i thought so and it was level 1!) and close togther. The online groups werent much good but the tutor feedback really helped. Unfortunatley i revised the wrong bits for the exam and crashed out badly.

I keep looking to maybe start another course such as the web desgin or anything IT related. I just cant afford it at the moment.

The main reason for my post though was to point out how they suggest they use various IT vendors to help get that extra accreditation but in fact the only one they use is MS and only a few of thier certs even then. It makes teh point of being acredited pointless. You may as well just study for thier own courses straight of the bat.

I may still do one one day (specially as works pushing me into some web desgin as well as training) but not right now.

Thanks for the Rep dales! dunno if Arro will be interested (she's waaaaay to brainy for OU lol)

 

Arroyn's already doing some OU courses, in English Literature or Creative Writing I think.

I think they've dropped exams for all courses at level 1, you just do extra TMA/CMA's.

So most level 1 stuff should be pretty easy to pass now.

The OU offers maths and physics degrees, masters and even a few research masters, so I think few people are 'too brainy' for the OU.

I think the main problem is distance learning is probably harder for most subjects and you can feel isolated.

Also they tend to cater for more main stream subjects and don't offer the variety of modules you can get at some top universities, but then they need to be able to fill courses and find tutors like any college. Also top colleges tend to have a few specialist subjects, the OU covers a pretty broad range of subjects.

 

I've been to most of my tutorials, still finding it tough, and its still not very social to be honest. I don't think I could do a full honours degree the the OU, respect to those that can manage it !

 

That is sort of my thinking i want to do a certificate in mathematics which is just 60 points but i need to get a job first

 

Didn't you want to go travelling ? Why don't you take a 'gap year' and build a school in africa ? or do the Transmongolian railway, or at least some Interrailing etc ?

If you want to study go to university and get a degree, they will do maths referesher courses or foundation years some places.

The OU's main strength is that it can be fitted around work for mature students, and with respect, you aren't mature !

 

Well I've already been self studying IT for 15 years, so perhaps if I'd started earlier it wouldn't be a drag, but then I already have a Comp Sci degree so it would have been pretty pointless to study at undergrad level. IT seems a good subject to distance learn in general, probably better than most others.

I also looked at the OU Computer Science MSc, seemed rather expensive, at around 10k and the modules looked a bit dull.

I find finding the time and motivation to do maths homework at 35 extremely hard !