ITMB at Oxford Brookes 2016

Hi! I haven't been able to find a thread about the information technology management for business course, so I thought I would make one for all the new applicants.

Anyone currently doing ITMB at Oxford brookes(or previous students), please feel free to give us an insight/useful tips about the course and how you find/found it

Posted from TSR Mobile

I've just completed first year ITMB and found it okay. There was probably less than 15 of us at the beginning and this has reduced throughout the year, so it is a very niche course. However this is beneficial as it means you get to know the subject coordinator fairly well. In your first year the course is almost identical to computer science and you have no optional modules.

The first difference is a compulsory module which is basically doing presentations and preparing for an optional competition which takes place in Manchester at an ITMB and SDFB event hosted by the Tech Partnership.

The only other difference is a double module in business which is shared with January starters doing Business Management or Marketing courses. You do some stuff about management and globalisation. In all honesty this was the weakest module of the year. 40% of the mark (and it's a double module so worth a LOT) was attributed to group work. Get a good group for this and you'll be fine, or you can be like me and end up with uninterested randos doing a different course who don't even communicate.

Everything else you do are computer science modules, first semester you have a double module learning how to program in Python. In this module the subject coordinator kept everybody in ITMB in the same set which was quite nice. Lots of people struggled in this module and as the computing department is so big it is taught by numerous tutors, some not as competent as others.

You then have the double Business Computing module which stretches from semester 1 into semester 2. In the beginning you are introduced to information systems and use cases and stuff like that. The second semester.... (so glad its over) was more group work. This time you are given a fairly ambiguous task to complete in 12 weeks in groups of 5-6. You have to use Agile development methods to produce a large piece of software in groups. I had a good group and this was still a nightmare.

Lastly in semester 2 is another programming module where you learn object orientated programming and the basics of Java. This one is considerably the most difficult module in first year. The people who struggled with Python in the first semester REALLY struggled with Java. The courseworks required were considerably difficult and took me ages. Really though this module just requires a bit of work and you'll be fine.

The only exams you have are python in s1 and java in s2 although only Java is truly considered an "exam". The remainder of the work is essays and group work.

As I mentioned earlier there are events in Manchester and Slough hosted by the Tech Partnership which oversee the course. Employers and other universities go and the idea is to network and chat to employers. This is unique aspect of our course and why I believe it is better than Computer Science.

I would also suggest to start learning a bit of Python now to give yourself a headstart because it moves very quickly and its easy to fall behind.

Whoa! Thank you so so much for writing this out! This is really helpful and I have started learning python to give me a head start! Would you say that the exam in python and java was particularly hard? What did you have to do?