The Student Room Group

Does anyone have online MSc experience with University of Liverpool?

Hi all,

I am interested in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence MSc Online Course from University of Liverpool.
https://online.liverpool.ac.uk/programmes/msc-data-science-and-artificial-intelligence/

But I barely find any reviews online. Is there someone who currently in study or graduated? any experience ?

Reply 1

Hey! Curious if you signed up for the course?

Reply 2

I would personally not enrol to courses that are outsourced to for-profit companies...

University of Liverpool online programmes are delivered in partnership with Kaplan Open Learning.

Reply 3

My girlfriend is currently on the UoL MSc Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (I did Bath MSc comp sci). She hasn't had the best experience, it's quite a young programme. All modules follow the exact same structure (except for the first module): 6-8x graded 400-600 word forum posts (requiring references and citations), a week 5 assignment and a week 8 group assignment. The forum posts are marked down for informal language when responding to peers so the discussions are quite robotic and lack a genuine feel, they also become very tedious doing them almost every week (and every module). They also take up a lot of time (for my girlfriend anyway) which means less time for actually developing coding skills through the ungraded practical exercises (resulting in some students having very poor coding ability in the group 8 assignment). The week 5 and 8 assignments are pretty good content wise and can be fun if you manage to develop your technical skills on the side so you aren't completely lost. Annoyingly the assignments are only visible 1-2 weeks before the deadline which doesn't allow for any flexibility such as planning ahead or getting things done early if a deadline lands during a busy work period or a holiday.

The degree does have some positives. There are frequent "office" hours to speak to lecturers, lots of video content along with notes/transcripts available, again the assignments can be quite fun and challenging. The degree may change/improve over time, on the whole though I/she wouldn't recommend.

Reply 4

Original post
by mike.o
My girlfriend is currently on the UoL MSc Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (I did Bath MSc comp sci). She hasn't had the best experience, it's quite a young programme. All modules follow the exact same structure (except for the first module): 6-8x graded 400-600 word forum posts (requiring references and citations), a week 5 assignment and a week 8 group assignment. The forum posts are marked down for informal language when responding to peers so the discussions are quite robotic and lack a genuine feel, they also become very tedious doing them almost every week (and every module). They also take up a lot of time (for my girlfriend anyway) which means less time for actually developing coding skills through the ungraded practical exercises (resulting in some students having very poor coding ability in the group 8 assignment). The week 5 and 8 assignments are pretty good content wise and can be fun if you manage to develop your technical skills on the side so you aren't completely lost. Annoyingly the assignments are only visible 1-2 weeks before the deadline which doesn't allow for any flexibility such as planning ahead or getting things done early if a deadline lands during a busy work period or a holiday.

The degree does have some positives. There are frequent "office" hours to speak to lecturers, lots of video content along with notes/transcripts available, again the assignments can be quite fun and challenging. The degree may change/improve over time, on the whole though I/she wouldn't recommend.


Hi, just curious on how was your experience with Bath compared to the UoL online courses?

Reply 5

I currently study the Artificial Intelligence online program at the UOL and, frankly, I am very disappointed.

I expected that we were going to be provided with real lectures, created by the professors from the university. Instead, we got some so called ‘lecturecasts’ - animations with voice narration. Basically, infographics. They often have a bad sound and sometimes they are not explained properly. Every week there is a reading list, which is valuable, but sometimes not all the content from the lecturecasts are covered in book chapters or journal articles that are listed in the reading list.

Regarding the practical activities - they are always some tutorials from youtube, which is embarrassing. Some weeks contain real activities though, to do on your own, but instead of giving you the exact solution, they give you an ‘indicative solution’.

When it comes to assignments, only the mid-module and group assignment are interesting (deadlines are 5th and 8th week, respectively). On the other hand, discussion forums are boring and not worth the time since there is one topic for each discussion forum, and one discussion forum lasts for three consecutive weeks. Unfortunately, they are mandatory.

Just a few day ago, somebody from Kaplan messed up the materials for the current module.

By the way, all tutors and student support staff are employed by Kaplan.

A degree obtained upon graduation is what is only worth. Everything else is messy. Wouldn’t recommend.

Reply 6

Does anyone has any other recommendation for the MSc in AI please?

Reply 7

Original post
by Jollyceci
Does anyone has any other recommendation for the MSc in AI please?

I read some reviews here for other online courses at different unis and it looks like they are all similar and even worse than this one.

Reply 8

Original post
by yo.hungry
Hi, just curious on how was your experience with Bath compared to the UoL online courses?


I am interested hearing your experience at Bath in comparison to UoL
(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 9

Original post
by blueeyeddragon
I currently study the Artificial Intelligence online program at the UOL and, frankly, I am very disappointed.

I expected that we were going to be provided with real lectures, created by the professors from the university. Instead, we got some so called ‘lecturecasts’ - animations with voice narration. Basically, infographics. They often have a bad sound and sometimes they are not explained properly. Every week there is a reading list, which is valuable, but sometimes not all the content from the lecturecasts are covered in book chapters or journal articles that are listed in the reading list.

Regarding the practical activities - they are always some tutorials from youtube, which is embarrassing. Some weeks contain real activities though, to do on your own, but instead of giving you the exact solution, they give you an ‘indicative solution’.

When it comes to assignments, only the mid-module and group assignment are interesting (deadlines are 5th and 8th week, respectively). On the other hand, discussion forums are boring and not worth the time since there is one topic for each discussion forum, and one discussion forum lasts for three consecutive weeks. Unfortunately, they are mandatory.

Just a few day ago, somebody from Kaplan messed up the materials for the current module.

By the way, all tutors and student support staff are employed by Kaplan.

A degree obtained upon graduation is what is only worth. Everything else is messy. Wouldn’t recommend.


Hmm, are you sure you did your studies at UofL?

UofL don't use Kaplan. My brother studies UofL Msc AI

I know UofBath uses Kaplan.

Reply 10

Original post
by AcademyShine
Hmm, are you sure you did your studies at UofL?

UofL don't use Kaplan. My brother studies UofL Msc AI

I know UofBath uses Kaplan.

Liverpool definitely use Kaplan - it says on their site and also a member of their staff told me so just last week

Reply 11

Hi @aungkoko,

It is great to see that you are spending a lot of time researching your options before making a final decision on where to study.

If you are interested in studying online to take full advantage of the flexibility it offers, you may also want to consider LIBF. Our distance learning programmes focus are designed with flexibility in mind to help students fit their studies around their busy schedules, with the option to study part-time or full-time and start any day of the year.

If this is something that interests you, you can find out more here about our MSc in Artificial Intelligence here - https://bit.ly/48V2KVH

I hope this helps.

Best,

Sam

Reply 12

Original post
by mike.o
My girlfriend is currently on the UoL MSc Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (I did Bath MSc comp sci). She hasn't had the best experience, it's quite a young programme. All modules follow the exact same structure (except for the first module): 6-8x graded 400-600 word forum posts (requiring references and citations), a week 5 assignment and a week 8 group assignment. The forum posts are marked down for informal language when responding to peers so the discussions are quite robotic and lack a genuine feel, they also become very tedious doing them almost every week (and every module). They also take up a lot of time (for my girlfriend anyway) which means less time for actually developing coding skills through the ungraded practical exercises (resulting in some students having very poor coding ability in the group 8 assignment). The week 5 and 8 assignments are pretty good content wise and can be fun if you manage to develop your technical skills on the side so you aren't completely lost. Annoyingly the assignments are only visible 1-2 weeks before the deadline which doesn't allow for any flexibility such as planning ahead or getting things done early if a deadline lands during a busy work period or a holiday.
The degree does have some positives. There are frequent "office" hours to speak to lecturers, lots of video content along with notes/transcripts available, again the assignments can be quite fun and challenging. The degree may change/improve over time, on the whole though I/she wouldn't recommend.

Any further update on this course?

Reply 13

Original post
by sr_ro
Any further update on this course?
Hello, I am also interested in this program. I am really curious about the quality of studies. Planning to sign up for October start date.

Reply 14

Liverpool uses Kaplan, as you will be required to review a contract with both Kaplan and the University when accepting the offer.

Honestly, that's my main concern, as a good-quality program should host its own platform instead of outsourcing to Kaplan.

Reply 15

Original post
by sr_ro
Any further update on this course?

I can only comment on the MSc AI and Data science degree, and also the course may have been updated since 1 year ago.

Ask yourself these questions -

Are you ok with writing 1-3 graded research based forum posts almost every week, for every module?

Are you ok with a significant amount learning and tutorials for specifically coding coming from external sources (w3schools, YouTube etc)?

Are you ok with having to write a dissertation at the end of the degree, given that the majority of academic writing experience you will gain comes from forum posts?

Are you ok with the structure of every module being exactly the same?

Are you ok with very little mathematical rigor in most modules? (The lectures have math, but the only math that is assessed is the math module. You are not assessed on mathematically implementing anything from scratch, since only using high level libraries which you could learn from e.g. a udemy course).


I would avoid, but everyone has their own goals and preferences.

Reply 16

Original post
by mike.o
I can only comment on the MSc AI and Data science degree, and also the course may have been updated since 1 year ago.
Ask yourself these questions -

Are you ok with writing 1-3 graded research based forum posts almost every week, for every module?

Are you ok with a significant amount learning and tutorials for specifically coding coming from external sources (w3schools, YouTube etc)?

Are you ok with having to write a dissertation at the end of the degree, given that the majority of academic writing experience you will gain comes from forum posts?

Are you ok with the structure of every module being exactly the same?

Are you ok with very little mathematical rigor in most modules? (The lectures have math, but the only math that is assessed is the math module. You are not assessed on mathematically implementing anything from scratch, since only using high level libraries which you could learn from e.g. a udemy course).


I would avoid, but everyone has their own goals and preferences.
Hi, this sounds really interesting! I’m considering applying for the course and have a couple of questions. In terms of learning the core concepts of data science and machine learning, do you think the course offers significant value? Additionally, could you provide more details on how the course is structured? Specifically, I’d like to know the number and length of the lectures, the level of lecturer support available, and how much time you’d typically need to dedicate each week. Can you fit the course around full time job? Thank you.

Quick Reply

How The Student Room is moderated

To keep The Student Room safe for everyone, we moderate posts that are added to the site.