MSc Computer Science (Online) University of York

Hi everyone!

Very interested in studying MSc CS at York online however, can’t find updated reviews most of the posts I found were 2-3 years old.

Has anyone recently completed the course ? What was your experience like ? I’m currently a front end web developer mainly using Git, JavaScript, REACT, HTML and CSS day to day. But have no other experience in for example AI etc. am I going to struggle on the course ?

Thanks

Reply 1

noodles543

I've just dropped out. They do very little teaching. Their first module is Algorithms and Data Structures. In it, they show a lot of advanced math to prove algorithm run time. I asked the tutor if I needed to understand this math (keep in mind the entry requirement is GCSE level math) and the tutor said he won't tell me what I need to know from the course. Least helpful answer ever. I then asked a simple question regarding the math, and had no response.
The frustrating part is that they didn't explain the math, just showed it and moved on. I spent hours learning the math outside of the course. I can see there are still students who are struggling with this.
On the course's internal student forums, a lot of students share external resources, videos and courses that help them understand the material when it's supposed to be a self contained course.
I had another simple question that was ignored at first by the tutor. I had to chase for an answer. The tutor eventually responded after 5 days. The course moves really fast, and a delay of 5 days makes you fall behind.

At the end of the module, we had a pre-exam project were we had to apply the algorithm theory we learned to a practical application. We were never shown in the course how to apply the theory practically, so I asked the tutor if my thinking on how to approach the problem was suitable. The tutor told me he couldn't provide any guidance for pre-exam projects.
At that stage I withdrew from the course. I was there for a good learning experience. If the tutor won't help or explain concepts well, then I can get same learning experience by reading the text books on my own.
I actually had a good email from a member of the student success team asking if I'd like to speak to them about my decision to withdraw and if the University could do anything to help. This sounded really positive and made me think they might actually care about online students. So I called the person, and they couldn't have been more uninterested or uncaring. I'd give an example where the course was causing problems and in response there would be a 5 second delay before a dull "okay" came back.
After the call, I decided to lodge a complaint with them through their internal complaints procedure. The complaints team have since replied to say that due to a high volume of emails to their complaints inbox there will be a delay in responding to me. I wasn't surprised to hear that.