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Thoughts on University of London’s Bachelor’s in Computer Science - A Comprehensive Review from the Perspective of A First Cohort Student

Edit: Decided to cross-post it here since I don’t have enough karma to post in /r/Coursera yet. Hopefully their mods will approve my post :)

Hello everyone!

Lately there has been a lot of interest and attention in the University of London’s Bachelor’s in Computer Science degree. This is not without reason. After all, it’s one of the first online Bachelor degrees in Computer Science!

As the degree itself is fairly new, there’s not a lot of online coverage about it. With the next application deadline (September 7th) a few months away, I decided to write a review of my own experiences as a student of the degree – in hopes that the information I share will empower potential students to better decide whether or not this degree is the best for them. I’ll try my best to keep a relatively balanced and fair overview of the degree – while keeping in mind that these are fundamentally my own experiences.

How is the online degree structured?

An online degree is different from the sort of paid classes or specialisations currently available on Coursera, so it helps to give a quick overview of how the degree is structured.

There are 22 classes called modules in this degree, plus a final project. You can enroll up to 4 modules per term (semester), for a maximum course-load of 8 modules per academic year.

This is how your course page looks like, when you login. See the individual modules?

Each module is organised into 20 - 22 “weeks” worth of material, separated into a midterm at week 10, and a final at week 20 - 22.

This is how your module page looks like.

What is the time commitment? Can I study this degree while having a full-time job/busy-family?

Actually, you could! The degree is designed as a flexible degree, specifically for professionals with full-time jobs. Many of my classmates have busy families, or full-fledged professional careers – and they’re still able to maintain a 4 module per term workload.

This works because the modules have flexible deadlines. All of your assignments have “suggested” weekly due dates. However, there are only two hard deadlines: the midterm (Week 10) and endterm (Week 20 - 22).

This means, that as long as you turn in all of your assignments from Weeks 1 - 9 before the hard deadline of Week 10, you are alright. This lets you structure your time so you can do more or less, depending on your schedule.

What are your own experiences in terms of the quality of modules?

I was a member of the very first cohort of students, so I had a front-line view of the quality of the course. Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with the actual material itself in terms of the lectures and readings, especially for my current Level 5 classes.

Quality of Delivery

As the first cohort of the new degree, we had a pretty bumpy ride in the first term. There were logistical issues and technical bugs when we first started our term. For example, sometimes images would be missing from lecture slides – or a download link doesn’t work. It became pretty clear that we were beta-testers of something new, and we would get emails from the administration, informing us of changes or bugfixes as the weeks went on.

As far as I can tell, even though University of London has been running distance-learning degrees since the 19th century, this was the first time they’ve partnered with Coursera as a platform, and there were definitely pain points.

Students ended up organising a crowd-sourced bug tracker for the various issues, and as time went on, most of them got fixed. There’s still some issues with things like incorrect diagrams, but as far as I can tell – the second cohort had far smoother ride than the first cohort did.

Quality of Module Content

I’m overall satisfied with the actual material, especially with the level 5 modules. You see, the modules are divided between level 4 (introductory), level 5 (intermediate), and level 6 (specialised) – and for the first term especially, I felt that the level 4 modules were a mixed bag.

I took Introduction to Web Development, Intro to Programming, and Numerical Mathematics that year. And the quality and difficulty of the material felt a bit inconsistent.

Example 1: Intro to Programming

Intro to Programming was really well done. It was a project-based module where we had to create our own video game by the end of the term, and the lecturers were engaged, the assignments challenging but fair, and overall I liked it.

Example 2: Web Development

But the Web Development class felt much too simple at times, and I didn’t feel like I learned a lot from the lectures. I’m probably a bit biased, as I have significant prior knowledge in web development, but a lot of it felt superficial or too easy. Some of my other classmates enjoyed it though, especially those without a background in web development.

Example 3: Numerical Mathematics

In contrast, Numerical Mathematics as very, very hard. Over the span of 20 weeks, I wrote four or five different math papers, on some very difficult topics. One of our first papers was a implementation of the RSA cryptosystem, followed by a discussion and cryptoanalysis (cracking) of said cipher. I have a math background, and technically the papers were optional – but it took a lot of work, and a lot of stress. We covered a lot of content, and towards the end it felt like an intellectual death-march.

I think what happened with the level 4 modules was that our professors didn’t really know what to expect from an online course, and they tried to hit the balance in terms of material/difficulty, and they missed the mark on both sides.

There were lots of changes announced after the feedback from the first term, and they actually redesigned the entire Numerical Mathematics class this year.

Now, since I’m on the third term now - I am beginning the Level 5 modules. And I’m very satisfied with the level 5 courses. They seem to be a huge step up in terms of polish, as well as the depth of the content, and I think things have improved greatly from before.

What’s the ‘creative’ aspect of this degree? How are the project-based assignments like?

Oh! This is my favorite part about this degree specifically. The entire degree has a strong project-based focus, where you make something at the end of most modules This was one of the reasons I applied for this program, because I felt like a lot of computer science degrees are too theory-focused, with little emphasis on using the skills you learn to actually create something.

These creative projects are not graded very strongly, in the sense you could technically do the absolute minimum, and still “pass”. But a lot of my classmates take this opportunity to really learn and apply skills on their own, and I feel like you end up learning way more in the process of making these projects.

For example, in our Intro. to Programming Class, we are tasked to make a 2D side scroller. Some people made the bare-minimum effort, but you also had a lot of creativity and talent. Here’s a showcase of some of my classmate’s efforts:

All of that cool pixel art, the animations, are technically not required for the grade. But the fact that my classmates did it anyways, is a beautiful demonstration of how learning is driven from within.

What’s the student community like? Where do you go if you need help?

People go to college not just for the lessons, but also for friendship, camaraderie, and networking opportunities. I was really worried at first that I won’t be able to connect with anyone, and that I’ll be studying all alone. But nothing could be farther from the truth.

There is a large, diverse, and vibrant student community on Slack – filled with volunteers and helpful mentors.

Every week, there are virtual study sessions held over video-chat, and during the weekends there are hangout sessions and gaming nights. A fellow student held an University of London indie game jam, with dozens of entries. There’s such a close-knit sense of community on Slack, that I’m amazed every day by the sort of things my classmates are up to.

There’s never a moment where I felt stuck on my own, because even the hardest questions or obscurest were tackled collectively and with friendship. Many video calls were had, many spreadsheets and websites made. If you ask a question on the Slack, you’re pretty much guaranteed to have someone reply within 10 minutes, willing to help you to understand.

I’m so honored to be with such a diverse and wonderful community, and I think a great deal of value from this degree – is to have met these people. Out of my classmates I’ve met Artists, Web Developers, Mathematicians, Businesspeople, Stockbrokers, Linux Kernel Hackers, and everyone in between.

This degree is unlike any other, for all the classmates you have are people who willfully choose to be there. You all share this feeling of purpose, which makes it feel more than just a class.

Out of all the issues we’ve had, the bugs, the frustrations, the late-night stress and sadness – we all overcame it together, and my life has been made richer as a result.

Wow! Would you recommend this degree to someone?

I’d say… yes – but with certain caveats. This programme is unique, and one of it’s kind – and if you decide to join, do expect there to be bugs and issues. For better or worse, you’ll be a trendsetter in the vanguard of a new paradigm in education. Likewise, it takes a certain kind of person to be successful at this degree.

You’ll need to be willfully independent, and capable of setting your own pace. You’ll need to learn for your own love of learning, rather than just for a grade. It can be so easy to just do the bare minimum, and not learn anything for it. But if you are the sort of person to go the extra mile, to add features to your projects even though they are optional – to make things not because they are easy, but because they are hard – than I think you’ll be a good candidate for the class :)

It doesn’t matter what your background in computing is, or whether or not you know how to code. As long as you have the spirit, you’ll find a community of fellow souls who will be there every step of the way. :)

Interested? Feel free to ask me any questions in this thread. AMA! :)

Also, check out the new /r/UniversityOfLondonCS subreddit, that we created. Feel free to ask any questions there as well!

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