Originally posted by jamesbrown
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I don't like the rigidity of the course selection - I get that you need to pick from courses around a topic, that's not what I mean. I knew I didn't want to do a 60 point course in the last academic year so I picked a 30 point from the options available for the line of study I'm on. That meant I was blocked from picking any 60 point courses this year because of my "unique", "non-standard" study approach. I have spent three weeks trying to find out why I can't select a 60 point course to start in October and it's basically because the website is coded to a set process and isn't flexible enough to accommodate people who know what time they have available. For me to get onto the 60 point course I want to do, I have to phone up and explain why I didn't do the 60 points last academic year and so didn't follow their notions of what an acceptable course order is.
I hate reading everything on a website or PDF and bemoan the removal of physical books with a decent index. The websites have a dire search method which rarely returns what I need to find whereas a well written index in a book allows for very quick searching for salient information. I spend all day starting at a PC, I want to read a book. They will allow you to pay extra for a printed copy of the materials but that is a printed copy of the webpages, no index. It took me two weeks to get a straight answer to that question as the course team didn't understand that a printout of the website copy is not a book and why should I pay extra for something that is included in the course fee.
Finally, since they moved all engagement online (years before covid came along) they put the prices up and whilst technically still cheaper than studying at a traditional university, the overall service offering and experience is poor value for money.
[/RANT]
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