Online masters degree - good idea or not?

[sycamore54321]

I’m toying with the idea of an onljne part time masters, specifically an LL.M from university of London. It seems to be well regarded as a distance learning institute and as the assessment is largely exam based rather than dissertations or lengthy essays, I think this will suit my learning style and procrastination tendencies.

Has anyone done this or any other online masters course? How did you find it? Did you feel a real achievement at the end or is it all a bit distant because you haven’t had that shared learning experience?

Thanks for any views or insights.

I'm following this with interest as I am considering a masters. I was looking at part time courses but wondered how it can be fit in around work? I actually only work 6 hours a week but presumably if your work day and uni days clash, one has to give? So I then briefly looked at online options.

But I agree with you op that I wonder if an online masters would feel like a 'real' course, and I also worry about self motivation.

How is it perceived by employers? What do you hope to do with it? Will you be competitive against others who have a taught face to face LLM?

I’m an academic but not in law - though I teach and supervise masters level students. I personally think there is a lot to be gained from doing a masters face to face with a cohort of peers. It’s great networking and support. But it entirely depends on how the programme is set up, how prestigious it is, and how you will stand up on the job market after. Making real life professional connections is so important in many fields and I would think it would depend a lot on how well you can do that.

Thanks for those thoughts. It seems that as distance learning goes, UoL is one of the pioneers and longest running so should carry some weight. I’m in an established career (which has some overlap with law but isn’t a legal profession) and the masters in some ways would allow me to formalize and have a qualification reflecting and enhancing my experience. As well as some elements being new, I’d hope. I suspect on career progression terms, a masters is better than none and it isn’t really a sector where the exact ranking or standing matter as much as some others.

Having said all that, I can’t quite articulate what’s holding me back! I think it is the slightly artificial nature of not being in a classroom, ever!

Taught Masters are much more highly regarded than online, and also give you better scope to broaden your network as you’re learning. If you’re going to do it, do it properly through the vest institution you can

I am doing a blended degree apprenticeship. It is a full MSc with a work based project alongside it which will give me a CMI qualification too.

It is blended in that it is online learning with then two days on campus for each module. It’s spread over 2 years

I find the pace just as challenging and the weekly tasks help to avoid procrastination. Though I agree with pp that the interaction with other students has been a big bonus of this model.

Because it is a degree apprenticeship my work are paying for it out of their apprenticeship levy pot and giving me 20% of work time as study time (though in practice due to the nature of my job that doesn’t really happen so I squeeze study in elsewhere

Is it worth looking to see if a blended model is available for you? Even if work wasn’t paying for this I probably could have got them to give me 6 days off a year for the campus dates as part of then supporting my L&D