Choosing an online Masters course - which university?

[booksandbeans]

I am considering doing an online masters and know what I want to study. However there are a number of universities which offer this course online (with slight variations between them). Outside of course content (they are similar) does anyone have any tips or advice on how to choose between them.

I am just concerned I go for a course which turns out to be poor quality or presented badly. Struggling to find independent reviews as well.

Well respected university? (Not somewhere anonymous that only offers online courses.)

Online course tutored by the same people as the face to face course?

Do they actually offer a corresponding face to face course?

Is there a small face to face element included? A weekend once a term or so? I’d say you definitely need some interaction with fellow students and tutors.

Access to learning materials?

Aside from independent assessment of the course it would be good if you were able to speak to past students. (I did this before applying for my face to face MA course.) You need to know what the outcome of students studies has been - what do they go on to do.

Is the cost in line with other reputable institutions?

When you mention the course to practitioners on the subject, have they heard of it?

These are the sort of things I’d ask - but I’m surprised there isn’t a centralised breakdown and grading of online courses.

Thank you. Yes they are well respected universities but I have been stung before by a well known training company, which walked the walk but when presented with their online course the content was absolutely dire. At the time I did not know that TrustPilot reviews could be edited or managed by companies for a fee otherwise I would have seen the real reviews.

It believe it is a recently offered online course which is the same as a face to face one already run, but I will check & confirm this. And I will ask if the same tutors teach it and their availability if I had questions.

Cost is roughly the same all round.

Yes, i am surprised there is no grading of online courses - I have searched everywhere but just need to go on past students achievements. Maybe find out the average pass mark.

Thanks again.

Look at how the department the course falls into is ranked, would be my advice, and see if you can find feedback from prior students anyway. I would say err more on the side of reputable, well-established unis that don't need to rope in lots of online students to prop up their finances, but to be fair, some newer no-name-of-consequence providers run excellent courses and some red bricks run crappy ones.

Is the course vocational or academic in orientation? If vocational, best thing is advice from someone in the field about how courses are regarded; if academic, the department's ranking weights heavier.

What course is it? Have you tried TheStudentRoom website?
I wouldn't go by name. I was considering an MSc Computer Science and the feedback from one big name uni in particular was appalling.

How much expertise does the institution have with online offering or is it just something they've adopted because of the market?

If it's being run in parallel to a face to face course, are you going to get a second rate version without the interaction and networking? Or have they designed an online-only version to give you a different but equal quality experience?

What student support services do they provide?

How long since you last studied formally and is the course / institution set up to support you back into studying or working at postgraduate level?

If relevant, what careers services do they offer?

What's the assessment strategy for each course? What are the learning outcomes?

Will you have an assigned tutor or adviser to provide support and guidance and feedback on your work?

If you named the course / institutions, people on here might have experience. You could also search to see if anyone has already posted about them.