online computer courses

unwashed potato! · 24 Sep 2006 at 23:25

as i have a gap year this year i have been and will be learning lots of new skills on computers in the graphical and science areas e.g. photoshop/lightwave, and html/css/javascript etc.

now im finding learning these things very fun but im feeling like i am just learning and learning and never really putting anything to test. I have learn html but if i was to try and make a website i would have to refer to a tutorial every few seconds.

To solve this i will be putting my new skills to test by making many websites for family, (funny how everyone loves me now) but i am wanting to do more to show that i have learnt these skills to universitys next year.

Now the only thing i can think of would be online courses which seem ok, little steep actually. What im wondering though is if anyone here can give me some advice on what courses online, if any, that i should be looking at and are thought highly of (well atleast higher of) so that i dont go wasting my time and money.

Also while i am here i need to decide on the university next year as soon as i can. Trouble i have is that the easiest way to find of good unis was through friends but now im out of school and no longer see any of them so can't ask. Does anyone know of any good universitys that are at most 1 hour 30 minutes from guildford by car and offer good courses for either graphics (which i much prefer) on computers or programming. I would prefer them to be in london as i think my gf will be there next year and we may move there

Thanks for relpying whoever does, i hope to read some good advice.

p.s. forgot to say that my ideal job would be game making.

unwashed potato! · 25 Sep 2006 at 00:17

Nazbit said:
Most of the courses that are provided online, and by distance learning are not valued by employers in the IT world.

So if you are going to do one of these courses in your gap year, you need to choose it very carefully. Firstly your spending money and secondly even if you are doing it just to put your skills in to practise, you want it to be atleast of some value to your CV.

Its hard to reccomend a course without knowing exactly how you want to spend your gap year, you say that your ultimate goal is to code games but also mention web design etc etc.

With regards to university, have a proper look through UCAS, phone the universities that fall within the area you want to study in, get a prospectus from them and have a good read.

There are also some independant books that review and comment on each department in all of UK unis, the one from the guardian is pretty decent.

Edit - Ignore spelling - im tired

hey thanks for the excellent relpy.

so im sensing its advised to stay away from online courses, maybe one on weekend? troulbe with not doing online is that what happens in my interview and they ask what i have been doing with my last year and i have nothing to prove it with?

Well preferaly it would be game designing, so like the graphical side to game making that i would want to do.

i guess i got to check ucas tomorrow then

thanks again

unwashed potato! · 25 Sep 2006 at 09:11

thanks for the relpy. some really good advice here, you have helped me a lot for my future.

Atm i have 2 cleaning jobs which i need to keep as the money is good and hours are good e.g. i work 6pm-8.30pm in week and 7am-4pm on sat and sun which pays me £230 after tax per week and gives me all day in the week free and evenings kinda and weekend evenings allowing a lot of time to learn.

The thing is aswell by next year i will have saved a lot of money, is it not worth spending a few hundred on a few online courses even if it just gives a little bit extra chance? do they even need proof, if i tell them would that be enough or do they like some sort of qualification?

thanks a bunch everyone

So anyone know of good universities in london for game making? Also i looked online and there are different names for the courses e.g. BA (hons), BSc (hons), what is the difference? is one higher and one lower level and if so what is the highest as i would like to do the hardest/best i can

unwashed potato! · 25 Sep 2006 at 09:19

sidthesexist said:
if your looking at games design/programming you should look at Bolton uni, they have a good range of courses for this and have industry links TEAM17 ect iirc

really needs to be either london or anywhere south ish of UK

unwashed potato! · 25 Sep 2006 at 11:01

Nazbit said:
What grades do you have? Some of the london universities have higher entry requirements than most, if you can get in you cant really go wrong though as most rank very highly in the country for ICT related degrees.

i got me 8 GSCE's A-C's, maths english science, I.T, Business and some others but i forget.

I also finished the I.B (international Baccaularea, think that right spellings) but i didint get the full diploma, i only got the certificate as i had 19 points and needed 21. this was because the course was not at all what i wanted to do and they school offered no lessons that i wanted to do except cpmuter science, which i wasn't allowed to switch to as i wanted to in the second/final year. Don't know if i can blag some story about it not being my interest so stuggled to be motivated for it which is why i only got certificate? i was doing I.T.G.S but that was nothing to do with what i wanted to computers, we learnty about msn in business, social problems advantages etc which is why i only got a 4 i think in that lesson out of 7, again not intersted.

So i guess i wont bother with the online courses then, means i spend even more then i guess on a laptop.

But then lastly i think, what proof can i have to show i've been learning new stuff? If i just learn learn learn now will that be ok.

Im very motivated to learn this stuff and get into unviersity so i know university will be passing a university course, its just getting into one that will be the hard part by the sounds of it.

unwashed potato! · 25 Sep 2006 at 11:05

sidthesexist said:
Do the open university do any courses that might interest you?

what is the open university.

oh i forgot to say that surrey university is just 5 mintues away from me as i live in guildford so ill check into that aswell although as far as i can remember they didn't, but it would be much easier if i could go there. i know the area, unviersty seems nice.