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Comment by bambataa | Hacker News Reader

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who has studied at FernUni.

I have been toying with the idea of doing some kind of maths or comp sci degree for a while now. It would have to be part time / remote because I'm not willing to stop working. The only suitable thing I've come across is Georgia Tech's online masters.

I considered the Open University but their CS courses look poor and it has become too expensive for something that would be a hobby.

However, I'm not really sure what FernUni would offer over just buying OU books on Amazon and working through them.

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At the very least, an official degree. You can legally call yourself MSc or whatever degree you went for.

> However, I'm not really sure what FernUni would offer over just buying OU books on Amazon and working through them.

A very active Moodle instance, graded homework and access to a tutor.

If you're in Germany: regular homework discussions with a tutor at your local regional center.

Not to be underestimated: a whole cohort of other people that are going through the exact same material and exact same homework at the same time.

Also, some external "motivation". "I need to submit my homework tomorrow" is much more urgent than "I originally planned to read chapter 3".

It's true. Half the value comes from the fact that you aren't doing it alone. The other half comes from the pressure to finish.

What do you study at FU Hagen?

Also, your nickname makes me nostalgic. ;)

I aborted both law and mathematics over the last ten years, and am now starting educational science.

It's cheap, I like doing it, and if I'm like most who never make it to graduation, who cares? It's still fun and valuable (to me).

That's a good attitude. How far along did you come with maths, if you don't mind me asking?

I consider the maths degree at FU Hagen to be quite good. They maybe don't have the same breadth that larger departments might have, and they do have 1 or 2 bad courses (probability theory for example), but especially the introductory courses are didactically excellent.

I'm somewhat less convinced about the CS credit I did (as a minor), some of it seems hopelessly outdated.

I’ve been absolutely shocked at the lack of mathematics degrees available on line. I think I’ve seen more engineering and science programs online which would seem much less impractical than math.

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