BSc (Hons) in COMPUTER SCIENCE

How you will study

This course is a collection of learning opportunities. Using these opportunities will help you mature in attitude and competence, preparing you for your future career and life in general. Learning in this course is a partnership: expert University staff will guide you through the necessary core knowledge of your subject and help you develop an understanding, while you, increasingly, take the leading role in pursuing the learning that meets your specific needs.

Your course is organized into a number of modules at each level. These are the building blocks of your course. Each module consists of a number of learning activities over a number of weeks designed to help you achieve the knowledge and skills related to a particular area within your subject.

The principal aim of your course is to equip you for professional life, or higher study, relevant to your current programme of study.

To prepare you for this, the learning in your course will not take place only in the class. Your learning will use the following methods, each supporting the others:

• Lectures will give you access to expertise and present you with the knowledge you need in your subject.

• Practical tutorial, workshops or laboratory sessions will allow you to understand, apply and strengthen your skills under the guidance of a tutor.

• Independent study time will let you take more control of your own learning and give you the framework that will help you to keep on learning without supervision.

• Personal development will allow you to complement your knowledge with the specific specialised skills that meet your individual needs.

• Real-life projects or case studies, normally provided by an organization, will give you the opportunity to engage with employers and use your knowledge and skills to solve a real-life or a business-related problem.

In your first year of study (called Level 4) you will make the full transition into Higher Education. You will develop the key core skills for Computer Science complemented with the foundations of your specific course or cognate area. To help this transition your course has additional classes and support sessions at this level that you will need to fully engage with to prepare yourself for the advanced study that follows.

Your second year of study (Level 5) will help you develop some autonomy. At this level, you will develop detailed knowledge in Computer Science and will be able to deal with more areas by yourself and in teams, reflecting on your own strengths and identifying areas to specialize in.

In your final year of study (Level 6) you will have learned to work autonomously with your lecturers increasingly being there to support you and challenge your thinking; this is the level that completes your preparation for going into industry and further study, with an ability to handle the complexity of large-scale systems and environments and with full control of your further development needs.

Course material will be provided through the online learning platform and is an important resource base for you which you can access at any time and from anywhere provided you have access to the internet. The platform also provides a channel of communication between you and your module leader through blogs. This ensures a student centric approach, focusing on your abilities, needs and learning styles where the module leader is a facilitator of your learning.

In summary, the teaching and learning strategy used will develop your intellectual abilities; your knowledge; your powers of creativity, powers of analysis and your transferable skills. On any individual module, a combination of teaching approaches will be used depending on the nature of the subject being taught, and the specified learning outcomes.

Key transferable skills and abilities encompass the general intellectual development of the individual. Use of a wide range of assessment formats enhances the visibility of these characteristics. Typically, students are expected to demonstrate through coursework, tests, portfolio generation and examinations their ability to:

• Gather and assess information;

• Organize and manipulate data;

• Think critically and evaluate their own performance;

• Work collaboratively;

• Self-manage;

• Use numbers accurately and effectively;

• Communicate effectively orally and in writing;

• Use of IT as tool and resource;

• Conceptualize and problem solve.

Throughout all levels of your course, you will also develop necessary, distinct, attributes that will help you compete effectively in a global changing environment.

The Graduate Attributes (GA) are developed throughout the course through the knowledge and professional skills modules, and are intended to ensure that you have a deep knowledge of the subject area, you are critical and creative thinkers, are professional, socially, ethically and environmentally aware, global in outlook and community engaged, and a literate and effective communicator.