Anyone doing or completed an online distance PGDL/MA Law conversion?

[Deleted member 25207]

Would anyone who is doing or has done an online/distance conversion course (whether the PGDL or MA+SQE) comment on your course provider, content structure and assessment style?

Are you pleased with how the course is being run or are there considerations you wish you'd thought of in advance?

Additionally, could you speak on the teaching style and differences in assessment protocol with regards to ULaw vs BPP.

Thank you!

 

[LlamaLaw]

I did the PGDL online at BPP. I thought the course itself was good - it was thorough and delivered well. The content is online reading (quite a lot of it), some prepatory tasks in a commercial context, and a seminar per week per module. The quality of the seminar will depend on your group, as some people login to the sessions for attendance and then either refuse to participate or maybe aren't even there at all. You'll get far more out if you participate so I'd recommend just learning to live with any awkwardness.

Some people were very unhappy with a lack of printed materials. I personally didn't mind, but I prefer my notes being electronic so it's very much personal preference. Assessments were, with some limited exceptions, a combination of multiple choice with a best possible answer, and a written section. All are open book and not proctored. Having organised notes is a must, and I'd suggest doing that as you go, rather than trying to consolidate everything at the end of each term. The open book nature can be a little deceptive - the word limit and time limit on the exams will definitely catch up with you.

The assessment for human rights and administrative law (Public Law 2) is an essay. Criminal law has an oral component that is a recorded video. Trusts and Land have a combined written component but separate multiple choice elements.

Some of the online resources were patchy, in that the law would be actually incorrect. This was amended over time and seems to have been issue with our cohort as the first to do their new PGDL a few years ago. They were pretty isolated and I would assume they've been fixed.

I can't comment on how they combare to ULaw so hopefully someone who has done the PGDL/MA there can chime in.

 

[Deleted member 25207]

I did the PGDL online at BPP. I thought the course itself was good - it was thorough and delivered well. The content is online reading (quite a lot of it), some prepatory tasks in a commercial context, and a seminar per week per module. The quality of the seminar will depend on your group, as some people login to the sessions for attendance and then either refuse to participate or maybe aren't even there at all. You'll get far more out if you participate so I'd recommend just learning to live with any awkwardness.

Some people were very unhappy with a lack of printed materials. I personally didn't mind, but I prefer my notes being electronic so it's very much personal preference. Assessments were, with some limited exceptions, a combination of multiple choice with a best possible answer, and a written section. All are open book and not proctored. Having organised notes is a must, and I'd suggest doing that as you go, rather than trying to consolidate everything at the end of each term. The open book nature can be a little deceptive - the word limit and time limit on the exams will definitely catch up with you.

The assessment for human rights and administrative law (Public Law 2) is an essay. Criminal law has an oral component that is a recorded video. Trusts and Land have a combined written component but separate multiple choice elements.

Some of the online resources were patchy, in that the law would be actually incorrect. This was amended over time and seems to have been issue with our cohort as the first to do their new PGDL a few years ago. They were pretty isolated and I would assume they've been fixed.

I can't comment on how they combare to ULaw so hopefully someone who has done the PGDL/MA there can chime in.

Thanks for sharing! I've heard that BPP's distance program is delivered live whereas ULaw's is prerecorded. Does this mean that those living in prohibitive time zones are disadvantaged in terms of participation, especially in group-related things or does it make no difference provided one catches up independently?

Secondly, I have heard that BPP takes better care of sponsored students/those who have already secured training contracts. Is there any grain of truth to this in your experience?

Lastly (and I'm not sure if this is no longer the case), I had seen someone mention in passing that BPP is relatively relaxed during its online assessments compared to ULaw --which apparently requires a 360 degree recording of one's physical exam environment to be uploaded prior to assessements; as well as ULaw deploying built-in online software locks and restrictions on browsers during the exam itself to prevent other windows being opened (does this mean they don't allow for open book like BPP?)
Could you elaborate on whether BPP does something similar?

Did you do the PGDL part time or full time by the way and would it be feasible you think to juggle a part time PGDL alongside a part time masters and or work, and do firms typically have a preference/look favorably upon FT over PT?

Thank you for taking the time!

 

[LlamaLaw]

Thanks for sharing! I've heard that BPP's distance program is delivered live whereas ULaw's is prerecorded. Does this mean that those living in prohibitive time zones are disadvantaged in terms of participation, especially in group-related things or does it make no difference provided one catches up independently?

Secondly, I have heard that BPP takes better care of sponsored students/those who have already secured training contracts. Is there any grain of truth to this in your experience?

Lastly (and I'm not sure if this is no longer the case), I had seen someone mention in passing that BPP is relatively relaxed during its online assessments compared to ULaw --which apparently requires a 360 degree recording of one's physical exam environment to be uploaded prior to assessements; as well as ULaw deploying built-in online software locks and restrictions on browsers during the exam itself to prevent other windows being opened (does this mean they don't allow for open book like BPP?)
Could you elaborate on whether BPP does something similar?

Did you do the PGDL part time or full time by the way and would it be feasible you think to juggle a part time PGDL alongside a part time masters and or work, and do firms typically have a preference/look favorably upon FT over PT?

Thank you for taking the time!

No problem! The sessions were live. It was possible to request a switch but I don't know whether or not they let people do that every week. For part-time, at least, we got to set a preference of when those sessions were. I think the choices were roughly: every weekday evening, one or two weekdays, weekends. For the weekends, we could state a preference for earlier or later in the day. The earlier sessions tended to have students from overseas participating as it was slightly better timezone wise. You'd probably have to check with BPP directly what their policy on switching sessions ad-hoc or what times are available in advance.

I don't know on the training contract side - I didn't have one when I was going through most of the PGDL and I do have one at ULaw for the LPC. I'm not sure what they could differently though.

On the assessments, I don't know whether that extends to PGDL/MA or it's institution by institution. At BPP there was no restriction during the assessment. I did the assessment in my normal browser and could access the internet at the same time. All of my notes were online and that was fine. What you've described is basically what I have to do for the LPC at ULaw, but I don't know if that's because the LPC needs that level of proctoring or whether it's just ULaw policy.

I did the PGDL part-time and worked full-time along. I don't think it was a hinderance for TC applications. In fact, several interviewers seemed positive about managing work and part-time study at the same time.

 

[Deleted member 25207]

No problem! The sessions were live. It was possible to request a switch but I don't know whether or not they let people do that every week. For part-time, at least, we got to set a preference of when those sessions were. I think the choices were roughly: every weekday evening, one or two weekdays, weekends. For the weekends, we could state a preference for earlier or later in the day. The earlier sessions tended to have students from overseas participating as it was slightly better timezone wise. You'd probably have to check with BPP directly what their policy on switching sessions ad-hoc or what times are available in advance.

I don't know on the training contract side - I didn't have one when I was going through most of the PGDL and I do have one at ULaw for the LPC. I'm not sure what they could differently though.

On the assessments, I don't know whether that extends to PGDL/MA or it's institution by institution. At BPP there was no restriction during the assessment. I did the assessment in my normal browser and could access the internet at the same time. All of my notes were online and that was fine. What you've described is basically what I have to do for the LPC at ULaw, but I don't know if that's because the LPC needs that level of proctoring or whether it's just ULaw policy.

I did the PGDL part-time and worked full-time along. I don't think it was a hinderance for TC applications. In fact, several interviewers seemed positive about managing work and part-time study at the same time.

What would you say are the indicative study hours per week generally speaking for the PGDL. Would you say that it differs in the case of full time vs part time?

May I DM you if that's alright?

Thank you once again for taking the time with your informative replies

 

[LlamaLaw]

It will definitely vary FT v PT - I think in addition to the workshops I was probably doing about 5-8 hours of reading and prep a week. You could probably compress that down depending on your methods, I tended to take quite thorough notes each week

 

[Jane Smith]

The year before BPP's exams were as described above for the PGDL (not proctored for those doing them online). Also for BPP for the LPC (in those days not SQE) this had to be on to the SRA's imposed rules where if you do the exams online they must be proctored with web cam and sweep of room, all programmes closed on lap top, no mobile phone or other device in room etc. You could also choose to do exams in exam hall with paper and pen instead.

I don't know how BPP's PGDL and UoL's differ as to exams now, as all the rules have been in quite a state of flux since covid but there was that BPP PGDL v LPC difference. SQE is entirely closed book so different again..