Stress free, practical tips by LSE postgraduate student, Bredeca Anthony from the Management Information Systems and Digital Innovation programme. Read her guide on five things to do when choosing your modules.
Choosing your modules as a MISDI student
Choosing the correct modules for your programme is tricky whether this is your first time doing it or not.
There are a lot of factors to consider in selecting the right courses for yourself. It can be quite stressful when selection week comes around. To make it easier for you, I have compiled several tips to guide you in the process.
This guide is specifically for Management Information Systems and Digital Innovation (MISDI) students, but it is general enough that other students can also benefit.
1. Timeline of Course Selection
Upon starting your programme, during Welcome Week, you will be able to choose your electives for the next term. As a MISDI student, the courses for your first term are already fixed so you are only able to choose an additional three courses on top of your compulsory courses.
See here to know what courses are compulsory for the programme.
There is a two-week duration for choosing your electives after which the system closes for the rest of the term. It reopens again in the first week of the second term for students to change out from their electives and choose seminar groups.
2. Think about what you want to get out of MISDI
You might think that it is still too early to choose your electives for the next term when you haven’t even started the core courses yet.
This is why you need to think about what YOU want to get upon finishing this programme.
Whether it is to help you in your future career or help in writing your dissertation on your chosen topic.
Put some deep thoughts into it.
If throughout the term, you change your mind, you can always change it when the system reopens again.
- Take a look at which courses are offered (The list of courses offered are subject to change).
3. Read the course description thoroughly!
Don’t just choose a course from its title alone, make sure to read the course description thoroughly. Reading the course content will help you decide if the course aligns with your interest or not.
Avoid skipping the course just by assuming the course will be intimidating for you from the title alone. You might consider the course after reading the description thoroughly. All the courses will provide a list of indicative readings for you to get a feel for what the course is going to cover.
4. Take note of the assessments
Apart from reading the course description, also take note of how you are going to be assessed during the course.
There are different types of assessments that courses can have, which are;
- exam based,
- project based,
- essay based.
Some courses will have a mix of assessment types. Don’t make this your main reason for choosing the right course but it will greatly help you in managing your time.
You will know in advance when the exam is going to be held or when you have to hand in your essay because the course description will indicate for which term the assessment is due.
5. Create a mock timetable
Lastly, creating a mock timetable sheet for all the courses you are planning to take with all the lecture/seminar times will help in the selection process.
Lecture times for each course are fixed but some courses let you choose your seminar. It will also prevent you from choosing courses that have time conflicts and doing this might help you get some days off during the week.
See the list of lecture and seminar times.
I hope this will give you a sense of what to expect in MISDI if you are an incoming student. If you are a current student, I hope you find suitable courses according to your interests and passion.
Learn more about the Master’s Management of Information Systems and Digital Innovation programme
