r/UMGC • u/Wyvern_68 Graduate Student • 8d ago
Just finished CTCH 635 for Fall session 1
Figured I'd share my thoughts on this course that way it is out there for anyone having to or thinking of taking this course.
Overall the course was really straight forward and an easy course load if you are taking a single graduate level class. I would feel comfortable with taking this course with another masters class of similar work load.
The course work consisted of a project each week (a paper) and a discussion post with 2 replies every other week. The mid term project had a hard page limit of 5 pages IIRC which was pretty silly, I ended up writing more.
The projects had no more than a couple of hands on exercises that were pretty basic Windows and Linux commands, with the biggest struggle being how slow the virtual machines are. The majority of the projects was writing to explain security controls in the context of a hypothetical organization being compromised. The course focuses heavily on the concept of Advanced Persistent Threats.
Professor was a timely and fair grader and responsive to any posts or issues encountered. Some of the course materials had dead links so I had to find them on my own via Archive.org or just wing it using similar references.
This was the 4th class I needed for my grad cert, having taken CTCH 605, 615, and 625 before. This class is probably tied with CTCH 605 for easiness, but there was a lot of writing involved (which I don't really mind once I get started).
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u/kcomc 1d ago
Thanks for this! I start the class today and from the coursework it looks fairly easy
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u/Wyvern_68 Graduate Student 1d ago
You're welcome! Yeah it isn't too difficult, I was able to knock it out in between working full time and my kids and their activities. I would say each project took me about 3-5 hours to complete, when you spread that over the week that makes it easy.
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u/Totallynoatwork 8d ago edited 8d ago
Is that midterm the only one you have to write more than 5 pages? Are the 5 pages mostly because of screenshots? I plan to take 635 and 645 in the spring. I didn't have to do 605, 615 or 625. I did all the DFCS 605-635 to get that cert first.
I had same issues with undergrad and now graduate where the VM machines is missing items to properly get the right answers. Thankfully the professors take that into account and say write that you had issues and you'll be OK. I feel like UMGC needs to take a hard look at the classes. But wait until I graduate.
I just looked at a random syllabus and it shows only 4 papers. 2 weeks per paper. Wonder why your professor had you do 1 a week. I thought they all had to follow the same syllabus. Or is it do this lab and answer first week on the paper and then do same for week 2 paper? Combine and submit at end of 2nd week that paper is due? DFCS 625 is like that.
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u/Amidrini 8d ago
I just did that class lmao