Swinburne Courses

[leinad (Dan)]

Enrolment to End of cousrse

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Is anyone working full-time and doing the Grad. Cert course or another?

I was doing the Grad Cert (two completed semesters) and had no prob with the workload and depth of 1 unit per semester. I decided not to continue partway through my 3rd semester. I found the bulletin board style teaching too......uninspiring. If you like realtime communication, regular lectures and interaction by your lecturer, then these courses may not be for you. And while it wasn't an issue for me I could imagine the "black belters" could make replying to questions intimidating. Even though you may be doing a Grad Dip you have others who are working on their Masters included in the class. This could be a bonus for you or a detriment depending on your personality and learning style.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

I was doing the Grad Cert (two completed semesters) and had no prob with the workload and depth of 1 unit per semester. I decided not to continue partway through my 3rd semester. I found the bulletin board style teaching too......uninspiring. If you like realtime communication, regular lectures and interaction by your lecturer, then these courses may not be for you. And while it wasn't an issue for me I could imagine the "black belters" could make replying to questions intimidating. Even though you may be doing a Grad Dip you have others who are working on their Masters included in the class. This could be a bonus for you or a detriment depending on your personality and learning style.

That's one thing I'm very conscious of with some of the members in my course. I know that there are people who don't have the astronomical background that I have, so I am careful to fully explain myself when I post something technical. All the members of my course (25 of us) are doing the Masters degree. Luckily, there are a few of us with extensive experience and so we help the others out. We also get a lot of feedback off of our lecturers and I don't find doing it online all that hard.

[ruggiero54]

Hi there everyone (especially "renormalised" ) ...
I run a company, working 50+ a week and travel interstate/overseas and hav little trouble doing the Masters program at James Cook - I treat the reading, research and practicals as welcome relief from the day-to-day stresses of work; with the added advantage of being able to pick it up, communicate & submit from wherever I am.
My tutor and fellow students are a great source of encouragement.
Don't get too hung up on whether you can do it or not, you'd be surprised how the time can be found AND it's incredibly interesting.
"Just do it!"

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by ruggiero54

Hi there everyone (especially "renormalised" ) ...
I run a company, working 50+ a week and travel interstate/overseas and hav little trouble doing the Masters program at James Cook - I treat the reading, research and practicals as welcome relief from the day-to-day stresses of work; with the added advantage of being able to pick it up, communicate & submit from wherever I am.
My tutor and fellow students are a great source of encouragement.
Don't get too hung up on whether you can do it or not, you'd be surprised how the time can be found AND it's incredibly interesting.
"Just do it!"

I concur...totally

How do you think you went with the exam?? I hope I did alright.

[Ian Robinson]

Originally Posted by mellotron

It's a UK degree so it should be ok - hopefully.. The JCU course looks really good as well. How much time do you spend studying per week to keep on top of the course?

Good guide is 2 hours "study = reading , doing assignments" per hour "contact" time. More is better.

Do all the recommended reading and all the tutorial and "practical" work if you want to get a good handle on the material - this is how it works in most math and physics and engineering type subjects if you to do better than just a passing grade.

[leinad (Dan)]

Hi Rugg,

Do you do your work during the daytime; or after work and weekends?
I think the only time I'll have is after work and weekends. Unless I cut my hours down and do causal or night-hours.
Do communications with lecturers; and other members are mostly during set times during the day ?

Originally Posted by ruggiero54

Hi there everyone (especially "renormalised" ) ...
I run a company, working 50+ a week and travel interstate/overseas and hav little trouble doing the Masters program at James Cook - I treat the reading, research and practicals as welcome relief from the day-to-day stresses of work; with the added advantage of being able to pick it up, communicate & submit from wherever I am.
My tutor and fellow students are a great source of encouragement.
Don't get too hung up on whether you can do it or not, you'd be surprised how the time can be found AND it's incredibly interesting.
"Just do it!"

[renormalised (Carl)]

Do communications with lecturers; and other members are mostly during set times during the day ?

Most of the communications is during the day....not at set times, any time, though usually between 1-5pm daily. I've been talking to the guys as late as 1-2am in the morning. But even if you don't hear from someone immediately, you'll have your message answered that afternoon or the next day, for sure.

[leinad (Dan)]

Ok thanks. How did you find the Grad. Cert course? Did you have background mathematics before enrolling?
They offer a bridging mathematics course which I might look at; or else where if it is not an external solution.

On average what is the overall cost of doing the Grad. cert?
Do these courses offer an opportunity to other fields of study as well; recognized pre-requisites ?

Thx

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by leinad

Ok thanks. How did you find the Grad. Cert course? Did you have background mathematics before enrolling?
They offer a bridging mathematics course which I might look at; or else where if it is not an external solution.

On average what is the overall cost of doing the Grad. cert?
Do these courses offer an opportunity to other fields of study as well; recognized pre-requisites ?

Thx

I'm doing the masters degree course

Yes, I did, from some of my previous studies, although you can do it without the maths, as it's not a prerequisite. At the beginning of your course you are given the URL of a maths site in the UK which is basically revision for all higher maths (calculus, algebra, vectors, trig etc, etc) and you go through the modules for each week as a refresher. Here's the address to one of the modules...

http://www.mathcentre.ac.uk/students.../trigonometry/

The others are easy to get to from there

To do a subject, it costs $2510 per semester....however, you can get government assistance through FEE-HELP which pays for your fees. If you decide to do the JCU course, here's the address to the Centre for Astronomy.... http://www.jcu.edu.au/school/mathphys/astronomy/

and the address to the postgraduate help pages at JCU...

http://www.jcu.edu.au/future/money/JCUDEV_002097.html

That'll take you to the pages you need to look at.

Yes, you can go on from the grad cert to the masters and then the PhD or you could use it as extra points for another course. Or you can go straight into the masters and then go from there.

[leinad (Dan)]

Thanks,

I havnt done mathematics since high school (over 10 years ago) and my attention was never really there and didnt do to well back then; so I'm wondering whether I should do a secondary school mathematics course to get up to speed; or do alongside the Grad.Cert course.

[renormalised (Carl)]

The refresher should get you through....quite a few of the students haven't touched maths in years. It's 21 years since I last did any hard maths, as most of my other postgrad work didn't involve too much maths....enough, but not to the extent astronomy requires.

[AlexN]

I just stumbled across these courses, came here to ask a question or two, and as usual, I found most questions had already been answered....

Now heres my main one.... I haven't completed anything past year 12 at high-school, Cert II small business, Cert III/IV Info-tech and diploma of multi-media/web development.

Im keen on firing up one of the SAO courses, however Im not sure If I would meet the requirements of entry. I also considered doing their short course in Astronomy, and wondered if that would count at all towards my entry..

My Math/physics knowledge is good and my high school grades reflect that....

Anyone got any ideas?

[higginsdj]

I did 4 units of the Swinburne course then called it quits. I couldn't see much point in continuing as really it's just a structured self taught course - and I can do that myself and save the $1000/unit.....

Entry requirements are very low. I had completed secondary school 30 years ago and nothing since. BUT I must admit that my math skills were lacking and they throw in math problems to solve (that they don't teach you the math) so it's sink or swim......

Cheers

David

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Hi guys

I have been watching this thread with great interest as I have just lodged my application for the Masters with JCU. Interested in your thoughts on both courses (Swinburne and JCU). I sought an unbiased view and was still left asking questions.

However I appreciate the comments that have been posted to date.

Cheers Petra d.

[renormalised (Carl)]

I've looked at both courses....I think they both have fairly similar approaches except that there's more multimedia presentations of the course material in the Swinburne course... JCU's course, so far, has been more book based....however the disks that come with the books and the online material are very multimedia oriented.

I think with both courses, you get out of them what you put into them. There is a vast amount of material which is at your disposal, both bok based and multimedia based.

And....welcome to the course at JCU

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Many thanks

Cheers Petra d.