Swinburne Astronomy Online

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by Terry B

I did a masters in astronomy at UWS before it stopped being offered. The lecturers almost all moved to JCU and they now offer the same courses at JCU. The prerequisite was any bachelor degree. It didn't have to be in a science. My year had people with medical degrees, science degrees, music degrees and others I can't remember. Just contact JCU and ask them.

They've changed the structure of the course somewhat and the entry requirements, now. You need to have a science/maths background preferably.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

Oh I don't have a problem with BBs, I'll happily mix it with the best. I did notice it with other students though. I've been including online components in my courses, as well as helping to design online courses since the early 2000s and I'm well familiar with them in a variety of forms. From my experience, SU was well down towards the bottom of the pile when it came to effective teaching methods and encouraging involvement. Not to mention outdated information. I think we spent 4 weeks discussing film photography using hyped films. The kodak film they were discussing hadn't been commercially produced by kodak for something like 4 years by then and you couldn't get it for love nor money.

I sent a number of emails to lectures and course coordinators. Not a reply. I then sent a letter to the faculty head, explaining my experience in the education and online training industry. The email was, I believed balanced with positives and areas for improvement. Not a reply from anyone.Funnily enough though they are still quite happy to send me advertising asking if i want to complete the course.

Nah, it'll be a cold day in hell before I head back there or recommend an online course there.

Sounds like they weren't interested in really engaging the students or listening to them. Institutions like that only make things hard for people wanting to do something for themselves. Best to avoid places like that. When you look at it, nearly all unis that offer online courses could do with a bit of help in the presentation of the courses and the way they allow for student-student and student-instructor interaction. That's where they need more people like yourself instructing them on how to approach teaching people online. What each uni should have is a unit that deals solely with online instruction and that liaises with the departments and faculties to tailor their online degrees to suit what each department/faculty has to teach their students. The problem with a lot of lecturers and such is they don't have enough background in education to really know how to deliver well structured courses for online instruction (or even on campus courses for that matter, in some cases).

What was the film....good ol' Tech Pan?? Remember when they used to advertise hypering kits in Astronomy Magazine??

[Zaps]

On the Internet, everyone you encounter is the world's foremost expert on whatever it is you're discussing. They will reply to any question with an insightful observation lifted directly from Wikipedia and elsewhere.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

I don't have any issue with the teachers themselves. I believe I had good work/study relationships with them. It was the outdated training methodology that really irked me. Here we were in one of the most progressive and exciting areas of study and we got Powerpoint presentations on a disk and got to answer questions on a bulletin board.

I'm not sure if its true elsewhere or even if its still true in Qld, but when I did my my teacher training, University lectures/teachers/tutors weren't required to hold teaching qualifications. It really shows at times.

[renormalised (Carl)]

I don't know of too many uni lecturers holding teaching qualifications at all, Paul. Even today....I know they weren't too worried about it years ago. They don't have to hold a degree in education but they should at least be required to do some training to a higher certificate or diploma level.

Just having powerpoint presentations and answering questions on a BB isn't enough. You should've at least got downloadable lecture notes and practical assignments every week...and a weekly study guide to help you through the work.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Well I'll just quietly hope that someone saw my email and gave some consideration to the suggestions. Its such a shame because the topics covered each semester were pretty good in themselves. But the presentation and delivery was like chewing a cardboard box. Pretty indigestable.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

Well I'll just quietly hope that someone saw my email and gave some consideration to the suggestions. Its such a shame because the topics covered each semester were pretty good in themselves. But the presentation and delivery was like chewing a cardboard box. Pretty indigestable.

Warm milk and some sugar....you'll think you were eating weeties

[Bodie (Stan)]

Originally Posted by renormalised

They've changed the structure of the course somewhat and the entry requirements, now. You need to have a science/maths background preferably.

Yeah, that is what the wording seems to indicated. Will contact them though just in case. I'll keep an eye on the Monash course though. I would probably end up doing the Maths major though rather than Astronomy.

Thanks for the pointers gents

[Nuclear Fission (Phil)]

Hey guys

First post on the forum - just signed up.

I'm starting the Masters Degree in Astronomy at JCU next semester, really looking forward to it.

I was looking for a forum of some sort to do some reading and have a bit of a chat and came across this one. Looks to be what I was looking for. Found this thread after searcing "JCU Masters". I see some of you guys have done the course aswell and it's good to hear that you enjoyed it.

Anyway just wanted to say hi somewhere

Cheers

Phil

[renormalised (Carl)]

Hi Phil, welcome to IIS

Good to see you're going to do the course next semester. You'll like it

[Nuclear Fission (Phil)]

Excellent to hear

I come from an Engineering background however have always had a love for cosmology and astronomy from a young age. I find it fascinating and a real shame that the majority of people know so little about it (and don't really care).

Glad to be in a place such as this forum where we can atleast share our interests and knowledge.

[renormalised (Carl)]

I'm a geologist by profession and have the same fascination with all things astronomical from an early age as well.

The majority of people don't care about a lot of things...it's a wonder we've gotten as far as we have.

[Nuclear Fission (Phil)]

Hahaha very true Carl.

[COSMOPARADISE (Nick)]

Hi Phil...welcome to IIS.

Last year i did the SAOSC (Short Course at Swinburne) and i loved the experience and learned more in the 6 weeks than I thought possible. It was well paced for newbs and a great stepping stone to the Certificate Courses. I would do it again and I recomend it.

Im also an avid fan of Dr Alex Fillipenko and also downloaded his lectures from The Teaching Company. I absolutely love all 96 lectures

Good luck in your quest for knowledge.

[Nuclear Fission (Phil)]

Cheers Nick I'll have to have a look into those lectures.

Out of curiosity, for some of you guys that have qualifications in Astronomy, is it something you can actually use to get a profession out of in Australia? Like is the Masters Degree something you can actually use? Or would you have to go the next step further and do your PhD?

I'm not doing it to get a career out of, just for personal interest, just curious about it that's all. Would be nice to know it's a qualification you could fall back on one day.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by Nuclear Fission

Cheers Nick I'll have to have a look into those lectures.

Out of curiosity, for some of you guys that have qualifications in Astronomy, is it something you can actually use to get a profession out of in Australia? Like is the Masters Degree something you can actually use? Or would you have to go the next step further and do your PhD?

I'm not doing it to get a career out of, just for personal interest, just curious about it that's all. Would be nice to know it's a qualification you could fall back on one day.

Oh yes.....I have applications in to several of the community colleges in the US (California, precisely) to teach astronomy in the colleges. The colleges basically do the first couple of years of an university degree. You need a masters degree to be able to apply for a teaching position in the colleges. You can also grab observers positions at the various scopes around the world if you have a masters degree, Plus, if you want to work as a senior assistant at a planetarium or museum, you need a masters degree. A number of the colleges have very comprehensive astronomy courses.

Having a PhD is an extra bonus and will get you a bit further along, but it's not necessary to have unless you want to go straight into a research position at one of the major universities or research institutes. Then you go into a postdoc research position and keep working until you can get a position as a lecturer. If you're lucky, you get offered tenure.

[Nuclear Fission (Phil)]

Oh great, that's good to know! Was a bit worried that it would be a bit of a useless qualification in the real world but if there is actual possibilites to go somewhere with it that is a definite bonus.

[Terry B]

I did the master degree at UWS before all the lecturers moved to JCU. Say hello to Miroslav if he is still there.
My background is in medicine and I have no need to use the astronomy qualification. It was useful though when I was employed to have medical students at my work. Because I have a master degree the uni would pay me as a senior lecturer even though the degree had nothing to do with medicine.

[andrew2008]

Just interested to know what people are hoping to get out of these courses, the GD and Masters in particular. Is it relevant to your career, looking to move into the area or just for interest??

I am about to start a distance science degree so have found this thread very interesting. Only astro unit available is an Intro course that I hope to do as an elective.

[Nuclear Fission (Phil)]

Like I said with mine, it's mainly just for pure interest and knowledge development. However that's not to say that one day I might look into moving into the industry now that I know there are a few options that you can work towards.