College can be an expensive and time-consuming endeavor, but you can soften the blow by taking online courses. The online medium allows students to set their own schedule, and allows colleges to offer classes to anyone in the world. Online graduate programs in astronomy are varied, not only in coursework requirements, but also in structure and subject matter. Swinburne University, the University of North Dakota and Jamescook University offer the majority of their astronomy programs online.
Swinburne University of Technology
Swineburne offers an online master's degree in astronomy, as well as a graduate diploma and a graduate certificate in astronomy. Swineburne's master's degree program takes a year and a half with a full-time course load, or three years with a part-time course load. Master's students must complete 150 credit points of coursework, and will earn both the graduate diploma and graduate certificate. The graduate certificate program by itself takes six months of full-time study, and one year part time, covering 50 credit points worth of courses. The graduate diploma program by itself takes one year for full-time study and two years part time, covering 100 credit points. According to Swinburne, their program is "designed for amateur astronomers, science educators and communicators, people working in astronomy related fields, and anyone with a love of astronomy." It is not a training program for professional astronomers.
University of North Dakota
The space studies program at the University of North Dakota offers a Masters in Space Studies degree, that include both thesis and non-thesis options. The program takes two years, requiring a total of 33 credits. In addition to degree programs, you may also register as a non-degree student, however only nine credits worth of coursework can be applied to a degree should you later decide to pursue one. Online students must study on campus for one academic week per semester.
The space studies program is designed to provide students with a broad knowledge base in preparation for more specialized study. One of the first courses students take is Survey of Space Studies I, which is a general overview of human and robot space exploration. This course is also a prerequisite for many higher level courses.
Jamescook University
The Jamescook Master of Astronomy program is designed to be taken part time; however, they allow students to take a full-time course load if they are able to. The standard course load is one course per semester for a total of 6 semester, where each course is equal to 6 credit points. 4 semesters of the program are usually dedicated towards coursework, with the last 2 focused on research. Completion of a master's degree allows transfer into a research doctoral program, which Jamescook also offers online.
Courses in the Jamescook astronomy program fall into six areas: modern astrophysics, astronomy instrumentation, the solar system, galactic astronomy and cosmetology, astronomy literature review and pilot research project. Modern astrophysics looks at the mathematical side of astronomy and serves as an introduction to instruments used in study. Astronomy instrumentation provides a more detailed look at the instruments used for measuring distances and picking up signals from space. The solar system focuses on the chemical makeup and nature of entities in the solar system. Galactic astronomy studies the physics of stars, galaxies and black holes. The literature review and pilot research projects are student-led research projects. The first requires students to research scholarly astronomy literature, while the second requires students to conduct research on a topic on their own.
Tags: course load, credit points, graduate certificate, graduate diploma, master degree, North Dakota, part time
