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UCLAN Undergraduate Certificate in Astronomy


Yimini

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Don't want to put anyone off as I did enjoy the certificate course and passed with over 80% average, but I have to say the admin side is poor ans student help from tutors wasn't great. I used the Facebook group a lot for help as replies were very quick and people were very friendly and helpful. I'd ring up and chase applications. I started a week late despite applying in June and wouldn't have started at all if I hadn't chased it up. Oh and despite what they say at uclan you do need to be pretty good at maths, especially rearranging equations. Good luck to all.

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Don't want to put anyone off as I did enjoy the certificate course and passed with over 80% average, but I have to say the admin side is poor ans student help from tutors wasn't great. I used the Facebook group a lot for help as replies were very quick and people were very friendly and helpful. I'd ring up and chase applications. I started a week late despite applying in June and wouldn't have started at all if I hadn't chased it up. Oh and despite what they say at uclan you do need to be pretty good at maths, especially rearranging equations. Good luck to all.

Thanks for the heads up Geordie mc. I have my account set up, e-mail and Citrix all set up too, what is the next stage of the process and when should I expect it to take place? If you can give us any idea we'll all know when to start chasing if it doesn't happen.

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The date sounds about right from my memory. I can really recommend the Facebook group set up by Peter best. Mark was okay but when you're on a tight schedule due to work, family etc. I found it took too long to get answers. If I email or post a question to mark it might take several days to get a reply by which time my time to work on the course has gone. With the fb group you get help almost instantly.

Couse materials are PDFs and I downloaded and printed the lot so I could make notes on them. There were 4 assignments - two question based ones and two written report type ones. Fell free to pm me if you need further help. If the course has the same content and assignments ill try my best to give pointers. My reports were on calculating the length of the sidereal day and using jupiters moons orbits to calculate its mass

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Thanks for the heads up Geordie mc. I have my account set up, e-mail and Citrix all set up too, what is the next stage of the process and when should I expect it to take place? If you can give us any idea we'll all know when to start chasing if it doesn't happen.

I've got my email confirming my Network Login, but no where on the email does it give instructions re Citrix. I've clicked the link for Download, but there are a myriad of options to choose from. I've worked out that I need the XenApp, but do I download XenApp, or XenApp fundamentals? Also, what 'Product Type' do I need? And do we have to pay for this? I can only find reference to download a 'free trial' which indicates to me that this will expire and I will need to pay for further use. Surely this can't be right?

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Got Citrix sorted now, but still don't have access to email etc. Contacting them tomorrow to find out what is going on.

Your e-mail should already be set up. Go to www.outlook.com/uclan.ac.uk and use username@uclan.ac.uk as your e-mail address, and your password is the same as the one for your main login.

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Have you paid the course fees and been fully enrolled?

I have paid nothing at the moment. I took the option of paying in full on receipt of the invoice, which I seem to remember they stated that it wouldn't be set out until after the course had started. Seems a funny way to do business.

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Can anyone tell me roughly how long it takes to get an email back to say if you are accepted or not on the courses. Applied for the intro to astronomy and the intro to cosmology. That was now 3 weeks ago. Seems a bit long.

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Took over 4 weeks for mine. I applied at the beginning of August. When I enquired, they advised that the admissions tutor had been on annual leave. I assume they are back now as I have been accepted. I would chase this of I were you.

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Thanks Rae. Have been advised that they were finishing up the review process last week and this week admissions tutor will be in contact with me.. Also got the message the admissions tutor was on annual leave too. Fingers crossed

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got email sorted, have now also received email confirmation that I am fully enrolled for certificate, sent off for my id card, got textbook, got all downloads sorted and am now just waiting for information re start date and fees.  

Yay! Getting very excited now! 

You heard anything yet Anthtone?

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Got email sorted, have now also received email confirmation that I am fully enrolled for certificate, sent off for my id card, got textbook, got all downloads sorted and am now just waiting for information re start date and fees.  

Textbook ? Downloads? Have I missed something?

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I don't think you have...

The downloads I referred to are the Citrix ones (which you already said you had done), for both my my Mac and iPad (best to be prepared and all that!), and the textbook is the one mentioned on the UCLAN Study Astronomy site (http://www.studyastronomy.com/textbook.php?id=1).

Cheers. I had missed the book, I'd better get that sorted out. have you managed to get the Citric stuff working with your iPad. I tried it a while back in couldn't get it to work properly.

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If you can, get the book from 'The Book Depository', it comes with the Starry Nights disc (which isn't included if you buy from Amazon). Apparently, some of the assignments include taking measurements of objects movements in the night sky... impossible to do if cloudy.  Seems that Starry Nights can help with this! Cost £47.47 from there.

Citrix is working on my iPad, but its a bit weird. Accessing the keyboard is done via a 'hidden' menu at the top of the screen.  It doesn't appear automatically when you tap on a form box, or when you tap on the screen.  Will take some getting used to I expect.

What happens with yours?

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If you can, get the book from 'The Book Depository', it comes with the Starry Nights disc

Amazon do sell the version with the CD - you just have to be careful as it's somewhat confusing (luckily, the one with the CD was the cheaper one when I looked). As I'm a Prime member, it was my cheapest option.

 

Citrix is working on my iPad, but its a bit weird. Accessing the keyboard is done via a 'hidden' menu at the top of the screen.  It doesn't appear automatically when you tap on a form box, or when you tap on the screen.  Will take some getting used to I expect.

Sounds normal. My remote desktop app for iPad does that too.

Still waiting to hear about my application. It's probably given them a bit of a headache as you don't often find partially sighted people interested in Astronomy! (I did ask first if it was OK for me to apply).

Guess I'll give them a gentle prod tomorrow.

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Amazon do sell the version with the CD - you just have to be careful as it's somewhat confusing (luckily, the one with the CD was the cheaper one when I looked). As I'm a Prime member, it was my cheapest option.

See, Amazon were my first thought for the book. There were two options for it, one with and one without the CD, but upon checking the reviews, both had the exact same entries and most had mentioned that they purchased the version with a disc, but there wasn't one with it when it arrived.

I got mine from The Book Depository just to make certain!

Sounds normal. My remote desktop app for iPad does that too.

Never used anything like this before, so took me a while to figure out where the keyboard was and why I couldn't get it to appear! There weren't any instructions for using Citrix on the website, just how to download it! 

Good luck with your application... I've heard that they are only turning people away if they don't have the required maths qualification or equivalent (and even then, because of their Accreditation of Prior Learning entry methods, you can usually still gain entry providing you prove you know the stuff) so I wouldn't worry too much!

Let us know what they say... 

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I'm half a course short of the Cert HE having done the Intro, Cosmology, History, Radio, Sun, and short Galaxies course with UCLAN/Jodrell/JohnMoore's. I really enjoyed these courses and miss them. Now that I'm resident in France they are too expensive for me, though.

The hardest by far was the radio course for me. It started innocently then suddenly dropped a gear and hit the loud pedal. Whoosh, gone!!!

Olly

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