I’m Scott, and I’m a USQ student.

The actual topic of my Masters was to Automate an Observatory so online access was available to students, and we did, so I guess it’s exploring what are the boundaries that this type of equipment can be used for?

It’s a far more community oriented field, even though it’s external, or I’m not actually in Toowoomba at the USQ campus, the contact, because a lot of people now talk to each other on-line, you know, instant messaging, Facebook, stuff like that. The contact is a lot more, I think, interactive, than there would be with, you know, the opportunity to see a person during the day when you’re at the campus. So anytime, you can contact anybody that’s in your group, or if you need some advice, or run something by them it’s...you’re on-line, so it’s no different to sort of, a lot of other parts of your life as to how you talk to people now.

USQ Lecturer: We try to take great individual care of you, make sure you’re progressing okay, and if there are any issues we’d like to help you with them. So i think it’s just the personal attention that makes USQ quite special when it comes to looking after Post-Grads.

They think it’s pretty cool, they like the idea that everything is automated, everything’s online. You know, gone are the days when, especially the friends that have gone on to do this, they have to go onto the campus 9 to 5, do all their work, they go home. They’re really, really...very tough on the idea that now most of the delivery is on-line. All the content, actually using the equipment to do research, and even submitting and seeing the results can all be done remotely. There is no more requirement to physically go to a campus anymore. The on-line delivery is just excellent. My family obviously appreciates the fact that I don’t have to say, “oh, I’ve got to go off to uni today”, or something like that. They like the idea that I could work around them, and if they’ve got things that they need doing they don’t necessarily interfere with my uni studies, and vice versa.

Yeah, [???], she’s only 3, she always says, “oh, daddy’s doing his Master’s” and stuff like that. I don’t think she really...she says that I play with telescopes, and she thinks that they’re a bit of a toy I think. But she definitely...ah, she’s into the idea that all my stuff is done at the computer at home, and I don’t have to go away from her to do that, so yeah she’ll see me in the office working and it’s a bit of a different idea than that I’ll have to leave for the day...