All good points,
Tinna.
I suspect at this point we are still throwing things on the table to see what looks good. We don't have a large team of instructors ready to write textbooks to accommodate all the student desires for a great class. We also don't have a handle on how many students are interested nor at what level class they want. As my friend Dave says, "if we had some ham, we could have some ham and eggs, if we had some eggs".
So there is a little bit of a Catch 22 here, but not enough to stall the initial wavefront.
It should be apparent that we do have at least some students enthusiastic about taking a class; likely enough in number to make up at least one freshman or sophomore college level class without much promotion.
My hope is the potential benefits of using BAUT - with its communication functionality and remarkably educated membership, not to mention some of its colorfully entertaining contributors - will be recognized and mentioned here in this thread.
I would love to see some lofty goals presented, too. Fraser introduced a big one with working toward building the Wiki Books Astronomy textbook. I like that idea. Whatever they may be, if we define our eventual goals then we can layout a plan and see who will commit to the task and who will serve as backup to their work. Perhaps this effort could be tested by preparing one or two chapters in advance of announcing any official class start date to see what happens, or the mini-course idea might be a better alternative.
Dreamer that I am, here is what this student wants....
I want to take numerous serious courses in Astronomy.
I want the course to be filled with the latest images, illustrations and animations.
I want the courses to be on the internet for convenience and time flexibility as I don't have the time to take them in college (night or day) (I'm paying for two of our kids that are enrolled now!).
[Guess the next one] Money is a problem, so a free class, or ~ $100 is the limit.
I want to reach a level that would allow me credit on as many hours as possible should I elect to go after a degree in astronomy (even though, with a degree, I would not likely work professionally, but might serve in some assistance capacity).
Therefore, I want a prominent university to allow me to take advance placement tests, knowing most of my hours from my prior degree will apply to the other course requirements.
I want to complete a course here that I can be proud of surviving. [Though a less rigorous course would be admirable, too.]
I want a cool looking BAUT certificate for completing each rigorous course; the tougher the course, the better the certificate (sheep still have skin, right?
)
I wanta take my knowledge and go to the ATM forum and present ideas where I know what I'm talking about (in lieu of just presenting ideas that clearly reveal otherwise.
)
I wanta know why a pure Doppler model isn't offered to explain expansion, why light seems stubborn with entropy, why we can't increase surface brightness, where models are strong and where they might be weak, how our solar system formed, and the merits to claims of scientific concordance. I wanta know what's out there, how big it is, and what the future holds. I want to boldly go beyond having to quote Star Trek lines. I want to be a part of a collective effort that produces something significant and grander than anything done here before. [Oh, and I wanta know the color of the sun.
.]
That’s all I want for Christmas.