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Author
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Topic: How long does it take to work the courses?
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David Burch
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posted February 08, 2006 03:55 PM
There is not a simple answer to this question.
Our original intention was to have the online courses match the classroom courses as much as possible, simply because the latter were so popular and successful for so long. With that in mind, we add up some 7 x 3 or 21 hr of classroom sessions with our general statement that we estimate the same amount of time outside of the classroom as in it, and we come up with some 42 hr of your time to work the courses.
And when we got started, we guessed the online training, since it is so much more individual, would go faster, so we made estimates of 40 to 60 hrs of time for a course, depending on how much detail you chose to pursue with each course.
Variation will occur because there are numerous articles and resources in the course materials and you may not choose to read then all in your first pass through the course. Also, there are many practice problems and you may not choose to work all of them once you are convinced you got the technique down.
Needless to say, you can take as long as you like. The course registrations last for a full year and can be extended if needed.
On the other hand, if you have deadlines to meet, you might complete the required reading and quizzes within the estimate of 40 to 60 hours. We have found, however, that more often than not, students end up spending more time than they had thought they might because they get interested in the many optional details available within each course.
This was the estimate from 2006. During the COVID days of 2020/21 we have a lot more experience with folks working full time on the courses, and we have now had students complete our courses in just 4 days, but these remain exceptions. So our latest estimates are expanded to be 30 to 60 hrs. We have also had students get their course work interrupted, so they took much longer to finish.
From: Starpath, Seattle, WA
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David Burch
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posted April 28, 2011 07:28 PM
To fine tune a bit on the above notes about duration, we have three courses that are shorter than the other three.
Weather, Coastal, and Celestial are, say 40 to 60 hr, whereas Nav Rules, Radar, and Emergency Navigation are more like 20 to 40 hr — depending on how much optional work is covered.
The weather course has the most optional content in it because it is such a broad subject.
From: Starpath, Seattle, WA
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