Hi Laura,

Oxford University's Dept fro Continuing Education offer two online modules that might be relevant, as part of their PGCert in Ecological Survey Techniques:

1. Mammal and reptile survey methods

2. Fish and amphibian survey methods

They used to offer these as stand-alone courses, but I'm not sure whether they still do - I'll leave you to explore their course directory.

Good luck finding suitable training!

Update: we can now accept payment in 28 currencies, so you don't have to pay foreign exchange or international bank transfer fees!

1. Choose the course fee appropriate to you (see above)
2. Check if your currency is accepted at https://revolut.me/verdantlearnl
3. Use xe.com or similar to calculate the course fee in your currency
4. Return to https://revolut.me/verdantlearnl to pay by debit/credit card, Google Pay or Revolut Pay
5. Be sure to type 'Occupancy November 2022' and your email address in the payment notes so we can register you on the course

It is a roundabout process, but we're working on making it smoother in the future

Hi Alec, this sounds like useful and interesting research, but it's quite a big ask time-wise!  I wondered if there's something you could do to incentivize people to participate, as at the moment it appears that the only reward is a warm fuzzy feeling of helping your conservation research project  ;)

Could you perhaps create a badge for people to put on their LinkedIn profile if they participate, or offer participants early access to your findings, or links to a couple of learning resources to help them better assess evidence or...?

I remember completing one conservation survey that then placed my datapoint on a plot showing how my answers related to that of other respondents - it was really interesting!  Does anyone else remember it?

Also, many people here in WildHub are fairly early in their conservation careers, and may lack confidence in their evidence-assessing skills.  So you might increase participation by reassuring potential participants that any approach is valid, and that they don't have to be a highly qualified 'expert' for their participation to add value to your research

I would also love to know if you'll be sharing a recording.  Thanks, Lucy

Thanks for sharing, Andrew!  I'm curious - is there a summary list of actions which seem promising but for which too little evidence exists?

Hi Christopher, I'll be releasing the sign-up page for the beginners' course later this month.  In the meantime, you can register your interest on the form at the bottom of this page: https://verdantlearn-gis-refreshers-may2021.webflow.io/, to guarantee you'll be notified as soon as applications open.  All the best, Lucy

Update: the two most popular choices for taster topics are:

1. Finding and using free environmental data
2. Combining data from GPSs and field records

I will be running these taster topics in the middle two weeks in May (one week each, part-time over several days).  I will advertise them in a separate post on WildHub, but you can express interest in a comment here too.

Thanks to all for your participation!

Thanks for your interest, Cath.  The full beginner course will be free of charge, and a larger cohort than I usually teach, depending on demand (my normal class sizes are 15-25).  The course will be part-time online, and most activities will be asynchronous so the time commitment will be flexible to suit your schedule.  Any live sessions will be offered at multiple times to allow people to join from around the world.  I'll post more details in a separate WildHub post in due course.