Geoff Lawton's online PDC course 2013

There is no set time - you watch when and where you like. The classes are pre-recorded. You have the opportunity to ask questions in the comments section and then Geoff answers them in Q and A videos.

That is great...thanks Jennifer!

Mona Lewis wrote:Hi, Does anyone know what time the classes are on Saturdays and if I am teaching 3 of the Saturdays
can I record it to watch later or does Geoff expect everyone to be on live?
Thanks, Mona

Hi Mona,

There's only about 5 hours of videos every week and you can watch them any time you want. I haven't seen anything that is live.

Mona Lewis wrote:Hi, Does anyone know what time the classes are on Saturdays and if I am teaching 3 of the Saturdays
can I record it to watch later or does Geoff expect everyone to be on live?
Thanks, Mona

You can watch the videos anytime, they are just loaded up on Saturday. The questions for that weeks lessons have to be asked that week though or as Geoff says they get lost in the river of questions.

Didn't see this got answered already, can't see how to erase this post...

Mona Lewis wrote:Hi, Does anyone know what time the classes are on Saturdays and if I am teaching 3 of the Saturdays
can I record it to watch later or does Geoff expect everyone to be on live?
Thanks, Mona

It's all pre-recorded. I'm pretty sure that the material is released in weekly segments that correspond to the chapter in the outline. The Q&A will be compiled, recorded and released weekly as well. At least that is my understanding of the whole thing. It would be really unreasonable to try to coordinate the course live over so many time-zones and expect everyone to keep up. The good thing about it being recorded is that you can pause and take breaks as you need. You can also re watch any segments that you want, as often as you like.

Mona Lewis wrote:Hi, Does anyone know what time the classes are on Saturdays and if I am teaching 3 of the Saturdays
can I record it to watch later or does Geoff expect everyone to be on live?
Thanks, Mona

As mentioned above, nothing is "live."

There in lies the beauty of an online course..you can watch at your leisure, in your bathrobe even in the buff at the time of day that YOU want to. No waking up at 6am to get to class on time.

It also is the bane of an online course that you put it off until the next class happens and then you can fall behind. So if you are going to get your certification, my recommendation from doing many online courses is to make a date with yourself on your calender to watch your classes the same time every day, just as if you WERE there live. That helps set up a discipline so that you go through the entire course and you don't allow LIFE to get in your way. My Two cents..can easily be amended as needed for your own situation.

Rebecca Holman wrote:There in lies the beauty of an online course..you can watch at your leisure, in your bathrobe even in the buff ....

Now I have a visual of all Geoff's students watching his videos in the buff!

Jennifer Wadsworth wrote:Now I have a visual of all Geoff's students watching his videos in the buff!

Tee hee, now you can't unsee that can you???

OOO MY Goodness

Jennifer Wadsworth wrote:

Charles Tarnard wrote:I'm gonna mooch off of you guys for another year before I take the plunge on mine . I hope to have some land by then. There's a lot of excitement in this thread, it's fun to read.

Mooching is what permies is here for! If we didn't mooch of each other and trade our insights, we'd all be reinventing the wheel with each new project. And that would be tiresome - just sayin'!

And I just wanted to say that your post above made me smile - the excitement is contagious.

Well someone please take good notes and allow Charles and I to mooch properly....

oo Happy dance..I am in..my first foray into a Permaculture design course. Wish me well.

I can safely say, that since my real full time job is working in membership sites for my clients (and I work in dozens of them) that Geoff spent a lot of time energy and effort to cover all the bases. This is one of the best laid out sites I have ever seen in my life..If he spent that much time just getting the navigation components correct then I trust that the rest of the course details will be amazing.

So if you have signed up for Geoffs PDC the discussion is going on here
https://permies.com/t/34641/Geoff-Lawton-online-PDC/Permies-Geoff-Lawtons-Online-PDC

Amazing course "Geoff Lawton PDC".
North Portugal
Benjamim Fontes

Wanting permies as collaborators in permaculturizing in SLO county, 2 acres with well, no trees yet.

I'm new to permaculture, Permies.com, and to Geoff Lawton's PDC, but I have been gardening (and eating, breathing, drinking, etc.) all my life and see the very disturbing shortcomings of both 'better-living-through-chemistry-' and corporate-farming. One of the aspects that made it acceptable for me to call in a debt to pay for this course is that Geoff has encouraged us to share the course with friends, neighbors, clubs, communities, etc., in order to get the word and knowledge to as many people as possible. One person (I) will receive the signed certificate, and I will have to complete a design, submitting it within a month of course completion. If any other friends, SE Wisconsin Master Gardener Volunteers, or any of you who live near enough to Milwaukee want to join me, please, PLEASE feel free to let me know - and I will happily share both access to course information and materials, as well as my enthusiastic conviction that this is the right thing to do (and I will run my design project past you, too, if you like).

The Introduction section has only piqued my fascination, imagination, enthusiasm, and my deep admiration for the high quality of the presentation. If this is the sign of things to come, as far as online classes are concerned, then the bar has indeed been set high! Come on - please help create that face-to-face discussion-group!

Thanks, Paul - without your daily-ish email, I never would have known about this! (I really want to drive that digger in Montana!)



Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it. -Rene Descartes, philosopher and mathematician (1596-1650)

From the Midwest. My gardening has always been viewed as different. Read Ruth stout as a child. My copy of Last Straw is the first printing in English. So taking a pdc has been on my bucketlist for a while who would have thought it would be Geoff s course. I am caretaker of a youth camp. This is the beginning of getting ready for the camp season, So not the time to be doing anything but camp work. But if not now when? I hardly ever take time off much less the time to do a pdc. I am convinced this will help here at the camp now and where ever I end up after this season off life.

Is the online PDC going to be a yearly thing? I am very interested if there is a 2015 course. How would I find out (in time for a spot)?

I'm pretty sure it will be a yearly thing. Signing up on his website will ensure that you get his free videos that he does prior to his PDC and you get first notice of his class, too.

Josey Hains wrote:Is the online PDC going to be a yearly thing? I am very interested if there is a 2015 course. How would I find out (in time for a spot)?

I think I heard somwhere the next one would be towards the end of 2015. Either I heard right or it could be at the same time as this year.

If you subscribe your e-mail to http://www.geofflawton.com/ and maybe to the permies newsletter (daily -ish) then you will hear about it in time. Registration stays open for a week but people generally know weeks in advance.

Thanks. I am already on Geoff's list then. (Amazing videos!)

I love the idea of making this information available, and while I wish that Geoff was able to make it available at a lower price, that I might afford it, I understand if he can't. Same as any other professional.

What bothers me is if he is NOT making information available at any price, which it sort of sounds like. Having information that Geoff claims will cure the planet, and not sharing it at reasonable price (whatever Geoff thinks is a reasonable price, not what I might think) is ... unkind to the planet. Cachet is fine for works of art, but not for medicine. I hope I am wrong about what it sounds like, someone please correct me.

Thank You Kindly,
Topher

Topher Belknap wrote:
I love the idea of making this information available, and while I wish that Geoff was able to make it available at a lower price, that I might afford it, I understand if he can't. Same as any other professional.

What bothers me is if he is NOT making information available at any price, which it sort of sounds like. Having information that Geoff claims will cure the planet, and not sharing it at reasonable price (whatever Geoff thinks is a reasonable price, not what I might think) is ... unkind to the planet. Cachet is fine for works of art, but not for medicine. I hope I am wrong about what it sounds like, someone please correct me.

Thank You Kindly,
Topher

Hi, Topher. Actually, Geoff has made the information available to all through those of us fortunate enough to be able to afford to sign up for the class - only one Permiculture Design Certificate will be awarded after timely submission of the required design. I was encouraged to share the class with anyone who wanted to join me - and I did invite many, many people. To my great disappointment, none have yet accepted my offer, even with my enthusiastic introduction. I received my DVD copies of the class a week or so ago. Whereas I will not loan or distribute copies - since watching them again reinforces the lessons for me, I will be overjoyed to share the class. I am getting together with some other urban Milwaukee gardeners/farmers to work on building gardens on lots that have had houses removed, and I part of my contribution will be to share Geoff's DVDs and class notes - all of which are excellent.

Here and now let me invite sharing of the DVDs with any interested Permies who live within roughly 40 miles travel-distance of Milwaukee, Wisconsin - if I am to drive my moped-type scooter to meet up. I know that ayt least one person in Maine is taking the class right now, but I cannot make any commitments for anyone else. I will try to share this pair of messages on the class site.

I have two other people watching with me. We're all really into it. For the amount of information that is presented plus the detailed notes, dvds, onlines resources and class interaction, the price is well worth it. WELLLLLLL WORRRRTH ITT!

One thing to note: Everything that is in the course is probably detailed here on permies and other sites as well. You just have to do more work in finding it. I paid for the course so that I could get the Certificate. You could learn design strictly through self teaching. The information in out there and in here. Mostly free. I've been devouring permaculture for a few year now so a lot of what is in the PDC is repeat for me but that's fine. It lets me know I'm on the right track. It took a while to figure out that permaculture was going to be MY path forward. The PDC Certificate is the piece of paper that will hopefully bring more legitimacy to my work once I get going.

My personal goal is to be able to spread permaculture through establishing legacy food forests, local aide projects and private property design. A good designer could easily make that thousand dollars back in just a few consultancies. Then is all gravy baby!

Topher Belknap wrote:

What bothers me is if he is NOT making information available at any price, which it sort of sounds like.

Tagri sells a DVD set of a PDC Geoff & Bill did together in the mid '00s for $370 AU. I have seen many of them and they are excellent. Available here.

Geoff sells a 5 DVD set here but don't bother if you're going to take the course because the come with it. It's part of why the course is a good deal.

And the most affordable is the audio of a PDC that Bill taught in 1983. $60 available here. It's the same exact course Geoff took. The DVD comes with a PDF of visuals , just little sketches Bill drew.

Hi Heidi,

I am planning on taking Geoff Lawton's online PDC next spring. I purchased most of his videos a couple of years ago, before he started his online PDC. Just go to www.ecofilms.au to order the videos. FYI...most of the videos are in PAL format which our DVD players can't read, but they can be played on an Xbox. Hope this helps.

I wonder if someone might ask Geoff to do an intro to permaculture class on http://www.skillshare.com - not a PDC but just an introduction into the concepts as a more affordable weekend course for people that can't pay for the online PDC.

I've taken a couple skillshare classes and they were very valuable.

I am super excited for the 2015 PDC. I was wondering if my father (from whom I live far away) would be able to use my account to watch the videos if we just pay for one person? I read that only 1 IP address is allowed at a time, but does that mean multiple can use the same account as long as they are not all logged in at the same time? I understand we would only get one PDC Certificate, but he cannot afford the course himself. Hope this would be possible!

Thanks!

Jim

jim jimithy wrote:I am super excited for the 2015 PDC. I was wondering if my father (from whom I live far away) would be able to use my account to watch the videos if we just pay for one person? I read that only 1 IP address is allowed at a time, but does that mean multiple can use the same account as long as they are not all logged in at the same time? I understand we would only get one PDC Certificate, but he cannot afford the course himself. Hope this would be possible!

Thanks!

Jim

I took the course last year and was able to log in from different computers to watch the videos. So I think your father should be able to watch the videos, but not at the same time you are logged in.

Have fun with the course, it's good.

Are there dates out yet for a 2015 course from Geoff? I was just on both the PRI. site and geofflawton.com today and did not see any indication. Has not come through in email that I have seen (and I pay attention to Geoff's stuff )

Peter - Check out this post: https://permies.com/t/43557/geoff-lawton/Registration-Geoff-Lawton-ONLINE-PDC

Jennifer Wadsworth wrote:Peter - Check out this post: https://permies.com/t/43557/geoff-lawton/Registration-Geoff-Lawton-ONLINE-PDC

Thanks Jennifer, I came across it right after I posted asking

Can anyone speak to the breadth of this curriculum? Does it cover just horticulture, built environment and technology? Or does it expand into invisible structures, sustainable finance, education, culture, etc...?

Turned in my project last night at about 1:45am....whew...nice to have that done...hopefully I pass.

Got the email that I passed- that was nice. Does anyone know if they actually grade it and give you comments? Or just Pass/Fail?

M Johnson wrote:Got the email that I passed- that was nice. Does anyone know if they actually grade it and give you comments? Or just Pass/Fail?

Great! happy to hear you received the email, if you want you can oprn a support ticket asking for feedback or comments on the project, you write you would like some comments and they should answer that they'll pass it on to the team theat read the projects or directly to Geoff and then wait. I sent my ticket I guess on the second of june and still waiting. the pther day I received the actual certificate in the mailbox!! wow.
Still Congrats!!

Lorenzo Costa wrote:

M Johnson wrote:Got the email that I passed- that was nice. Does anyone know if they actually grade it and give you comments? Or just Pass/Fail?

Great! happy to hear you received the email, if you want you can oprn a support ticket asking for feedback or comments on the project, you write you would like some comments and they should answer that they'll pass it on to the team theat read the projects or directly to Geoff and then wait. I sent my ticket I guess on the second of june and still waiting. the pther day I received the actual certificate in the mailbox!! wow.
Still Congrats!!

Just curious if anyone has received feedback/comments on their submitted design. Yeah you can open a support ticket yada-yada. I did. Months ago. My impression is that nobody in the GL organization cares.

Hi Ed Sitko, I sent my support ticket months ago too. From what I know Geoff has asnwered to some requests but not to all. I don't think it is because of lack of interest but for the fact he was away for months, and probably had a lot to deal with. I was thinking if writing back now. I know he is back in Autralia at Zaytuna.
Let's try sending another request or an email directly to him.
I'll let you know if he answers to me.