Online PDC and Advanced Design Practicum: Starts April 1st

Hello Permaculture Nation!
Our Beaver State Permaculture programs are continuing to evolve at Oregon State University. We offer 10 week long completely internet-based instruction. Instructors are Andrew Millison and Marisha Auerbach.



ONLINE PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE:
We now have a lower priced non-college credit option for the Permaculture Design Certificate Course, along with an updated curriculum that reflects our own Permaculture evolution.
Detailed Information and Registration:
https://pne.oregonstate.edu/catalog/permaculture-design-certificate-online

This online Permaculture Design Certificate Course focusses on the Permaculture design system: it's fundamental tools and strategies that can be applied at scales from the home garden to city block to village to farm. Although rooted in horticulture and agriculture, Permaculture design is interdisciplinary, touching on a wide range of subjects including regional planning, ecology, animal husbandry, appropriate technology, architecture, and international development.
This certificate course takes students on a journey to design the site of their choice, where the curriculum and assignments all build towards the creation of an integrated site design.
The course consists of narrated slide shows by experienced Permaculture instructors, educational video tours with knowledgable guides, and interactive assignments, working towards the completion of a Permaculture site design.
Students present their work on individual blogs, which are visible for other students to comment on, and through discussion boards the community of learning is encouraged.
This is a non-credit course offered through Oregon State University's Professional and Non-Credit Education. The student receives a Permaculture Design Course Certificate, but without registering for credit with OSU.
Cost: $750

You can view examples of student portfolios from the course here:
http://www.beaverstatepermaculture.com/photo/albums/darien-s-final-design-portfolio-winter-2012
http://www.beaverstatepermaculture.com/photo/albums/permaculture-design-project



ONLINE ADVANCED PERMACULTURE DESIGN PRACTICUM:
For students who have completed a PDC, this 10 week college credit course will walk you through the design process on your own project. You can view details here:
http://www.beaverstatepermaculture.com/events/advanced-permaculture-design-practicum

Join in this project-based teaching that builds on the curriculum of the Permaculture Design Course. Each student chooses a design project track from one of four areas: broad scale rural farm or ranch, urban neighborhood or community development, educational institution or organization, or commercial property and business development. Students will conduct an in-depth site analysis and draft a design document to be completed halfway through the course. The document will be reviewed and a research topic assigned to fill in knowledge gaps related to the design. The student will revise all or part of the design based on the research, creating an extensive project portfolio and receiving instructor and student feedback throughout.

This course is run through the OSU extended campus Blackboard system and consists of readings, narrated PowerPoint and video presentations, assignments, and written feedback as well as one-on-one video chat communication. Students will post their assignments on blogs and will receive feedback from an instructor and other students. Students will have the opportunity to meet the instructor in person or through video chat at the beginning of the research and design revision stages of the course.

Advanced Permaculture Design Practicum is for PDC graduates who want to deepen their design fluency in a guided and supportive structure. Whether you went through your PDC as an OSU student or through another organization, this course will enhance your Permaculture design literacy and give you more confidence to design professionally in a diversity of situations.
Cost: $744
3 College Credits are available for this course

Testimonial:
"I have learned so much from this course. Since my first introduction over 10 years ago to Permaculture, followed by my first PC course, I have been hooked to its concepts and components, but I admit it wasn't until this course that I was able to take the varied elements of a property and actually work through an entire integrated design process. In short it put all the pieces together and thus taught me more about the Permaculture process than any book, 2 week course, or established permaculture farm could. For that, Andrew, I thank you. Having a 10 week course allows the learning to infiltrate and become more tangible. I feel like this course was exactly what my property and I needed. Your work has rippled outward to my home and my passion for, as well as my skills with, permaculture have matured. I walk away from this course with applicable insight, philosophy, practice, and perhaps most importantly (for my clients and myself), a detailed and researched plan to work from. This course covers a broad spectrum of learning that I feel applies to a long list of people; Landscape architects, permaculture enthusiasts, self-sufficient homesteaders, cultural revolutionaries, social philanthhropists, and shared landowners can all harness benefits from this experience. No doubt, it is an investment in the land, yourself, and our future. "
Aurora Moore
Columbia Gorge-EMT, firefighter, nursing student, farmers market manager, fire performer, and caretaker of 22 acres.

These videos we produced as part of the course work represent the quality of the content included in our courses:







Thanks,

Andrew Millison
www.beaverstatepermaculture.com
amillison@gmail.com

The first of these three videos shows a brilliant design for capturing and distributing water. A few additional points: The swales (ditches) which move the water along the contour are very heavily grassed in. That's important. Otherwise, the whole set up could be very erosive. The shape of these swales in cross section is a parabola. They are broad bottomed. Ideally, this super lush grass would be intensively harvested at intervals throughout the summer. You could cut the flat parts for hay, but it is more practical to use a grazing animal and some sort of movable fence. Obviously, you can't turn the grazers loose in the vicinity of the fruit trees, unless your grazers are very short (poultry, maybe). Cows require the most minimal movable fencing. You could use movable netting with goats if they are trained not to jump the fence.

The discussion toward the end of the video does a very good job of explaining the hydrological benefits of the keyline. It is about way more than just irrigation. This farm has completely changed the local surface and groundwater hydrology -- for the better. It is so common for damage and down-cuttting to happen in streams when the spring melt water runs off too fast (usually due to over-grazing high in the watershed.) This water can be captured and held in ponds and in the soil, a giant sponge, with the right structures in place.

A lot of people, including "professionals" working for government agencies should watch this video several times. It challenges many wrong ideas held by a lot of overpaid bureaucrats. If the whole planet was this well managed, the current 7 billion humans riding on planet earth would not be too many.

Awesome assessment, Maura! Don does cut the swales (keyline terraces) for hay. He has sheep and goats in the Eastern swaled pasture. You are so right that government agencies should watch this multiple times. It's getting towards 18,000 views, so someone's watching it.

Take care,
Andrew

I just wanted to share a great design portfolio of some of the work that is coming out of our online PDC. Here is a farm in Montana designed through the course:

http://www.beaverstatepermaculture.com/photo/albums/online-pdc-student-design-portfolio-montana-farm

Take care,

Andrew