How can environmental and conservation education make a difference in people's lives? To help answer this question, we bring together international experts in conservation education, environmental education and evaluation in this special 10-week online course. The objective of this course is to provide delegates participating in this journey with firm grounding in up-to-date theory, research, and practice from conservation and environmental education and an introduction to gathering evidence of learning and impact. We welcome informal learning practitioners with active involvement in any institution and/or sector working to convey a conservation or environmental message.

Course modules aim to address the following key topic areas:

·  What is conservation and environmental education?

·  How does one develop effective conservation and environmental education        programs?

·  How do people learn in informal learning environments?

·  How can environmental education make a difference in people's lives?

·  What is the basic toolkit needed for effective evaluation?
This online course offers high quality teaching content on issues concerning Conservation, Environmental Education and Evaluation:

·  Weekly live sessions with instructors for each module will be supplemented by support from guest speakers who are leading experts in the field of conservation education and evaluation.

·  During the weekly live web chats delegates, instructors and special guest speakers will be able to discuss the week’s content and provide feedback to practical plans or concerns.

·  The ten-week course structure will encourage discussions between other delegates taking the course to build social and support networks and allow perspectives from a broad range of backgrounds throughout the course.

·  The course offers instructional videos and podcasts by top experts in conservation and environmental education, which can be accessed any time within the ten-week period of the course. A set of essential readings are provided for delegates to use in the future.

PARTICIPATION NOTES
Weekly participation is requisite for this 10-week course. The following comprise this expected participation: 

1.    Each week on Thursday/Friday. A live web chat/seminar will be held with one of the instructors to discuss that week’s content. The instructor for the week will hold ‘online office hours’.

2.    Every other week. A guest speaker, relevant to the week’s content, will be invited to join the weekly live web chat.

3.    End of course. Delegates will complete a two part assignment. 
Part 1: One-page essay on current thinking about CEE and evaluation. 
Part 2: Proposal for a future CEE intervention or evaluation activity relating to their work or a case of CEE practice with which they are familiar. All delegates will receive feedback on proposals within three weeks.

THE SPEAKERS
The experts leading this course are Dr. Trish Patrick (CEO, Informal Teaching and Learning) and Dr. Eric Jensen (Associate Professor, Dept. of Sociology, University of Warwick). Other international experts within the fields of conservation and environmental education and evaluation will also give guest presentations, including Billy Spitzer (Vice President, Programs, Exhibits, and Planning, New England Aquarium), Andrew Moss (Conservation Social Scientist, Chester Zoo), Marti Copeland (Director of Education, at the Dallas Zoo and Children’s Aquarium) and Dr Martin Braund (Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa).

Dr Patricia (Trish) Patrick

Dr. Patrick earned a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction with a concentration in environmental science education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in May 2006. Her speciality is in preparing Informal Science Educators and the influence of families on learning.

Dr Eric Jensen

Dr Eric Jensen (Associate Professor, Sociology Dept, University of Warwick) is a leading social scientist specializing in innovative methods of conducting impact evaluation research. He holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge and has led many ground-breaking projects on new social research technologies.