THE ONLINE LEARNING ZONE

Study Geology online at your own pace with expert support

• We offer a range of Geology courses aimed at adults and students. Courses are designed to encourage you to find out more about aspects of Earth science.

• Many of the courses include live Zoom sessions.

• The courses are supported by a forum intended to encourage lively dailogue with others undertaking the same course.

• You can undertake the online course at your own pace but have the ongoing support of a tutor with comprehsive knowledge and experience of geology.

• View the course details from the links on the right...

Introduction to our distance learning courses

Our team of Chris Darmon and Colin Schofield have been delivering online courses for more than 10 years. With the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020 they developed these further with live Zoom sessions forming a central part of the offering.
They now have a large bank of courses which they can draw on as well as devising completely new material. The style is informal and inclusive with everyone encouraged to participate, but with absolutely no demands made on people. There’s no assessment or forms to fill in!
This page is subject to change as new courses are added so please bookmark and revisit or keep up to date with our popular quarterly earth science magazine "Down to Earth".

What’s on offer?

Rocks from the pressure cooker: Metamorphic rocks & processes

The course is all about the process of metamorphism and the metamorphic rocks that result. Metamorphism has a reputation for being hard to understand and has often been poorly taught. Our principle aim is to make the process easy to understand and appreciate, without recourse to complex issues around chemistry and physics or the use of lots of terminology. Metamorphism can be understood by a nyone with a broad understanding of the basics of geology and most importantly, can be fun! We’ll be making much of cooking analogies in our quest to make metamorphism easy to understand.

Cost: Ten hour-long Zoom sessions with electronic background papers £80.00 for one person or £100.00 for 2-people studying together. Printed background papers cost an additional £25.00.

Autumn & Winter Zoom courses and other individual sessions..

• The Geology of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz Special Session, Monday November 21 £15
  The country of Oman and Strait of Hormuz have hardly been out of the news for the past few months, ever since the start of hostilities between the US and Iran. But aside from oil and gas, what else is in the geological story?
  Explore with us in this extended Zoom session all about the geology of the region. You’ll learn why this is such an important and interesting area - prepare for some surprises!
• The Tectonics of Northern Venezuela Special Session, Monday November 9 £15
  The tragic twin earthquakes of June 24th 2026 will probably go down as one of the worst natural disasters of modern times. In this specially extended Zoom session we will explain why this happened by looking at the regional and more local tectonics. We’ll also examine what could have been done to minimize the number of casualties, by way of design for buildings and infrastructure, especially bridges and roads.
  If two people share the same computer screen the cost is £22.00 for these sessions.
• In the steps of the pioneers (6-weeks) The history of geology is closely linked to a few individuals, many of whom were British. They each made their indelible mark on our subject in a unique way. In this course we’ll take a look at the life and achievements of 'six of the best'. We’ll be studying these pioneers: Adam Sedgwick, Roderick Murchison, Charles Lapworth, Mary Anning, Henry de la Beche and George Barrow.
  Course dates: Starts Thursday November 12 and runs through to December 17
  Cost: Six hour-long Zoom sessions with electronic background papers £50.00 for one person or £70.00 for 2-people studying together. Printed backgroundpapers cost an additional £15.00. Zoom sessions on Thursdays at 2.00 and 7.00pm (you choose)
• The Wednesday Club
  We started this eclectic mix of subjects on Wednesday afternoons and evenings two years ago and they are now a firm favourite with many of you. We hope that you like our new selection - All six are designed to bring you up to speed on some of the very latest ideas on a variety of very different subjects.

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  General information
  
  • Have these courses your way! You can have them electronically, by email or Moodle or you can have printed sheets sent by mail.
  • Everyone is invited to a weekly live Zoom meeting for a presentation.
  • All courses are supported by a tutor, who is available online.
  • You can enroll via our online shop or by ringing us on 0114 245 5746.