permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>]

On 5/4/2013 12:17 AM, Michael Pilarski wrote:
> I would like to see a comparative review of all the on-line pc design
> courses offered. Prices, etc. Dan Hemenway has offered them for
> years.  I believe there are others in Australia ? (pre Geoff L). I
> have deep respect for Andrew Millison and Marisha Auerbach who are
> offering a new on-line course.  Who are the others?

1) price, affordability
2) time required
3) lack of real-time feedback from other course participants (or is this 
made available through any course offerings). A solution would be for 
PDC's to include an online forum for students taking the course and 
another for the public to offer feedback. This list could serve that 
purpose very well if those offering PDC's would use it for that purpose.
Another issue is that those offering PDC's may not want to share 
_anything_ with non students, other PDC teachers or the public at large, 
such things as course content, course participants and graduates, 
supplemental educational material, course content and any innovations 
unique to their offerings.

> I would also like to hear some comments by people who have gone
> through an on-line pdc. They would be the best people to judge how
> well it works. If there is no one on this list serve who has done an
> on-line course that is not a good sign.  If there is no one who has
> taken an on-line course that would give it good marks that is not a
> good sign.
>
>
> I think on-line courses have their place, but just like residential
> or weekend pdcs they are not all created equal.
>
>
> As Peter Bane opines, $2200 for Geoff Lawton's online pdc is not a
> good deal.  Geoff L. says his course is limited in size?  How
> limited, I would like to know.

I can understand charging a lot of money for a product you offer but
if you're just maxing that out to get as much as the market will bear
then your customer base will be limited to those on a relatively high 
income level. That's good too because of the very real benefits to them 
but it leaves out the group of people I  think will do the most with 
what they learn and help take the permaculture movement the farthest, in 
the long term and will certainly create a feedback loop serving that 
community in the future. Grass roots permaculture.