I could use some input from Bee-L. This past summer, we launched a
Masters Beekeeping Series, in addition to our annual MOLLI Grandparents and Kids
2-day Honey Bee Workshop. We offer the Masters courses for Certificate
and/or Credit.
Response to our initial offerings was very good. The University of
Montana's School of Extended and Life Long Learning has now agreed to provide me
with the services of two graduate students in media arts to help my team put
together on-line materials this winter for on-line delivery.
One challenge we face is how to offer a three level Masters Beekeeping
curriculum to distant locations and still maintain the hands on in the
beehive experience. We've got some ideas, but are open to others.
The other challenge is to design a series of Specialty Short Courses, both
on campus in Missoula and where feasible, via distance delivery over the
Internet. I would be very interested in getting a Wish List from Bee-L.
The University of Montana is a Liberal Arts College, with a School of
Business, School of Law, School of Forestry, School of Pharmacy, and the
Missoula College, aka College of Technology. We've also been the state's
Apiculture Research Specialists for nearly 40 years (and yes, I know, everyone
assumes we should be at the Land Grant Ag School, MSU, in Bozeman - its a long
story).
My point is that we've access to expertise in a wide range of topics such
as Marketing, Accounting, Business Management, Business Planning through the
School of Business. We could cover Culinary Arts (Cooking with Honey,
Food Technology), welding, small engine repair, heavy equipment operation
through the Missoula College. Virtually all aspects of honey bee biology,
management, behavior, disease and pest identification/control/monitoring
through the Division of Biological Sciences (our largest department). Even legal
issues such as Bee Laws, Trespass, Liability could be covered. We might
even get the Pharmacy School to address medicinal products derived from
bees.
So, I need a WISH LIST - and we'll consider any request. These short
courses would be fee-based - with the objective of making the courses
self-sustaining. We are a State University and have to pay salaries, costs. We
would offer Certificates, even academic credit where appropriate. We're in
essence a non-profit, so our priority is to recover costs, make enough to
promote and develop the courses, but keep the overall costs reasonable. Part
of the cost equation is the instructor to student ratio. Our Masters
Courses have three instructors, so that we can provide a very good hands on
experience, but that does drive up costs. We'd expect per student costs for
popular Specialty Courses to be lower. We're open to almost any size class,
but at some point, the cost ratio becomes prohibitive. So a highly
specialized class like the law and bees, if it drew a small audience, might be
more expensive than a more popular class such as Pest and Disease Managment.
For our Masters Courses, we offer a Certificate at the base cost, have to
add a handling and processing fee for Academic Credit (so its a two stage
fee). Initially, we had some complaints about us charging for a course,
when clubs and extension programs often offer them for free. These folks
forgot that UM gets tuition and fees from our regular, on campus students.
The State underwrites some of the costs of going to school at UM, but not
all - reason UM charges tuition. The post-course feedback we got gave us an
Excellent Rating and acknowledged that our extensive expertise, hands on
approach, experience was worth the fee.
We are also considering offering a Commercial Beekeeping Curriculum.
Canada has one. However, Canada does not practice much migratory beekeeping
nor long distance movement of equipment. And, you pay an additional fee if
you are not a Canadian citizen. So, we're trying to see if there's
sufficient interest for us to pilot a Commercial Curriculum. Montana does have
a very large beekeeping industry, with many large scale, migratory
beekeepers.
So, please let me know what you'd be interested in as far as bee-related
courses. Assume we can find the expertise to cover the topic. For bee
meetings, we found presentations on Bees and Fossils by one of our Geologists,
Training Bees for Sentinel Activities, Things K-12 Students can do for
Science Fair Projects, were popular. I also see a need to train people in
how to read and assess a Research Paper, but don't know whether more than a
hand full of folks would be interested. Despite peer-review, some articles
are good, some are okay, some are innovative, some are rather pedantic, and
some are just awful. You don't have to be an expert in statistics or the
discipline to work through a paper, but we can provide guidance for
evaluating the work; things to look for, like was there a control, do the
hypotheses make sense, do the results support the conclusions, if the bibliography
reflective of current state of knowledge, etc? We could even offer a
course in the design, set up, and conduct of bee-related experiments. All
depends on interest level.
Bottom line, I've been offered free help, have some time this winter to
produce some courses and course materials, let me know what you'd like to see
us offer.
You can either post here or e-mail me off-line at [log in to unmask]
(mailto:[log in to unmask]) OR [log in to unmask]
(mailto:[log in to unmask]) .
Thanks for your help.
Jerry
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