Three different course formats are now available!
(1) Live Webinar Format (few & far between)
Live webinars run half days for 5 days (M-F), at times that accommodate multiple time zones (often 10-12, 13-15 Eastern Time). Each session will include 4 hours of live instruction, usually in two-hour sessions with a one-hour break in the middle. To participate, you must enter a Zoom "meeting" through your internet browser that will be available during the scheduled webinar times. Once admitted, you will be able to view and listen to a live broadcast that includes alternation between a narrated power point presentation and demonstrations in the PC‑ORD software. You will follow along in the companion book and use the software on your own laptop with the provided sample datasets, and ask questions through live chat and email. If you miss a session or need to review, each 2-hr session will either be recorded or a previous recording will be made available through the following week.
Enroll for a Live Webinar!
Please email peckj@psu.edu as soon as you can (with "Live Webinar" in the subject line) with your preferred months and years of attendance. Once there is sufficient enrollment, I'll send out a scheduling poll to find the dates that work for as many participants as possible. After the dates are set, you will receive a Call for Registration email, to which you must reply in order to formally register for that live course offering (but no less than two weeks before the course begins). I will then email invoices and logistical information. For live group courses, the registration fee may be submitted online via credit card. See below how to prepare for the live webinar, and feel free to email me with questions about the course.
(2) Recording Format (available year-round)
If you are unable to attend or wait for a live webinar, it is also possible to arrange for a recent recording of the live course to be made available for live-streaming. To participate, you must visit each of the ten 2-hr video URLs, which will be available 24/7 for a specific two-week period. You will view and listen to each recording of the alternation between a narrated power point presentation and demonstrations in the PC‑ORD software. You will follow along in the companion book and use the software on your own laptop with the provided sample datasets, and ask questions through email.
Enroll to Watch the Recordings!
Please email peckj@psu.edu at least two weeks in advance (with "Asynchronous Recordings" in the subject line) with your preferred two-week window of dates for attendance. Once I confirm availability (please note that the course is not available when I am in the field and thus offline), you will receive a Call for Registration email, to which you must reply in order to formally register. I will then email your invoice and the logistical information. Please note that payment for these courses can only be made by check in advance, mailed to Penn State. See below how to prepare to watch the recordings, and feel free to email me with questions about the course.
(3) For-credit Format (available by term)
The content of this short-course has been converted (via recordings, exercises, and exams) into two one-semester credit courses available from the non-profit Center for Wildlife Studies (CWS). These courses can be taken for academic credit (with approval from your host institution), for continuing education credits [pre-approved by the Ecological Society of America (4 CEUs) and The Wildlife Society (16 CEUs)], be applied toward certification with ESA and TWS, and/or be applied toward a Professional Certificate in Applied Quantitative Ecology from CWS. Note that these courses use the same software (but version 7 only) and textbook as the webinars. Although I designed and oversee these courses, registration (payable online by credit card) and course access is through CWS.
(1) How to Prepare for a Live Webinar
Setup
The optimal setup would involve two screens: one on the internet receiving the broadcast and showing you what I am doing, and another on which you can be simultaneously using PC‑ORD to run the same procedures on the sample datasets. You will need speakers, but not a microphone.
Software & Datafiles
Live Webinar delivery will be via Zoom. Although you may simply enter the Zoom meeting space from the browser of any device, if you are able, consider downloading the Zoom application for a smoother delivery (better audio reliability).
You must have a computer running Windows with the PC‑ORD software installed to practice the analyses. The following "Sample Datasets" compressed ZIP file (for whichever version of PC-ORD you will use for the webinar) should be unzipped and the files stored in a convenient location for use during the webinar.
Webinar Files: Sample Datasets for Version 6 Sample Datasets for Version 7
In addition, you may use your own data for some of the demonstrations if you wish. Refer to the chapters of the book (3-7) dealing with data formatting, screening, and structuring to prepare your response data for importation on the first day of the webinar. Pay special attention to data management and organization, such as how to best create a meaningful sample unit ID for each observation, whether some data need to be aggregated to attain the appropriate level of statistical inference, and check the overall data quality (screen for data entry errors, determine the appropriate level of rounding, etc.). If time allows, consider what explanatory variables might be of interest and compute and organize them in a separate source file.
Companion Book
You must also order a copy of the companion book online, and should read through at least chapter 15 in advance of the webinar. Note that shipping may take up to two weeks, so order your book well in advance. Please don't attend the webinar without the book in hand; I refer to many figures and passages in the book, the power point presentation will not be available to you (ever), and you will thus almost certainly want to take notes directly in the book--the book was designed to be the handout for this course.
Recordings
Each of the 10 live webinar sessions (two per day) will be recorded and available to live-stream, upon request, until 5 pm on Friday of the week following the live course. There will be a delay of up to a half-day between recording and when the video becomes available to live-stream. If you missed a session, you must send an email requesting its URL. The video quality is not great, so you should still run PC-ORD while you view the video so you can see the output on your own screen.
(2) How to Prepare to Watch the Recordings
Setup
The optimal setup would involve two screens: one on the internet to stream the recordings (thus showing my actions in the software), and another on which you can be simultaneously using PC‑ORD to run the same procedures on the sample datasets.
Software & Datafiles
You must have a computer running Windows with the PC‑ORD software installed to practice the analyses. The following "Sample Datasets" compressed ZIP file (for whichever version of PC-ORD you have) should be unzipped and the files stored in a convenient location for use during the course.
Course Files: Sample Datasets for Version 6 Sample Datasets for Version 7
In addition, you may use your own data for some of the demonstrations if you wish. Refer to the chapters of the book (3-7) dealing with data formatting, screening, and structuring to prepare your response data for importation. Pay special attention to data management and organization, such as how to best create a meaningful sample unit ID for each observation, whether some data need to be aggregated to attain the appropriate level of statistical inference, and check the overall data quality (screen for data entry errors, determine the appropriate level of rounding, etc.). If time allows, consider what explanatory variables might be of interest and compute and organize them in a separate source file.
Companion Book
You must also order a copy of the companion book online, and should read through at least chapter 15 in advance of the course. Note that shipping may take up to two weeks, so order your book well in advance. Please don't attend the course without the book in hand; I refer to many figures and passages in the book, the power point presentation will not be available to you (ever), and you will thus almost certainly want to take notes directly in the book--which was designed to be the handout for this course.
