Online Course
The Online Course serves as your first training course to become an Oregon Naturalist.
Photo by Jason O'Brien (Cropped from original)
The Online Course serves as your first training course to become an Oregon Naturalist.
Registration for Fall 2024 session of the Oregon Naturalist Online Course will open in July. Check back here for more details to be posted once dates are set and registration is available. Please click the link below to be taken to the online course website, to access a waiting list.
This course is delivered entirely online using Oregon State University's online learning system called Canvas. A new topic (see below) is covered each week. For each topic, there is a main interactive reading containing images, figures and video, a written assignment with class discussion (via a discussion board), and a quiz. One new topic is released each week, for a total of 8 weeks. Four additional weeks are available for those who need extra time. Successfully completing the course requires passing a 25-question multiple choice, true-false final exam.
How ecoregions frame the Oregon Naturalist program and help organize Oregon’s natural diversity.
The geological processes of Oregon (e.g., 400 million year history of plate tectonics, volcanism, earthquakes and tsunamis, Pleistocene floods). And the atmospheric, hydrological, and biological connections to geology.
Basic physical, biological, and chemical processes, and watershed management issues.
Foundational ecological concepts related to wildlife and plant communities. And wildlife management history and science.
Forest community types, biological & successional processes, forest wildlife, sustainable management strategies, and contemporary conservation issues.
High desert sagebrush, shrub-steppe and bunchgrass ecology, dryland plant and wildlife adaptations, rangeland management concepts.
Pre-historic climate conditions, contemporary climate trends, basic climate change science, projected impacts on Oregon landscapes.