I recently enrolled on an online course "Design Your Site with Permaculture" developed by Aranya. I did a two week Permaculture Design Certificate with Aranya back in 2015 and several short courses 2016-19. Needless to say these were out in the field. Literally out in a field sometimes; the sessions were often open air and I slept in my tent at the various locations.

 Actually I hadn't really contemplated digital learning up till now but the online course seems like a good opportunity to revisit familiar topics and cover new ground. Perhaps it helps that I know Aranya and have encountered parts of the content before in a "live" setting which personalises it. Having said that someone who took the course without that context would find it informative as a thing in its own right. I'm looking to build on what I've learned on previous courses but the material would be equally suitable for a beginner. 

 Inevitably the conversational element of a class is absent though there are various interactive features like webinars. The lessons take the form of videos which can be studied as and when suits. And it's useful to be able to backtrack and repeat them to get to grips with the subject. There's a lot to know!

 Online study is different to studying outdoors with analogue Aranya- I've experienced plenty of weather on those courses. I'm happy to say however that Aranya's stream of consciousness mind map whiteboards still appear in the form of drawings that can be downloaded. 

 The idea of the course is to apply it in practical ways to design an actual site using permaculture principles. I'll aim to record that process in this diary as it unfolds.