Author: SarahLowengard

Many face-to-face and online courses, and many books, describe how to organize and manage a small business. The FAIC Online series is the only information source designed specifically for the community of art and artifact preservation specialists. The courses are led by experienced online teachers who have an intimate knowledge of conservation as well as their subject matter, and are able to provide advice and solutions based in the reality of a conservation practice today.

Not convinced? Here are five reasons to take an online course offered by the FAIC Online Education Program.

Availability and Timeliness

At present, the FAIC Online Education program includes eight courses:

• Establishing a Conservation Practice
• Marketing for Conservation
• Mitigating Risk: Contracts and Insurance for Conservation
• Estimating Conservation Projects
• Professional Responsibility for Conservators
• Digital Photography
• Records and Information Management
• Laboratory Safety for Conservation

Five different courses are offered each calendar year. You are never more than about eighteen months from the next offering of the course(s) you want to take. (Desperate to know now? Ask about minimum fees and participant numbers for a special offering of the course you want to take.)

Convenience

It’s easy to fit an FAIC Online Education course into your schedule. You have 24/7 access while the course is taking place. You can be anywhere, as long as you have a computer or smartphone and an internet connection. Check into the site when you have a minute or two. Respond to requests or comments as the mood strikes you.

Build Your Skills

Each week of every course introduces new activities for all skill levels. Learn what you need to know now. Use the basic activities as a review. Reserve more advanced assignments for later. Don’t find what you need on the site? Ask the leader: He or she has the expertise to help you with the questions you’re facing. Don’t forget that you can also ask questions of your colleagues in the course. You’ll find them a source of real-world experience and you can be confident that they understand what a conservator does.
The online environment accommodates your learning style, too. Whether you’re someone who constantly asks and answers questions or the one at the back of the classroom who watches and learns but prefers to remain silent, there is room for you to learn best what you need to learn the most.

Create a new network

The FAIC Online Education courses provide an opportunity to work with conservators beyond your existing network. Meet with and learn about colleagues in other specialties, who work in different regions of the U.S. or the world. You develop a new node in your network: a cohort of people who know you and your skills, people to whom you can turn for advice—and with whom you can share referrals—even though they are not in your backyard.

Expense. Or Rather, the Lack Thereof.

Each FAIC Online Education course is four weeks long. Each week is the equivalent of a very full, daylong conference. AIC members pay $200 per course. It’s like attending 4 seminars at $50 each.

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Courses remaining in the FAIC Online Education series for 2011:

• September 1 – September 29    Estimating Conservation Projects.   Register here.
• October 13 – November 10    Mitigating Risk: Contracts and Insurance for Conservation.  Register here.

Want more information? See the FAIC Online Education page on the AIC website. Take the quiz, “Is Online Learning Right for You?” Talk to one one of the more than 500 program participants.

Want to be informed of next year’s schedule when it’s available? Contact Abigail Choudhury, FAIC Development and Education Associate, achoudhury[at]conservation-us.org.