FAQ – Courses

In general yes, the courses are aimed at an international audience.

Measurements are primarily metric, but US Customary Units (aka Imperial - though there are differences that don't really affect us) are also given to help those in the USA, Myanmar and Liberia (though the last two are in the process of changing to the metric system).

For standards, regulations and legislation, I generally cover the UK, EU and USA in all courses, but may also include information about other countries.

Electrical systems (i.e. voltage, frequency and phase) are global, but regulations are principally for the UK for kilns, or the UK and EU for lamps.

See the details of each course for specific information.

I do in person courses upon request - my studio is much too small to host them. Details of any forthcoming courses are put up on my website, and details are sent out to those on my mailing list.

If you'd like me to run a course at your location, please get in touch. 

The videos can have subtitles added in most foreign languages, thanks to computer translation. When booking, say what language you would like, and I'll add it if it isn't there already.

The web site is just in English, but most browsers either have a translation tool built in, or have this available as an extension.

Translating PDFs is more problematic, and these are left in English.

If you have a working knowledge of English, including some ceramics terms, then this will help you do the course, but it will not be sufficient if you have no English or it is very basic.

Yes, I try to, withing the capabilities and resources of a one person business. On my web site videos all have subtitles in English (and other languages on request).  images have descriptions in their Alt tags, and text is structured using H1, H2 etc.

I'm sure there's more that I can do, so if you have a disability please send me any suggestions on how I could improve things.

At present I am not making the courses available in Israel or Russia.

Not all payment methods accept payments from all countries, so  you may need to try a different payment method if one doesn't work. A bank transfer will be the most widely available, though charges may be higher than for a card or PayPal.

Otherwise, all you need is an internet connection to read the course material and watch the videos. 

I aim to be as flexible as possible:

Credit or debit card (Link). I accept Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards, and American Express.

PayPal accepts PayPal payment, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and may also accept Discover, JCB, Diners Club, and EnRoute.

Google Pay or Apple Pay (these options only appear if you are already logged in to your account)

BACS Direct Debit - payment from your UK bank account, normally taking up to 3 working days for me to receive the funds

Direct bank transfer - I email you an invoice with my bank details, and you transfer the money into my bank. Please ensure that you cover both sender's and recipient's bank charges, if any. The timescale depends on your bank and their transfer method.

No. I aim to keep my prices affordable. If I were to offer credit I'd have to increase my prices to cover the extra admin of issuing invoices, checking for payments, sending out reminders etc. If you wish, you can book in on a course and select payment by bank transfer. You will then receive an invoice and your accounts dept. can pay it after 30 days or whenever, and you will get access to the course on receipt of payment.

Upon receipt of cleared funds I will send out the course joining information. It is not possible to start the course before payment has been received.

Yes.

If you want them to be able to start straight away, just book the course and enter their name and email address where it asks for the student details.

Or you can buy a gift card for them, which lets them decide which course to do and when to start it. 

Gift cards don't have an expiry date. If they choose a course that's at a lower price than the card then they still have the credit balance available to them. If the course costs more than the card, they can make up the difference with their own money.

Yes - this is typically used for a group of students, or for ceramics teachers across a group of schools.

If you make a booking for 10 places on a course, you get a 10% discount, or for 20 places you get a 20% discount. This is applied automatically when making your purchase.

I am not VAT registered, so generally there is no VAT to reclaim.

The exception is if you support me through Patreon, they may need to charge taxes for my supply of digital services through them, depending on where you are based. They do this through an Irish subsidiary. So if you are VAT registered in the EU let me know and I can send you VAT invoices.

The courses  don't count as digital services because of the human element in the Ask me Anything part of the courses, so they fall outside of VAT.

Yes, so long as you have not logged in to start the course. The refund will be issued by the same method as you paid for the course.

In general refunds cannot be given once you have started the course.

One of the following web browsers: Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. Other browsers built on one of these, such as Vivaldi, should also be OK.

To watch the videos, a minimum bandwidth of 7Mbps is required, though 10Mbps is recommended.

For the Ask me Anything sessions, ClickMeeting supports Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge or Opera browsers. You can also optionally download the free ClickMeeting app from the your AppStore or Google Play, or the desktop apps for Windows and Mac OS X, if you prefer. It requires a bandwidth of 3Mbps.

No, this isn't currently supported. When you book the course this triggers issuing the course joining instructions, with immediate access.

Shortly after booking a course, you will receive an email with a link to my tech page, your user name and password, and joining instructions. Sending these out is a manual process, but generally you will receive it by the end of the next working day after you booked in to the course.

The videos are, on average, 90 minutes long, so as a minimum you need to allow time to watch all of the videos.

For most modules you are also given links to additional material, which expands upon or supplements the information in the videos. It's well worth looking at those that you feel are relevant to your interests and practice. There is also a lot more information on the tech web site, on my courses and other things ceramic, that you are free to explore as well. If you want to avail yourself of some of this information, you could spend another 90 minutes per video if you are selective about what you read.

Yes, definitely.

Although when these courses were first created they worked on students doing one module a week, and you'll see this referred to in some of the course material, you're free to take the course as fast or as slowly as you wish.

Depending on the course, some practical exercises may be suggested. Whilst I think you'll benefit from doing them, they aren't  mandatory, and the course doesn't assume that you've done them. Often students don't have time to do them during the course, but then do them later on,

The supplementary information given to you for each module, and also in the tech website as a whole, is aimed to do two things: build on the content of the modules, and help you explore other related areas that may be of interest.

Few people will want to work through it all, but please spend some time exploring what there is that might be relevant to you. 

In addition to the links given in  each module, you can work through the menu system at the top, or often the quickest route is to use the search box on the right, which does a full text search of the tech website.

You can just ask me whenever you want, by email or phone (preferably at a civilised time), or join in an Ask me Anything session.

Students' questions make the courses more interesting for me, so don't hesitate about asking anything, it needn't be strictly tied in to the course syllabus.

If it's a complicated question, email is probably best, including emailing me before an Ask me Anything session.

Yes, I'll do my best to. The field covered by the courses is huge, and in creating the courses if tried to pick the aspects that I think will be of interest to most students, but just ask if you have any other questions.

Examples of questions I've been asked are on detailed glaze chemistry, or helping select and source a dimmer switch for a lamp design, or going through a list of clays and glazes that a school teacher inherited and sorting out which can be used together and what firing schedules to use.

By default, if you ask me a question I'll assume that you're happy with me sharing it and the answer - that way everyone learns. But if you want the question and answer to be kept confidential, just email it in and say so, and I'll respect that - and if there's something that I think may best be kept confidential, I'll check with you before using anything publicly.

PDFs of the video presentations are available for download, but not the videos themselves.

The supplementary information may be in the form of a PDF or a web page. The PDF can obviously be downloaded, and you can save or print off the web page.

I will email out invites to the Ask me Anything sessions, generally at least a week in advance, with the date and time, and the link to join.

I use a tool called ClickMeeting for them. You can join in from your web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge or Opera) without the need to download any software on any device, or for a better experience on your mobile phone you can download the free ClickMeeting app from the your AppStore or Google Play. There are also desktop apps for Windows and Mac OS X if you prefer.

Yes, they're recorded and, after a little light editing, uploaded to the tech website. You'll get an email with the link.

If you have a question you wanted to ask, email it through to me. I'll normally answer it in the sessions, so it'll be in the recording, but if I run out of time I'll email you an answer.

This depends on the course. I take the number of video modules in the course, and then add on 4 weeks from the date that I send you your joining details. This gives most people more than enough time to complete the course.

If you find that you do need more time, you can get this by supporting me on Patreon, either immediately or at a later time. The cost of this is about the cost of buying me a coffee a month (it varies a bit with exchange rates and taxes).

To help you pace yourself, you'll get an email from me about 4 weeks before your access comes to an end, and then another when it has come to an end, giving you details on how to sign up to Patreon.

Yes. Quite often students do this, either because they ran out of time when doing the course, or they've built up more experience and want to revisit some of the more advanced information. All you need to do is sign up to support me on Patreon for the cost of buying me a cup of coffee a month, and you have access to all of the material for the course(s) you've done.

No. I assume that you're motivated to learn, so there's no end of course exam that you need to pass, nor are there any tests during the course.

All students who have logged in to the course receive an attendance certificate at the end. Obviously if you didn't log in to start the course, you don't get a certificate.