Copyright – Pharos Tutors

**Disclaimer**  Any views shared here are my own and do not form or imply any official view point of Pharos Tutors or the Guild of One-Name Studies.

There are relatively few formal genealogical based courses, though there are some out there and there are even fewer surname based courses available. Pharos has offered over the last ten years two courses, the introduction course that I now teach and the advanced course. From March 2020 there is to be a third offering from Pharos, written by myself and called Practicalities of a One-Name Study and we will talk about them in more detail over the coming days. All three courses are in association with the Guild of One-Name Studies.

The Pharos courses are offered over five or six weeks and take the format of Tutor directed learning. There are weekly lessons, with each lesson accompanied by an online chat where we discuss the various elements of the lessons.  There is also a forum platform to accompany each course where students can discuss the lesson material, ask questions and respond to the various exercises.

The courses are a welcomed opportunity to strengthen what is already learnt in an informal approach, but also lends itself to being able to be what I would referred to as layered learning. This means that participants can take advantage of seminar, conference and webinar sessions provided by the Guild as a member benefit in addition to wider learning where it is possible to learn and add context to research. Whatever learning we do, it is worth keeping some form of log or diary – key factors learnt, what you want to explore next and anything else deemed of being note worthy.