How the course works
Everything below is true whether you enroll today or in five years. If something here doesn’t fit your situation, it’s usually solvable — see Accessibility.
What you’re getting
Nine units on the biology, natural history, conservation, and ethical observation of reptiles and amphibians. The full course lives in one place and tracks where you are, so you always know what’s next and what’s left.
Reading. The lessons that make up the core of the course, drawn from A Primer on Reptiles & Amphibians, plus required articles from our publication The Natural World. Everything is in the course itself — the Primer PDF is a bonus format, not a second thing to keep track of.
Video. Video lessons from our own channel and from partner sources, mixing classroom-style teaching with observation from the field. The ones covered on the exam are marked as required inside the course, so you always know which is which.
Fieldwork. Self-led assignments you do where you live: making observations, uploading citizen-science records, learning your local species, finding out who to call when something rare turns up, and three hours volunteering with a conservation-minded organization.
Sixty hours total is the honest estimate for most people. It isn’t a clock you punch and nobody’s counting — it’s there so you can judge whether you have room for this right now.
The nine units
- I. Introduction to Reptiles & Amphibians
- II. Living with Wildlife — Reducing Human-Animal Conflicts
- III. Classification & Diversity
- IV. Biology, Physiology & Reproduction
- V. Natural History
- VI. Reptile & Amphibian Conservation Concerns
- VII. Reptile & Amphibian Observation — Ethics & Techniques
- VIII. Scientific Methods
- IX. Volunteering & Interpretation
What it costs
One payment covers the full course, the exam, and your certificate. No subscription, no renewal.
About the book. A Primer on Reptiles & Amphibians is free to download and yours to keep. You don’t need it to complete the course — the lessons are all in the course itself — but plenty of people prefer reading a book to reading a screen, and it’s the same material in a form you can hold.
It’s designed to print at full fidelity on ordinary printer paper, so a hard copy costs you paper and toner rather than a purchase. The hardcover edition is currently out of stock and we can’t say when that will change; used copies do turn up on Amazon if you want the bound version.
See current tuition, payment plans, and assistance
What you’ll need
- An internet connection and a device that reads PDFs and plays video
- Somewhere outdoors you can get to — a yard, a park, a greenway, a vacant lot
- A camera, including a phone camera
- Any way you like to keep notes
That’s the standard list. If a line of it is a problem where you are, there’s a workable path, and you don’t have to explain yourself to use it. Accessibility
How long you have
As long as you want. Start the day you enroll or six months later. Two weeks or two years. No cohort, no schedule, no expiry.
If you drop it for a while and come back, the course remembers where you were. You won’t need to reconstruct it from memory.
The exam
Open book. Keep the course open while you answer. That’s deliberate, not lenient — knowing where to find a reliable answer is the actual skill.
Unlimited retakes. Edit your answers or start over, as many times as you need. A first attempt that doesn’t pass is information about what to reread, not a verdict about you.
No time limit. Stop in the middle and come back.
Passing score: 93% for the Herpetological Guide program, 85% for the Junior program.
There’s a practice exam open to anyone, enrolled or not. Take it now if you’d like to see the shape of the questions.
What the certificate means
Completing the program establishes that you’ve worked through the lessons, watched the required video content, completed the fieldwork, logged volunteer hours, and passed an open-book exam on the material. It’s a certificate of completion from The Herpetology Collective, and it’s a fair thing to put on a resume, a volunteer application, or a wall.
What it isn’t: it isn’t a state or federal license, a permit to handle venomous or protected species, a wildlife rehabilitation credential, or a substitute for training your local agency requires. Laws about observing, handling, and collecting herps vary by country, state or province, and sometimes by individual park or preserve. Unit VII teaches you how to find the rules where you live; following them is on you.
If it isn’t working out
Tell us what’s in the way and we’ll try to solve it. If we can’t find something you’re comfortable with, you can withdraw and have your tuition refunded.
That applies to every enrollment. You don’t need a reason we’d approve of.