They put on a variety of courses covering garden history, garden design, vegetable gardening, container gardening and much more. Tutors include John Brookes, Noel Kingsbury and Harriet Rycroft. If you are interested in horticulture in any way I think they would offer a course that would match your interests.
I decided I wanted to try the Garden History course, which is written and led by Toby Musgrave. The materials to work from are a thirty minute film, accessed from the 'Course Classroom' tab and you can also download the student notes. Whilst it is only week one, I liked this provision of material in two forms as they complement each other well. The film is narrated by Toby and shows lots of slides to illustrate what he is talking about. These are reproduced on the student notes, which can be downloaded and viewed offline, or as I did, printed.
I watched the film in a couple of attempts once as it was one of those 'can't find five minutes to rub together' days. Then the next day I watched it through properly from start to finish. The fact that the film is just there to be watched whenever I wish to is very convenient. I have a full time job so finding precious spare time can be difficult, especially this time of year when the garden beckons so.
I now have to consider the assignment I need to complete, which is referred to also as homework which does make it feel less daunting. Its been a few years since I have written an assignment and I have never written one on garden history so I will be approaching it with some trepidation. Thankfully I have the student notes which makes the task much less daunting. I do feel like I have all that I need (apart from some more five minuteses to rub together.......) I will report back on how that goes.