Online Bat Call ID Course Overview

Hybrid On-line Classes Teaching the Basics of Echolocation Call ID

For those preferring to learn at home or at the office, these courses include everything from "Day 3: Identifying Bats by their Echolocation Calls" of our in-person field training, using sample data. Registered students receive links to video presentations, 100 sample WAV files, four “Exercise” assignments, and additional electronic resources and guides. These pre-course materials are tailored to include all bat species from one of four U.S. (and Canada) “regions:” Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest. Upon reviewing the materials and completing the exercises, students will be invited to attend an instructor-led Live Webinar (approximately 4-hours in length) during which we will go over the exercises, provide additional insight into species identification, participate in call ID Q&A, and allow students to assess their performance on the exercises. Each module includes the following sections:

Introduction to Echolocation and Identifying Bats to Species
Identifying High-frequency Non-myotis in the Region
Identifying Low-frequency Non-myotis in the Region
Identifying the Myotis species in the Region

After completing a Regional Bat ID Webinar, any BatSS In-Person training, or a BCM SonoBat Workshop, students can request a collection of 50 regional WAV files to identify as part of our Echolocation ID Quiz. Results are submitted to Bat Survey Solutions. Upon receiving an 80% passing grade, a “certificate of completion” detailing the regional content and contact hours will be issued. An additional Acoustic Survey Qualification certification can be obtained by reporting on a sample project containing 250 recordings.

DOWNLOAD REGIONAL SPECIES LIST

Or, click on a region below for registration information.

NORTHEAST NORTHWEST SOUTHEAST SOUTHWE ST

Echolocation Basics and Identifying Bats to Species and Species Guilds - Regional Courses for North America, North of Mexico

The Bat Survey Solutions “Bat Call ID” On-line Training Courses teach the basics of echolocation call ID and manual vetting. Courses combine digital resources with an interactive webinar.

Each course begins with four mandatory video modules for students to view at their own pace. Each video module is followed by 20 “Exercise Files” for homework, allowing students to practice echolocation call ID concepts included in each video, at their own pace. The exercises should be completed at least one day but no more than 1 week prior to the webinar presentation.

The live Webinar Presentation will be a 4-hour, interactive discussion of the Exercise Files. Instructors will review the Exercise Files, highlighting key qualitative and quantitative call characteristics in both SonoBat and Kaleidoscope PRO to illustrate how to make confident species ID decisions. Students assess their performance on the assignment and ask questions about disambiguating species. After completing the course, students will have developed more confidence to manually vet acoustic survey data collected from the region of interest.

The resources for the nationwide four-region curriculum include a total of 13 individual videos of Keynote presentations, each approximately 20-40 minutes long. Each region consists of 3 unique videos plus 1 standard video common to all regions. Viewing the entire content for a single region will take less than 4-hours, but if new to bat echolocation, expect to spend a few hours on each module. Students receive a PDF transcript of the presentations, additional echolocation call identification keys, plus a collection of 80-100 “Exercise Files” with worksheets for the region. Students should view the exercise files in a full-spectrum software program (SonoBat or Kaleidoscope, recommended) and complete the worksheets to identify the files prior to the Live Webinar.

Participation Details: On-line webinars will be limited to 15-20 students to facilitate instruction and Q&A sessions and to ensure that webinars last no more than 4.5 hours. All students must have, at the minimum, either the free version of the SonoBat Viewer or the free version of Kaleidoscope to complete the exercises at the end of each video and to participate in the webinar evaluation. The webinar will include basic information about viewing files using the tools associated with each software package but will not include instruction on using auto-classifiers or discuss the interpretation of the software outputs. After completing a Regional Bat ID Webinar, for an additional $95 students can request a collection of 25 WAV files collected from regional acoustic surveys to identify and submit their results to Bat Survey Solutions. Upon receiving an 80% passing grade a “certificate of completion” detailing the regional content and contact hours will be issued.