Geotechnical Center of Excellence extends online courses to water and slope performance
After finding success in its first fully online radar monitoring short course, more courses are now being offered by the Geotechnical Center of Excellence (GCE).
Courses on Water and Slope Performance based on consortium guidelines
“After the initial Geotechnical Radar Monitoring course received widespread support and approval from industry professionals, we were approached by the leaders in the Large Open Pit Project (LOP) group to make additional courses based on their Guidelines Books. The LOP is a consortium of some of the largest mining companies in the world with a mission to support research and publish books on the most current understanding and knowledge of open pit mine slope stability issues. They have published five books to date. The second class the GCE developed in 2021 is based on the LOP Guideline book ‘Guidelines for Evaluating Water in Pit Slope Stability.’ The GCE is currently developing a course based on ‘Guidelines for Slope Performance Monitoring’,” says Brad Ross, Co-Director of the Geotechnical Center of Excellence. While the course on water is in progress from August to November 2022, registration is now open for the course on slope stability monitoring, which will start in early November 2022.
The plan is to produce courses on all five books, plus additional topics that will benefit mining geotechnical professionals. The GCE seeks to find gaps in the industry and provide courses to strengthen the response to geotechnical challenges of the 21st century. The GCE’s professional development courses appeal to a worldwide audience through the use of real case studies and potential challenges that help professionals develop tools to succeed in the industry and keep mine operations safe.
Worldwide audience followed online class
The “Radar Monitoring Short Course” was GCE’s first class since it was formed as a stakeholder-led organization. Input from industry partners drove the center to offer the professional development course. While not a new technology, use of radar for slope stability monitoring of open pit mine highwalls has grown in the last decade. More mining companies started considering systems after slope radar monitoring led to the successful evacuation of Utah’s Bingham Canyon Mine in 2013 before it experienced North America’s largest non-volcanic landslide.
The course as an online format was now available to a wider audience, not only as it unfolded, but for students who could tap the recorded version. The attendance list of 30 ultimately grew to 170 worldwide. The live sessions consistently drew 50 to 65 students. The seven-week online course combined videos and documents with weekly live Q&A sessions and a mini-seminar finale. There’s also an on-demand option, with all the original content but with a Community D2L discussion board instead of live Q&A sessions. Thanks to its yearly repetition, the course has now exceeded 500 participants.
One professor-attendee wrote, “I’m really impressed with the high quality.” Two companies have asked to use portions of it for their own trainings. Presenter Derek Hrubes was pleased. “It’s a great way to get more information out to a broader audience,” said the senior geotechnical consultant with BGC Engineering Inc. “I think they did a very good job.”