SAA Continuing Education offers free and fee-based online professional development opportunities designed for students and archaeologists seeking to enhance their skill sets or knowledge base. These take the form of virtual lectures, workshops, panel discussions, and other trainings.
Please be aware when registering, all times are in the Eastern Time Zone. For any questions related to SAA Continuing Education, please contact onlineseminars@saa.org. For any questions related to Third Thursdays, please contact meetings@saa.org.
Types of Events
These one-hour seminars are focused on introductory topics and building foundational professional skills. The seminars are free to SAA members and available to non-members for a fee. Most Foundational Skills seminars are RPA-certified, which means attendees receive one Continuing Professional Education credit for participating. Attendees also receive a certificate of completion. The lectures are recorded and available to watch after by SAA members in the Online Learning Archive.
There are usually seven Foundational Skills seminars in a year.
These two-hour seminars are focused on furthering more advanced or specific essential knowledge and technological skills. The seminars are available to both members and non-members for a fee, with an SAA member discount. Most Deeper Digs seminars are RPA-certified, which means attendees receive two Continuing Professional Education credits for participating. Attendees also receive a certificate of completion. The lectures are recorded and available to watch by those who registered for two months after.
There are usually eight Deeper Digs seminars in a year.
The Knowledge Series seminars are opportunities to learn from prominent archaeologists as they share their experiences and expertise. These one-hour lectures are free and exclusive to SAA members. Attendees receive a certificate of completion. The lectures are recorded and available to watch after by SAA members in the Online Learning Archive.
There is one Knowledge Series seminar per year.
The SALSA series is organized by the Student Affairs Committee (SAC). It consists of lectures presented by student members on their current research and provides a space to discuss and connect with other students. The lectures are free and exclusive to SAA members.
Career Pathways events are a broad category of member-led virtual professional development. They take the form of discussion panels, one-off trainings, or other learning opportunities proposed by members throughout the year. The event should be sponsored by an SAA committee, task force, or interest group, who take the lead on organizing the discussants, presenters, etc. to develop the program for fellow members. Most events are recorded and available to watch after by SAA members in the Online Learning Archive. You can submit your idea for an event using the form in the left sidebar on this page.
Third Thursdays are a pilot program launched by the SAA to encourage networking between members. On the third Thursday of each month, we will host a Zoom meeting centered on a specific topic within archaeology. During the meeting, you will be a part of three different small groups to discuss the topic, to discuss your research, or simply to connect with your colleagues. Registration is $5 for professional and joint members and $2 for all other member categories and closes two days before the meeting.
Unlike other Continuing Education events, Third Thursdays are not recorded. If you need to request a refund or have any questions about Third Thursdays, please email meetings@saa.org.
Upcoming Event Highlights
Registration Closed!
Underwater Cultural Heritage: An ACUA Seminar
When: October 22, 2020 1:00-3:00 PM
Duration: 2 hours
Certification: RPA-certified
Pricing
Individual Registration: $99 for SAA members; $149 for non-members
Group Registration: $139 for SAA members; $189 for non-members
Dr. Amy Mitchell-Cook, RPA spent 10 years as a maritime archaeologist before shifting her focus to maritime history. She has written numerous chapters, articles and book reviews on the subject. Her book, Sea of Misadventures: Shipwreck and Survival in Early America, is based on more than 100 accounts of shipwreck narratives from 1640 to 1840, and explores the issues of gender, race, religion and power. She co-wrote a chapter in an upcoming book, Methodology in La Belle: The Archeology of a 17th Century Ship of New World Colonization, on the methods archaeologists in Texas used to record and excavate the French ship that sank off the coast of Texas in 1685.
Dave Ball, RPA is the Regional Preservation Officer for the Pacific Region of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). Dave joined the BOEM Gulf of Mexico Region (then Minerals Management Service) office in 1999 and transferred to the Pacific Region office in 2010. He has almost 30 years’ experience in archaeology and has directed field research on both terrestrial and underwater archaeological sites across the US, including inundated pre-contact sites in Florida and Washington, World War II shipwrecks, and deepwater shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico. Dave is a member of the ICOMOS International Committee on Underwater Cultural Heritage and has served in various roles with the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology.
Cultural resource managers, land managers, and archaeologists are often tasked with managing, interpreting, and reviewing archaeological assessments for submerged cultural resources. This seminar is designed to introduce non-specialists to issues specific to underwater archaeology. Participants will learn about different types of underwater cultural heritage (UCH) and some of the methods employed to help protect those sites. This seminar is not intended to teach participants how to do underwater archaeology, but instead will briefly introduce different investigative techniques and international best practices. The purpose of this seminar is to assist non-specialists in recognizing the potential for UCH resources in their areas of impact.
Help terrestrial archaeologists and land managers to:
- Identify the potential for underwater cultural heritage resources in affected areas;
- Recognize best practices for treatment of underwater cultural heritage; and
- Understand basic qualifications required for proper documentation of underwater cultural heritage.
Continuing Education FAQ
- Keep up to date on developments in the field and emerging topics with the help of leading experts.
- Advance in your job or career. Many SAA online seminars are RPA-certified. Registered Professional Archaeologists (RPA) or Registered Archaeologists (RA) can receive Continuing Professional Education credit for attending certified seminars.
- Receive a certificate of completion from SAA for attending a Foundational Skills, Deeper Digs, or Knowledge Series seminar.
Click on the "Register" button on the Upcoming Events page. Choose the event you'd like to attend from the list. You'll sign in with your SAA username and password, or create an account if you don't already have one. Click on the "Register Myself" button and answer the prompts. Save your responses, and proceed to checkout. Even for free events, you will need to click the "Proceed to Checkout" button and "Submit Order" to complete your registration.
Primary registrants will receive a confirmation email immediately after successful registration, an invitation email to the event about a week before the course date, and a reminder email the day before. (If you register within a week of the event, you should expect to receive the immediate confirmation and the reminder email the day before.) If you do not receive these, please contact onlineseminars@saa.org.
Some events have a group option. Two or more individuals sharing a single computer connection in the same physical location qualify for the group rate. There is no maximum limit to how many people can be in a group. Only the primary registrant is required to be an SAA member to receive the SAA group-member pricing.
When registering groups, the primary registrant should submit the group registration form by close of business the day of the event. We regret that we cannot add group participants after that day.
The primary registrant will receive the log in information to join the event. This should not be shared with the group participants to log in separately. Everyone registered in the group will receive the same materials, credits, and certificates (where applicable).
If your group is unable to watch the seminar together, only the primary registrant will be able to view the lecture live. However, for Deeper Digs seminars, everyone in the group will have access to the lecture recording for two months. For other recorded events, recordings will be available only to SAA members in the Online Learning Archive.
Cancellations and refunds for fee-based events are allowed prior to one week before the course date. If you paid a registration fee, your cancellation is subject to a $25 processing fee.
If you find you are unable to attend an event after registering, please let us know at onlineseminars@saa.org.
SAA Continuing Education uses the videoconferencing app Zoom. You will not need a Zoom account in order to join the event, and instructions for logging in on the day will be emailed to each primary registrant. To ensure that you have everything you need, you can try a Zoom test meeting.
Participants should have a stable Internet connection and speakers (either computer or phone) in order to watch and listen. Participants can ask questions of the presenters using a chat text box. Please plan to log in 5-10 minutes before the start time in case you have technical problems.Foundational Skills, Knowledge Series, and other past seminars are available for at least two years in the SAA Member Center's Online Learning Archive. This archive of 30+ hours of free professional development recordings is available only to SAA members.
- Paying for the annual licenses for the online videoconferencing and video hosting platforms
- Compensating most presenters with an honorarium for their time and expertise
- Keeping a majority of the events free for SAA members
- Maintaining an archive of past recordings, which SAA members can view in the Online Learning Archive
- Supporting a full-time SAA Education and Outreach staff position to run the Continuing Education program