it seems I was able to get the first four debug warnings fixed by changing this line:
$mform->addElement('select', 'course', get_string('course', $options, 'align="center"'));
to this:
$mform->addElement('select', 'course', get_string('selectcourse', 'modulename'), $options);
However, my Non-static method errors remain.
Can someone please point me in the right direction? I am basically clueless and inexperienced and no amount of googling seems to give me a hint.