Shana
Full Member
Posts: 108
|
Post by Shana on Mar 29, 2015 18:36:02 GMT
Has anyone tried taking a class (felting or other) on CraftArtEdu.com?
I've been approached to teach some beginning wet-felting classes on this platform. Supposedly they have 30,000 students who use the website. While I believe learning wet-felting is better in person, I've learned quite a few things myself on youtube and other online platforms.
Just trying to collect opinions at this point... any feedback would be useful.
|
|
|
Post by MTRuth on Mar 29, 2015 19:38:41 GMT
Hi Shana - I haven't taken a class on that format. We are offering classes now through our site and if you are interested in teaching here, we'd love to have you. PM me if you're interested.
|
|
Shana
Full Member
Posts: 108
|
Post by Shana on Mar 29, 2015 21:00:01 GMT
Thanks for that vote of confidence Ruth! I'm not even sure if I want to teach and now I've had two offers in less than a day
|
|
|
Post by luvswool and dyestuff on Mar 29, 2015 23:43:30 GMT
I have had six years experience teaching child psychology on-line, as well as other early childhood education classes for various colleges and universities. This was towards the end of my lifelong career in education, and I agreed to teach on a part-time basis. However, my experience was that the time involved was many times over what I had expected, and very soon it felt like a full-time job, rather than part-time.
In looking at the classes CraftED offers in fiber, they are very inexpensive--and quite honestly, I don’t know how they could make it worth your while to teach. That’s my opinion. If you were looking to do this as a way of “giving back,” that’s something else.
|
|
|
Post by Shepherdess on Mar 30, 2015 1:41:52 GMT
I know a couple of people that have taken classes. they liked them but I imagine much depends on the teacher. they have a lot of classes. I get the emails even though I have never taken a class. Check the fine print. can you set your prices and class size? I think it is them that I see a lot of free classes being offered. Not sure how that works for the teacher. It may be great I don't know.
|
|
|
Post by koffipot on Mar 30, 2015 7:23:19 GMT
I have taken a couple of on line classes, though not in felting, and found them very good. Learning and participating at your one's own pace and in the time one has available is useful, especially if the information doesn't expire. It's annoying to find that for unforeseen reasons one isn't able to complete the course in the allotted time. I'm sure Ann would agree with this! Did you ever get your boots done Ann? There are so many free classes available online, I'd only pay for one which was very specific to my requirements. Your work suggests that your classes might be of great interest. I imagine the greatest problem with class size would be keeping up to date with the many queries which seem to pop up. By the way, thanks for the info. on craftartedu.com, I'd not heard of them and will take a look at what they have to offer.
|
|
|
Post by halay on Mar 30, 2015 7:39:48 GMT
Cathy, I have similar experience with teaching on-line classes - I soon became a 24-hour teacher. However, on the student side, I think learning online is fine but also depends on the teacher and learning materials.
|
|
|
Post by zed on Mar 30, 2015 9:25:27 GMT
Are they the ones who contacted us, Ruth?
Writing tutorials, e-books, and workshops is very hard work, long, laborious, monotonous, repetitive. You do all the hard work up front and hope it pays off. You spend hours every day poring over photos, writing text, rewriting text, asking people to check it to see how it sounds to Americans, Canadians, Australians etc. You try to make it look good too. on Word! You don't get paid for that time, so anything you make has to cover expenses, back pay, current pay etc.
And people look at your tutorial and say 'Pfft, $8/$16/$24 for that? It's just a book cover/bag/scarf and only 20/30 pages' etc and don't consider all the years experience you have working out the best way to do that thing and that they just bypassed all that learning, failing, expense etc.
I thought our Wet Felting workshop would be hectic and crazy and worried we'd never keep up and it'd all get confusing, but only a small percentage actually posted questions and their work, so it was very manageable. We've kept the forum open for 3 weeks after the course for those who need it.
And some of the feedback we got from the workshop was amazing.
I'd definitely recommend workshops/classes. Or tutorials and workshops so there's an option for those who do or don't want interaction.
|
|
Shana
Full Member
Posts: 108
|
Post by Shana on Mar 30, 2015 15:04:41 GMT
Thank you ALL for this input... you've given me a lot to chew on.
The way I understand it, the "classes" at CraftArtEdu are like youtube videos. As an instructor, one would pick a project (ie. felted scarf), use an online meeting format to demonstrate and teach all the way through it, and then the video is uploaded and promoted to the website. Instructors can suggest a price but CAE has the final say.
The student then pays to watch the video, basically. There is not a format for followup or questions (I'll have to ask specifically about this).
The instructor gets a paid a rather low percentage of the fee, but there is no overhead, no money wrangling and no vying for students. One surprising benefit: when the student signs up for the class, the instructor is sent his/her name and email address. A great way to build a personal mailing list.
CAE was built around an interest in polymer clay and they are trying to push further into the fiber/felting market, hoping to add at least 3000 students in the next year. It's an interesting concept, for sure.
|
|
|
Post by MTRuth on Mar 30, 2015 17:00:40 GMT
Yes, Zed, this is the people that contacted us.
It did look like they were just videos that you view with no methods for asking questions or showing work. Not sure how long you have access or if you can download and keep the video.
|
|
|
Post by zed on Mar 30, 2015 17:20:52 GMT
Thanks, Ruth.
It doesn't really sound like 'classes' then, just a place to upload/access stuff. Maybe you could ask Inger, she seems to be the only one in the felting category. I'm wondering if those are really old, too, I seem to remember her doing those years ago.
Are you allowed to sell your classes elsewhere too, I wonder.
|
|
|
Post by MTRuth on Mar 30, 2015 17:58:39 GMT
Good question Zed.
|
|
|
Post by Frances on Mar 30, 2015 20:22:45 GMT
I looked at the list of fiber classes and unless I wanted to pay for a class to needle felt a specific item I was not impressed. I have seen much of the same on U-tube for free or in books I get from the Library. If I did one I would want to get paid for it and then a commission every time it was sold.
There is much more information on this site re wet felting and nuno felting and we can ask questions and get answers. I would gladly pay an annual membership fee for this site and purchased an ad this year even though I do not sell anything and will do so again to support this site.
|
|
|
Post by Pandagirl on Mar 30, 2015 20:57:54 GMT
Thanks Frances, I think a lot of us feel that way, too!
|
|
|
Post by MTRuth on Mar 30, 2015 21:33:46 GMT
Thanks for the support Frances!
|
|