Where have all the classes gone?

I have taught a number of people the basics of how to build, and it's exceedingly frustrating and far more difficult than it needs to be because you can't see what the other person sees on their screen. Imagine if you were sitting next to them in real life, you could say "Press CTRL 4 to bring up the object editor in create mode." and you would be able to see if they actually did it or if they were really popping the top off another Budweiser.

If they opened the object editor with the display partially hidden and the word "More" showing on the button in the bottom right of the partial display you would be able to see that and tell them to click on it so they could see the rest of the fields.

Having to type everything you need to say is exceedingly inefficient compared to being able to say outloud in words what they need to do next , especially when you never know what they really have on their screen.

If I understand correctly there are collaborative tools available to most people that would make teaching how to build much easier, tools such as Microsoft's NetMeeting, where you do get to see the other user's screen and can even control their machine from yours. This would be soooooo much better than having to stay within the constrictive 3d virtual world , having to guess what others are doing, not being able to point to places on their screens they need to look at.

I find it very useful when teaching someone to build to have a display of the object editor that we can both see. So far the best way I have found to produce on is to do a screen capture and edit it yourself. Then you have to pay to upload it back into SL . The problem is that in this process it gets blurred from compression. Surely it would be possible for SL to make some prims that display the menus in a really sharp high resolution mode, or make some high resolution files availables for teachers to use so they can at least point to things for their students to see? Even if you had to split the texture across several prims to get it big enough to be an effective visual aid that would still be worth the bother compared to the blobby blurry results one can get now with the means currently available.

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Addenda:

Just lately I was bored to tears so I just scheduled a Q&A session at the Dore Stage 4 . I had just a few people show up, which was a perfectly good result with only a few minutes advance notice. It was quite challenging, trying to keep up with the chat, being asked simple questions with clearcut answers mixed with more complex questions that really don't have clear answers but are instead anwerable only with your own opinions. It was well worth it from my point of view. I think I did manage to give some people an answer to a question so it may have been worth it from their point of view too. I had the advantage of a knowlegeable and articulate person in the audience who both asked good questions and answered some as well. I avoided all problems with trying to get paid for an official teaching event by making no effort to do so.

Also I would like to just join in say I miss the classes, not just classes but contests and show and tells at the Stage 4 at Dore. I think that location is important because for new members it is near the only place they are familiar with, right at the telepads they came out of. People used to hang at the WA and take the time to attend a Stage 4 event, thus breaking up their time a bit., and maybe helping them keep from getting restless and mean.

I'm a noob. The joke about, "Noob, I wasn't talking to you," wasn't really funny. Proof of the feted inner core if I ever saw any.

I notice the responses to my questions/criticisms/observations on these boards tend to be condescending, if kind, at best. Observations/criticisms/questions don't always boil down to "new player jealous of what old players have." New does not equal stupid.

On topic: Scoping out the ways to make money in this game, I checked out the classes and it was immediately obvious that the pay wasn't nearly enough to make it worthwhile, especially given the requirements. There is entirely too much preparation and paperwork involved, not to mention the skills required, the overtime, and the patience.

As for those who attend the classes, I agree that there is a tendency to feel that one shouldn't really ask many questions, for fear of holding back everyone, especially when the teacher is slow or a slow typist. I had much more success when Maria LaVeaux taught me. So I agree that offering private tutoring may be the way to go.

I also LOVE the idea someone above did, of having a general question-answer session for new players.

Question: How do those offering Tringo make money from the event?

coco

Ohh..you can teach me one on one anytime Brace!

The class size requirement really needs to be abandoned.

Some of the last few classes I did teach were under this attendance requirement of 5. So after spending time making notes, going over material, making props and freebies to give away, and standing there teaching, it was for naught - why botha?

Now that is just extremely defeating. If 3 showed up, consider the position that put me in. Not fair to me, not fair to the people who showed up.

It also says that teaching those 1-4 people is not worth the same as teaching 5. Some of my most rewarding classes were small and in that 1-4 person range. Isnt a smaller class size something that is considered a good thing and often fought for in RL education?

There is so much event competition now, I can only see most classes being small..

fen-

Try not to take it personally Coco. Some people are just that way and it really has nothing to do with old versus new. Sometimes people just react rudely to questions that come up a lot, or sometimes they just think it's amusing to be an ass... and sometimes they just have strong opinions based on having a broader context for whatever the subject is. It's an unfrotunate bit of forum culture, not SL culture.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but....I've always been confused by people saying that it's the sponsorship requirements by the Lindens that has stopped classes.

Huh? Wha?


I've given classes myself. I've hosted tournaments, group gatherings, and retail-oriented meetings. In each and every case not a single Linden sponsorship dime was asked for, nor was it given. I've spend thousands of my own hard-earned L$ to do these things. Even when the sponsorship requirements were simpler and available, I didn't bother to pursue them.

Wanna know why?

It's called volunteerism. Giving back to the community. Contributing to SL society as a whole. My reward wasn't measured in dollars, it was in the smiles and thanks and general sense of contributing even a little to the betterment of the community.

It's nice to have the Lindens sponsoring and providing incentives for events and classes, but we shouldn't be dependant on it. Host a class or event, do it out of the kindness of your heart. Share your class notes with others willing to host the class. At the worst, all you've done is wasted a few hour's effort. At the best, you may just make another player's SL experience a whole lot more positive.

BTW...thanks to Loki Pico for teaching me that same lesson when I first started in 2003.


- Newfie

im thinking of giving a class, or maybe a series. depends on how much material i want to teach and interest i guess. the major limiting factor for me in doing it is that i dont type fast enough and i have no interest in copy and pasting for an hour. just like when i teach in RL i want to be able to talk to my class. streaming audio seems to have about a 30 second delay, which is too long. so im looking into other options, skype looked good but the i could only teach to 3 people at a time. i hope to have a better turnout then that. so maybe in addition to waiting for 1.6 ill also wait till apple ships OS X 10.4 cause iChat will support voice chat to 9 people, question will be will that work with AIM or only other iChat users. anyone know of a cross platform app that will let me talk to a group of people?

if anyone is interested the class will be about water, and making water effects look more realistic. covering some building, texturing, scripting, particles, and esthetics. likely more too. or less. im still putting together topics i want to cover, and with new building tools in 1.6 i want to wait till after that is out to do it anyway.



jester


.

Coco, this is an example of the limitations of text, because you can't hear tone. That was a joke (I laughed, and I'm still a newbie) -- and I think the poster tried to make it clear that it was a joke.

These forums tend to be a free-for-all and on top of that, misunderstandings are inevitable with this communication medium. People also write and post pretty quick.

Think positive and take posts with a grain of salt. Don't dwell on the things that upset you. If there are two ways of interpreting something, one positive, one negative, it is your choice as to what "voice" you want to hear.

Best of luck. I agree with many other posters that the "General" and "land/economy" post sections are for the thick-skinned. In this case, it sounds like the post struck a nerve with you, but I think your line about "proof of inner core" is unjustified.

Newfie, Volunteerism is wonderful. I _do_ understand what you mean about how generousity and community involvement have been one of the most important, rewarding and just plain cool parts of Second Life's development.

This thread has demonstrated that the people interested in teaching are doing it because they want to, love it, and really enjoy helping other people. And I hope my opinions on education were not taken as trivializing behavior that's really about giving and helping, not making a fast buck.

However, I think to expect volunteers to supply an essential and ongoing function of the community for little or no pay/encouragement/support is exploitation of their good nature.

SL as a community needs regular classes on a wide range of subjects from "basic building" to "how to make a million lindens in real estate"

Right now, despite the best efforts of really great residents to provide classes, there simply are not enough classes to adequately support the size of our population. We need more, a lot more, and, since LL, only benefits from providing new users with as much help and social interaction as possible, I believe LL should help step up efforts at education.

Could this be done privately, yes. But I think it needs a kick in the ass to get it going on a large scale, to weather the growing pains, the individuals that burn out, lose interest, etc. We need an "institution" that has a long view, longer than "i'n bored, i'll do something different now" to keep a program of incentives going through many cycles of resident turnover.

We need LL, with its influence, unlimited access to Lindens, and unique perspective, to say "This is important! And we will commit resources to help our teachers help our residents."

Education has benefits to the community that make it more valuable than the current marketplace recognizes or can afford. Currently, it can't compete with tringo and dance clubs. Why because people will pay for pleasure that they get the entire benefit of upfront, more readily than they will pay for something that may payoff later. That's just human nature, as true in real world as in SL. Education can't be expected to compete on a level playing field with boobies!

I dont want to undermine or trivialize the gift of time, patience or caring that the teachers of SL give every time they give a class or answer a question. They do this, not for gain, but because they are just super nice that way But i think educators should have more help and recognition. I think they should get decently compensated for the preparation and effort of teaching a good class. I think the SL community should realize the value of accessible education at all levels and demand LL improve its support of educational events and instructors.

Coco, I believe they make it from a combination of dwell and tips. Some large resorts hire hosts, in which case the host gets a salary and tips. The resort owner gets the dwell, plus attracting traffic to nearby malls and other attractions. This in turn leads to high ranking in the dwell, which leads retailers to want to rent space in their malls because of the perceived higher exposure. So the appeal of Tringo to land owners is the dwell it generates as tringo addicts (me) play round after round, convinced that the big win is just a click away! (ahhhh tringo you tawdry vixen, I can't resist you!)

Oh, and, coco, I do understand why you might feel frustrated and slighted in the forums. I feel that way all the time Don't give up posting, tho. I think you can see we need the perspectives and opinions from all our residents, especially the newer ones.

I thought it was self evident that it was a joke from the line you left out:

Shut up noob. I wasn't talking to you.
Oh...Wait... I was, wasn't I?

Sorry you didn't get it. Fortunately anybody that has spent any time with me at all can vouch that I am anything but snobby, elitist, or "feted" (whatever THAT means). I just have a special brand of aimee humor you will learn to love, even if i have to put hypnotic chemicals in your tap water.

-aimee

p.s. i was joking about the water thing.

"More people in SL making more things means the quality of content will inevitably go up."

I'm sorry but I literally burst out laughing when I read this. What fun!

Classes in SL are a good thing. A big problem has always been that $500 is just not enough money to make me want to do any serious work. Sure I'll go on about how to put a texture on a cube and maybe make a window. But anything more sophisticated and of high enough quality to really be worthwhile takes a lot of work and prep.

I've said for a long time that you need to get paid for the level of class you are delivering. I know this has management implications, but advanced work just means higher pay or additional incentive of some kind. Scheduling would also have to be tighter, i.e., signups and such.

I guess one way to look at it is, anybody who is good enough to teach a class consistently doesn't need to, and can easily find things to do that are more fun than teaching new residents how to texture cubes.

Not me. I agree completely that more people making things improves quality of content. I certainly feel it in clothing design. A year ago with only a handful of clothing designers, the market was grateful to have any scraps we threw out there. *PREEN* Doc Martens were practically the only game in town when it came to prim footware. It was easy for us to rest on our laurels.

NOW? No way. Fresh blood is coming in with new talent, new ideas, and even if they suck...they come with VOLUME. Us oldby designers have no choice but to improve, keep up with the trends, and keep producing or we will perish.

It would be nice to sit on a feted throne and allow half naked men to feed me grapes bought by the *PREEN* empire. But nope. I gotta keep making better stuff than I did in the past. It's good thing.

Hey can you pop one of the half-naked, grape-feeding men in my inventory please? I might need 2 actually.

I'd be up for doing a Q&A hour for free if Jamie Otis will have me. I could only do this for building though. I can't script at all.

I don't know, it seems pretty obvious to me. What's the alternative, that more people will result in less competition and fewer talented creators?

Maybe I wasn't specific enough. I'm not talking about the average skill level -- while I'm not sure it's gone down as far as some people have suggested, I certainly don't think it's gone up since beta. No, I'm talking about peak content quality. I think it's fairly evident that the best content today is better than the best content a year ago, and that yes, it's directly related to increased competition and cooperation, both of which you automatically get with a larger user base.

Regardless, I do agree that there needs to be a scale that takes into account prep time and required skills. L$500 may not even cover the costs of preparing for something that requires a lot of advanced preperation like a texturing or scripting class.

I've recieved IMs from several people who weren't that interested in wading into the fray themselves, (imagine that, being put off by the forums! ) and the response has been positive, both from interested instructors and potential students. However, there was one individual who was firmly in Prokofy's camp, and I'd like to address the "you should charge for it; if people won't pay, it's not worth doing" position.

Yes, increased classes and support have to be subsidized, either by patrons, or by the Lindens. There isn't a huge money-making opportunity here. Sure, tutoring is a possibility from time to time, but few people can truly afford it. Neither are paid admission classes an entertaining prospect.

So why bother if it can't sustain itself? Well, as a few others have said here, benefits need not be monetary to be benefits. The payoffs are less tangible, but still desirable. From the Lindens' perspective, it should be a no-brainer. More people building things means more demand for land and more content to attract new users. From the community's perspective, it can only result in better quality and variety of content.

Classes need to be available to everyone. This should be considered as important as technical support or the basic "this is how you walk" instruction new users recieve on the newbie islands. It's not the end of the economy. It's not communism. It's a prudent investment on the part of the Lindens.

I can't give you one...they are no Transfer.

On the upside...they ARE copyable. This could make for a fun night

First off, let me say this is a great thread, bringing up a lot of important ideas and views. It has been interesting to read. I am approved to teach two classes but have held off on doing the second one (marketing in SL) until I have completed a successful marketing campaign for a product, as well as services and events. This is going well, so that class should be up and running shortly. (Teaches Uni Level Marketing irl, but SL is a different animal in some important ways.) So, I guess not being an oldbie is a bit of an issue for me. I am a good teacher, but could still stand to Take classes, so am still building the confidence to teach them as I learn more in SL.

As for the payment incentives, it seems then that the cut for events funding is actually impacting classes too, as one can no longer do two events back to back and be paid. As for the 5 person minimum, I suggested to the Lindens in my last class report that they consider a per-student amount so that classes that are poorly attended can compensate the instructor a bit anyway, and that classes that are very well attended can compensate the instructor with an additional reward for hassling with the problems of running a large class (multitasking issues for example). I hope they consider adopting this model of payment.

One thing more for seasoned builders to consider: it is true that teaching classes might be less fun than actual building and less profitable in the short term. From a marketing perspective, however, if one were to hold classes on one's shop land (say a little theatre in the shop area like chip midnight has at one of his stores) then one is also marketing one's goods, getting dwell, and positioning oneself as someone who has expertise--and who therefore probably has items worth buying.

Thanks again for the thread! ~ Perse

I think that many intructors have become increasingly discouraged by the lack of interest in some classes (& even other original events that do NOT end in "ingo" So over time people start teaching less & less. Then the Rules changed for being able to obtain linden support, for some that made matter worse as it's a lil more difficult to get support now that you have to get approval for classes before you host them to gain support. & you may wait up to a week to hear back.
Also as Flipper pointed out some instructors aren't in SL as much as they used to be for one reason or another, live help etc..
I personally have had alot to deal with RL & SL so it's made it very difficult for me to instruct, but I do miss it.
I have had times with mentoring & instruction classes where I have had as few as 1 person & as many as 30+
As long as someone's willing to learn from me I am willing to teach them what I can when I can.

Some residents have mentioned the alleged ... um... cumbersome....iality..... ating... ness.... of applying for event support.

The instructions for applying are here:
http://secondlife.com/community/volunteer.php

The first application actually involves less typing than you would do to submit a normal event (eg. no need to enter event location coordinates). Just the title, description and 3 things you expect participants to learn. It's just a brief, one-off email.

Be advised that it is not a good idea to start your description of the class with, "On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged...."

I learnt that the hard way.

[anecdote]I submitted an application the other day and received a response within 24 hours. [/anecdote]

According to this thread:
/invalid_link.html
if residents want to qualify for event support, the minimum-5 attendance rule is true but the event only needs to be 1/2 hour duration, and not 1 hour as has been suggested elsewhere.

Best regards,
Neal Stewart
http://www.secondlifeherald.com/blog

P.S. Aims, you can't come. You're naughty. You distract the other students with your hypnotic waters. And you'd have to stay after class...

From my perspective, it basically comes down to...

1. Not enough teaching resources. A stage out in the middle of a sim (Oak Grove) near roaming bands of newbie griefers doesn't make for a good learning environment.
2. L$500 is not really enough to attract well planned classes (it takes time to prepare materials). It may have been enough to pay someone to stick out a money ball and play their favorite streaming music, but classes take hours to plan if done right.
3. There is no infrastructure to help out instructors. No central library of materials, examples, self-help tutorials, etc. for training of instructors (I'm not suggesting that everyone has to be trained to teach).

Anyone know if The Learning Center needs volunteers? They have all kinds of "teaching facilities" set up in SL. Jamie... are you reading this?

I know I'm naughty. I'm fishing for a little corporal punishment.

For a second I thought I was back in the D/s thread.

I attended an excellent class today taught by Judy Brodie on Portrait Sketching. I learned a lot and it was very well done. So there are classes, if you can look past the other stuff.

One thing Judy said that was interesting was that she was holding off on her texturing classes until after 1.6 came out. Maybe that's what others are doing also. Since there will be new features. Just a thought.

Quick Q? With the new build tools being introduced in the 1.6, is there anything in writing as to how they function yet?

Aimee...I'll make you a deal... I'll supply the grapes and the fig leaves if you pass me a copy...shh I won't tell anyone...and I promise to eat the evidence if confronted.