Have there been any real studies of the effectiveness of education in SL?

I mean, in terms of

- how many people who take content creation classes go on to be visible content creators
- how many visible content creators have/have not ever taken a class

etc.?

i dont think its the content creation classes point to make you into a star, its there to give you basic guidelines so you can go on, if you wish, to create more complex things

if you want your name up in lights you need a marketing class

As Osgeld said, trying to use the number of famous names that ever took a class is kinda silly. I doubt many of the kids who I took math class with in high school became famous mathematicians, yet I would hold math is a subject all should learn.

That said, I was mostly self-guided when I came into SL; the majority of my learning was by the skin of my teeth and through the Ivory Tower of Prims and similar.

But I dunno if I'm sufficently feted for your standards.

Well, I don't need anyone to be "feted" - just out there and making stuff.

I'm just thinking about it because I'm a) in my own RL job going through an end-of-semester process, and b) trying to write a class to give in SL. It's nice to have feedback from people on how the teaching went and in RL of course we have exam results for that, but since I don't think many people would want to do exams in SL, those were the best measures I can think of

The other thing was that I looked through my archives for Show and Tell and was a bit dismayed at how few people who had entered S+T, even who had entered very impressive things and won, were still active and/or still creating - it seemed to be a surprisingly small percentage. I wasn't too happy to see that because I hope S+T should encourage people!

This probably depends on what the student decides to build after they've learned the basics. I think most of us had to see,read, and have minor instructions on how to build our items. The rest is up to the creator and their imagination.

I teach a seminar series called "How to be a working DJ or musician in SL"

Class 1 is how to stream music live into SL. I would say about 80% of attendees for this class simply want to comprehend the technology within a 30 minute time period. I make it very understandable and simple. About 15% of people that attend are planning to stream music live into SL at a later date. About 5% of attendees show up simply curious, and then follow through.

Class 2 is song selection and finding your music style (for DJs). About 80% of attendees are beginning DJs, and want to get better.. they want to learn how to rock the crowd and earn more and more tips. About 20% of attendees are experienced, have input to give to the class, and are also looking to pick up extra tips.

Class 3 is how to promote in SL and how to gain an audience/following. ... this class has not been effective due to very little interest/attendance

Class 4 is how to find work as a DJ or musician in SL... This class so far has not been effective. Most SLers that are DJs or musicians already in SL have found work.... The others are usually newbies that ask where they can get work so they can make money fast... and don't want to make any effort actually being skilled and then getting the gig.

thats my stats