I'm starting up a Website Construction Class in New York City that will encompass drupal as the CMS that is taught. The goal of the class isn't to teach all things inter-web, rather to teach one way that works for small business & where to find more information about other ways. More details at http://www.treslerdesigns.com/class
A few questions to the list/group here:
1) Do you feel the prices are fair for what is being offered? This is the first time doing this, and I know value is relative, I'm just looking for opinions on this. I'm basing the class price off my normal site development hourly (each student will take away a functional, live website from the class), and others in the drupal/website education field.
2) Is anyone else offering this in the NYC area - I know Lulabot is oing full day classes and weekend classes in the DC area, anyone near NYC?
3) Do you think there would be interest in a Weekend Course? This outlines a 15 week course that goes from basic web knowledge to running a (relatively) simple drupal setup. Do people want a two day intensive for web designers and developer working with Drupal?
4) Where should I advertise this? The ideal place would be the support forums, except that is spam. I got some good feedback at BarcampNYC, I'm hitting NYCcraigslist, any other ideas?
5) Feedback? Please let me know any suggestions, or helpful hints...
Thanks in advance!
Comments
Sam, Do you really want to
Sam,
Do you really want to teach those earlier sections? seems to me you might be better just jumping into the more advanced stuff, week 4 and onward....
You might consider condensing multiple weeks into a 6 or 8 hour saturday session.... You probably don't want to give up a month of saturdays, but condensing the entire thing into 4 full day classes (you could do week days) might be much more attractive to many folks, especially with that price tag. I wouldn't want to have to wait 15 weeks (4 months) to know everything i need to know to get going building drupal websites and recouping my investment.
you might look at grouping the content of 5,6,7 into one session; 8,9,10,11 into one session; 12 and 14; 13 and 15.
You could start with the first two groupings on 1 weekend, and then maybe offer the second two groupings on weekdays in the subsequent two weeks. that would get people to the point of being able to build drupal sites in 3 weeks (if they already know css, php and mysql, at least some). in terms of price, iw ould think that you have to limit the class size and tell people what that class size will be.
HTH
http://www.CivicActions.com
http://www.GregoryHeller.com
http://GregoryHeller.com
I am considering that....
Gregory, Thank you for the thoughts, very very helpful. A few points:
A) I either presented or assisted in presenting for 3 1/2 hours at barcamp - with a 45 minute break in the middle. It was one of the more exhausting things I've done in a long time, and by the end of it a lot of people just weren't retaining information anymore. Part of the 'steep learning curve' that everyone always references with drupal is that there are a good many disparate concepts to grasp. Just when you think you finally understand, you realize you understand the module system, but not the taxonomy system.... I think there is value in breaking it up into smaller chunks.
This has a lot to do with the class makeup though. If these are old concepts to people who just need a walkthrough of them then squashing a '3 week' section into a long Saturday is OK. If they are new to this entirely looking to understand their small business from the ground up - then I think it needs to be spread out - with substantial homework.
B) The earlier classes are optional, but I've found about 2/3 of the poeple that are seriously considering taking this will need them.
That said, let me think about offering a second grouping.
Track A - 15 weeks - 3 hours a week - as outlined from knowing how to use Word to running your own website.
Track B - 4 weeks - 8 hours a week - Drupal only, from install to beginners module development.
Any thoughts?
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