Thoughts on Taking Classes

I’ve had a friend email me today to ask me about how she can stay involved and learn from all the classes she’s taking. She mentioned how I take classes and still manage to do my daily projects. Coincidentally, I was already thinking this morning about the different kinds of online classes and what I like and why, etc. So I thought it might be interesting to do a post about my thoughts. Just remember that we’re all different and these are my thoughts. I will highlight things that I think are important to consider when signing up for a class and then I will tell you my preferences. If you’re different, listen to the former and ignore the latter and make your own answers instead.

These are not in order cause I am a bit too tired to do that so please know they are not in any order of importance.

Types of Classes
I’ve learned, over time, that, like in real life, there are two types of classes online: lecture-based and discussion-based. The way I differentiate the two is the amount of teacher involvement there is in the class. All classes in this day and age have at least some way for the students to comment on and participate in the class. But in some of the classes I took, the teacher rarely comments and then only to resolve technical issues, questions, etc. And in the others, the teacher was really involved, a big part of instigating and moving the discussion.

Neither type is bad. You just need to know what you prefer and what your goals for the class are. If you are taking this class to learn a new skill, for example, you might be ok just watching the videos or reading the content and not interacting too much. Whereas in a different kind of class you might really want to have some involved discussion and expect participation from the teacher.

If you know for sure that you like classes that are one way or another, I encourage you to pay attention to this when you sign up. I feel it’s important to know this ahead of time because you can adjust your expectations accordingly.

Here’s what I realized for me: I love to teach discussion-based classes because my goal is for each student to take the material and customize it into their own life. For me to be able to achieve that I need active hand-holding and encouragement and explanations on how to customize the material. Those are the classes that I feel are most impactful for me. I really encourage people to share so I can make sure the class was useful to every single student and I firmly believe we can all learn more if we share more.

However when I am the student, it depends more on why I am taking the class. If it’s deep soul work, I don’t mind doing most of that completely on my own. I will read the discussion boards but I will rarely participate. If it’s a technique class, I will only participate if I need extra help. I know this is the opposite of what I like my students to do but I’ll be honest I have very rarely had active teachers in a class and with most classes even if the discussion is lively at first, it dissipates quickly because the teacher doesn’t encourage it. (Just in my opinion.)

Discussions
For me, I have found that often times the discussions in the classes I’ve taken haven’t helped enough to be worth the time they take away from actual work. So I’d rather be journaling or doing art than being a part of the discussion. But that’s mostly been because very very few of the classes I took have active teacher participation and while I appreciated the other students a lot, there wasn’t an instance where I felt I needed the extra help. So each time I have some downtime, I’d read the discussions so I can learn/grow but I didn’t participate that much. Discussions where the teacher really encouraged sharing and learning have been helpful and in that case I do participate.

I also tend to prefer to do the work first because I like to go through it without influence from others around me. So when I am done, I feel ok participating because I feel like I’ve already done the work. I prioritize doing the assignment over any discussion almost every single time.

Motivation
I think it’s important to know why you’re taking a class. Most of the time, I sign up for a class because the content really speaks to me. I like either journaling/soulwork classes or very specific technique classes. There have been a few times I took a class cause I admired the teacher and thought taking the class would get me closer to the teacher and give me an opportunity to interact with her. In each of those instances I was disappointed. It might be my bad luck but I have learned my lesson and I never do this anymore. I sign up for content and content only.

Pace
I find, for me, classes that are fast-paced are what I like. I like to be kept on my toes and feel the pressure of work to do. This doesn’t mean there has to be dense content each week. With soul work classes I’ve found sometimes I need more time to digest or more chewable portions than the teacher gives. But for me time and again the issue is bigger if I feel the class is moving too slowly or is not meaty enough. So I try to pay attention to that when I sign up. If the class is slow, I am likely to lose interest and not complete the work.

Follow up Work
I also lose interest if there’s no clear homework and examples. I want to know the assignment and I want to know what the teacher did or thought on that assignment. So, immediately after listening/reading/watching I can do my homework. This is what motivates me so I need it and I need it to be clear. And it needs to be reasonable sized.

Timing
I don’t do well with “download and do at your pace” classes. Mostly because I feel like I can put them off forever since there’s no specific time they’re due. So I can postpone and deprioritize those over “going on right now” classes. And I often tend to do just that. I downloaded two classes in June and still haven’t finished them. That’s pretty much unheard of for me.

So pay attention to that. Do you like homework? Do you respond better to “do on your own pace” or to scheduled dates and times?

Integrating
I tend to only take classes that integrate into the life and work I am doing now. So I will use my journaling time to do the soul work class assignments. For example I am taking a class on shame-resilience right now and it involves a lot of thinking and journaling. I do mine during the morning journaling time. One or two days a week my journaling is the assignment from that week and the rest of the time it’s the free form journaling I do regularly. When I took Stephanie’s class back in January, every single day’s journaling was content from her class. I integrate the homework into my daily life.

Same goes for art journaling. When I took Christy’s classes, I used up my art journaling time to do her homework. I changed it to adapt to my own life. I even did one of my Pink Paislee blog assignments as her homework. I try to work it into my schedule as it stands.

For example at the moment I am taking three classes and here’s how I integrate them into my existing schedule:
1. Ordinary Courage: I read the classes while I exercise. I listen to the audio while I sketch. I do the homework during my journaling time.

2. Watercolor Pencils Miniclass Classes come to me once a week, I read them when I have downtime at night, I watch the videos as I exercise and I do the exercises as part of my daily sketching.

3. One Little Word This class has been a bit odd. In the beginning, I did the assignments as part of my art journaling. But then I mostly just watched the videos as I exercise and I thought about my word a lot and journaled and created some projects because of it but I haven’t actually done the album. I never really intended to do it so I am ok with that. For me this class was to keep my word at the forefront of my mind and its achieved its goal so I am happy with it.

Last month was two classes, one got integrated into my journaling time and the other to art journaling time. Next month is two classes, one will be art journaling and the other will be sketching or art journaling.

I do also take classes for a specific reason sometimes. For example I downloaded Remains of the Day a few months ago because I decided I was going to use the technique for my December Daily album. I wanted to buy that class for over a year but I didn’t want to do so unless I knew exactly what I was going to do with it so once I had the idea to use it for December Daily, I had no problem buying it because I knew I could put it into use.

I hope this makes sense. There isn’t one class in the twenty-one classes I have on my list this year that doesn’t integrate into either sketching, journaling or art journaling. So I think that’s why I am able to keep up with my classes. If my goal was to do a layout a day for example, I could take a sketch class that would give me daily sketches and I could easily integrate that into my daily layout time.

I think about my daily schedule and personal goals when I sign up for a class now. Is there a way I will immediately be able to put this class into use? If so, I look at the other points about pacing, homework, teacher participation and then if I am still happy, I sign up. If not, I pass. I still get disappointed sometimes but it’s getting rarer and rarer.

If you have any more questions please don’t hesitate to ask, as long as you remember it’s just my opinion, I am always happy to share it.