Webinars

[Lynn Perry]

It seems like everywhere I look someone is advertising the latest series of glass webinars. I have yet to take one, but for fused glass they seem like something beneficial. Usually some idea of the physical process along with a firing schedule is enough to go forward with developing something new. I just wondered if that is what others have experienced when they took webinars. Thanks.

[Valerie Adams]

I took one once. Was frustrated that the instructor chose to answer questions during the instruction period, since with 100 'students' there were many levels of experience, so many redundant questions or questions of such a basic level that I was bored to tears. The actual instructional information could've easily been covered in 30 minutes but with question after question, it took over 90 minutes.

I would have preferred the instructor hold questions until the end, where I could have signed off.

[JestersBaubles]

I have taken webinars only from GPQ and each time I tell myself I am not going to waste my money again. (I've watched three of them.) I think they have gotten progressively worse. The quality is poor, they yammer on at the beginning about various things that have nothing to do with glass such as what browser to use for the best experience, and yes, the questions can be quite remedial.

Dana

[Barry Kaiser]

Hate to hear that Dana,
I've got my first coming up in June. Promise to keep the yammering to a minimum.
Actually I have to. I have too much filmed to kill time.

Barry

[JestersBaubles]

It's not the presenter who yammers .

Dana W.

[Valerie Adams]

And please, no pet names!

[JestersBaubles]

What, Val, does "kittens" make you want to puke? "Mama cat" pushes me over the edge.

Dana

[Cate G]

Do you know of anybody making tutorials for fused glass? I get a lot of them from lampwork artists. They are from about $15 to $35. You purchase it and download it and print it yourself. I love taking classes, but can't always afford it. I wish Bob Leatherbarrow would make one on his cracked technique. I would pay a couple hundred dollars for that one!
Cate

[Valerie Adams]

Bob is currently writing a book, and I can hardly wait!

[Cate G]

I'll be first in line to purchase it!!! The closest class he does by me is up by Buffalo NY, about 500 or so miles.
Cate

[JestersBaubles]

Cate,

Bullseye Glass has its on-line education videos:

http://www.bullseyeglass.com/education/ ... e25e2983c3

They charge an annual subscription fee, but I think it is worth the $39.

Also, Tanya Veit from AAE Glass has videos (purchased at her web site), plus she also has a lot of "freebies" on Youtube. The late David Alcala had a video or two on his sand-painting techniques. I think Gil Reynolds has a few, and Glass Pattern Quarterly has some. I have never viewed one of their's.

I'm sure there are others...

Dana

[Morganica]

Check out YouTube; I've been surprised by the number of interesting videos there. Corning has a wide variety, for example, although they tend to focus on non-fusing. Probably the best and most consistent are the Bullseye video subscriptions.

My dayjob is digital marketing and we do a lot of webinars, on-demand training, online workshops, etc. We recommend webinars for introducing/selling product, for preserving a record of a conference session, etc, events where we're interested in capturing customer feedback, but the focus is on selling product, not on selling the webinar.

We don't charge for webinars, and don't recommend that format for training/tutorials, for the reasons you see here: Too much of the webinar is taken up helping other users with access issues, frequent interruptions/questions, sound/video quality issues, rambling speakers, etc., and it irritates customers to wade through that to get to the important stuff. It's especially difficult if the presenter isn't a trained on-camera speaker (and most artists aren't).

The only way I've seen webinars make really good, tight how-to videos I'd want to pay for (in any subject, not just glassmaking) is when a good post-production editor has recut the footage, sweetened the audio, usually added in some additional footage, effects and titles, etc. That's a lot of work, and expensive if you don't know how to do it yourself.

It's usually easier (and cheaper) to simply make a how-to video in the first place. Outline the course, define chapters and topics (breaking it down that way makes it easier). Then write a script and record it. Don't do it all in one take, and plan on doing a voiceover narration that replaces any misspeaks you make while filming. With the incredible equipment on the market today (you can do a pretty high-quality video with a phone), making a tutorial video isn't that hard to do. If you've got a Mac, it's almost absurdly easy.

[Cate G]

Thanks Dana and Cynthia. I do subscribe to the Bullseye video library and I really like the videos. I go on the Corning site a lot looking for classes, but I didn't know they have videos also. I'll check it out. I really love taking classes and peruse the studios closest to me, but haven't had the $$ in the past few years. I have used YouTube from time to time, and slog through all the different sites there. I find only a handful are useful. I will wait for the Leatherbarrow book though.
Cate

[KaCe]

It's not a webinar, but love watching Lynda.com when I want to learn something in my Adobe software. I can pause, rewind, follow along, download the files, etc. Lynda.com focuses on software and covers a broad spectrum from Microsoft to Adobe from databases to photos.
KaCe

[Cate G]

Wow KaCe, that's a great site! I just got an Apple MacBook Pro and got the help package for $100 for the year, which I will use a lot. But the Lynda site would be great after that and the price is good. Thanks for that info.
Cate

[KaCe]

Cate,
You may wish to check if your area has an Apple Users Group also. They are groups that meet monthly (generally) have nominal annual dues (generally) help members learn about topics of interest to you without ulterior motives (selling you some service or hardware). In our Mac User group we cover the OS and its features and topics members request. good luck with your new MBP. (I love mine, but it isn't new. )

KaCe

[jim simmons]

You are going to have to fight me for that position. :>)
Jim

I'll be first in line to purchase it!!! The closest class he does by me is up by Buffalo NY, about 500 or so miles.
Cate