Reply To: Growing Dissatisfaction with CGCookie

I don’t know if my 2 cents are helpful or not. I agree the exercises need a bit of work. To me maybe its not so much the topic of the exercise. It could be to an extent but take the animation courses for example. Wayne’s video is showing you how to do a bouncing ball. The exercise is a bouncing ball. People still submit poorly bouncing balls because the exercise is about training your eye much more than showing you followed along with the tutorial. The only way someone can get better from there is to be guided through what they are failing to see. Its why good feedback is so important.  If we could promote those that are grading to provide better feedback I think the exercises would be more fruitful. 

Just to brain storm a few ideas, these are things that through my own experiences have been helpful in my learning:

Peer Buddies:

This was something that I saw being used at Animation Mentor. Basically as soon as you passed a class you had the ability to become a “Peer Buddy” where you would be paired with somebody new to the course. You could message back and forth/ get one on one feedback get tips on assignments. The help provided was based on what the newbie wanted it to be and the time the buddy could provide.  For CGC this could look like a badge or something. Once you complete a course you could apply to be a “mentor/peer” for that course and maybe upon approval that you understand the curriculum you’re awarded a badge and maybe highlighted as such in the course syllabus. That way newbies can see who they could message for help or advice. 

Feedback Friday:

This idea could take on many forms but the main point is its a single day dedicated to feedback of our works.  The one I  was a part of was a 24hr google hangout where community members could pop in and out as they pleased. You could either share your screen of the work you want critiqued or you could submit it to the host who could then share it to the other viewers. Because of it being a 24hr hangout you would need people to volunteer blocks of time to be the host and moderate. This was usually in the form of a sign up sheet on Google Docs. This takes a bit of dedication to keep it going; but once it catches on its a really enjoyable thing to be a part of. It wouldn’t be something that directly effects the exercise but it would help promote giving feedback and what good feedback is.

What ever is done I feel like CGC can only go so far to improve the exercises. With CGC’s size its really going to have to be the community that helps drive this area to be successful.