As a craft teacher, with the abundance of instructional material available online, I ask myself why someone would still want to take an in-person non-free craft class (such as the crochet class I’m giving tonight). What do I offer, and what should I focus on offering?
Certainly “live” instruction is available on YouTube, there are lots of free patterns to practice with, and most popular crafts even have sequenced curricula available for free online (such as my Learn Crochet series). You can use those materials any time, anywhere, and focus on what you care most about. You can play the videos over and over again without worrying about being annoying or looking foolish. You can scroll back and check over something you can’t quite remember.
However, there is value left in craft classes. Here are the three main advantages I think they offer.
1. Dedicated time to prioritize learning. This is all on the student, of course, nothing to do with the way the class is put together, but sometimes utter freedom to schedule yourself leads to not scheduling at all. Setting aside time and paying for a class are both ways to give learning the priority it needs to happen.
2. Samples and models that can be handled and manipulated. There’s nothing like picking up, turning, peering at, and otherwise interacting with an example of what you are trying to create. In crochet and knitting in particular, one of the skills you have to acquire is reading your stitches. At first it’s all an incomprehensible tangle of strands of yarn, and it’s only with experience that you can make sense of what you’re looking at.
3. Immediate live feedback. This is the biggest benefit, and applies no matter how good you are at self-guided learning. If things aren’t working out, or they seem to be but your piece doesn’t match the example, in a class you have someone knowledgeable to check it over and determine what you are doing differently.
The class still needs a good syllabus and solid instruction, but I try to give a lot of time to guided practice. As a former mathematics teacher I’m used to only explaining and demonstrating in class, but I had office hours then for direct feedback. Now I have to fold it into the class itself. I also produce a lot of samples ahead of time, although I’m playing a guessing game with those – it’s hard to tell which ones will be most useful.
What are your thoughts about in person versus online learning, especially for physical skills?
Scheduling things has long been a recommended method for getting things done more often, be it writing or exercise or cleaning or what have you. A class I’ve paid for is far more likely to get me to sit and focus on something for an hour than trying to find time for it at home. It’s why people recommend work-out buddies and solo artist dates.
It’s amazing how far behind I get on book reviews when Kate and I haven’t had a write-in for a while. Setting aside that time for one specific activity – especially when you have someone else to hold you accountable – is a bigger motivator than anything else I’ve come across so far.
As for classes in particular, I learn best through example, and while there are plenty of YouTube videos and tutorials out there, I am unlikely to seek them out and sit through them. In person just works better for me, especially because I can interrupt to say, “wait a second, what did you just do there?” or have the teacher see what I’m doing and be able to point out specifically what I’m doing wrong so I can fix it.
Oh yeah, I didn’t think of the fact that the demonstrations are themselves interactive.
And probably it comes down to the fact that we’re social beings. Most of us like some motivation involving other people, not just doing things for their own sake.