What’s the deal with online learning?
Since Tom Benedek and I launched Screenwriting Master Class, I’ve had a number of people email me about what precisely the online education experience is. And while there are plenty of subjects about which I am largely ignorant, I feel imminently qualified to talk about online education:
* I led my first online course in 2002 and in the last decade have taught over 60 classes and done countless private online consultations and mentorships.
* In 2003 I wrote an article called “Screenwriting: The Online Learning Experience” for Screentalk magazine.
* When UCLA Extension’s Writers Program needed a manual to give to new instructors on how to handle online teaching, they asked me to write it.
* I received the 2005 Outstanding Instructor of the Year award for Online Writing Education.
* By the time I departed the Writers Program, my average student evaluation score as an online instructor for all the courses I had taught through UCLA Extension was 8.9 out of a possible 9.0.
So I feel confident I know what I’m talking about when it comes to online education.
Let me go through some questions I have accumulated from various email inquiries to give those of you who have never taken an online class a sense of what the experience is like.
[Note: To simplify the discussion, I am going to describe Screenwriting Master Class courses].
Is there a classroom and what is it like?
Yes, there is a classroom, albeit a virtual one. Participants log onto a course site and on the home page they will find various forums, everything from a News Forum where I post announcements and bits of inspiration to Screenwriter’s Life forum where users may post questions or observations about the screenwriting life which in turn spark on online discussion.
Underneath that top area, the entire course is broken out into weekly sections. In these sections are forums for downloading lectures and discussing the content. These can turn out to be really lively with lots of back and forth between participants, a great way to drill down more deeply into the subject matter.
Also in each weekly section is an assignment forum where writers post either optional or mandatory writing assignments (it depends upon the type of course you take), providing everyone in class with a chance to give written feedback on your pages.
On the right hand side of the page is a really helpful item: a calendar. So you can see the day lectures will be posted, when teleconferences are scheduled, when writing assignments are due, and so on.
In sum, it’s this simple, but comprehensive class setting, easy to understand and use.
Are the lectures given in real-time?
Most activities in an online class are what as known as ‘asynchronous,’ not occurring at the same time. One big upside is this provides users an enormous amount of flexibility to do things on their own time. You can literally download lectures, upload pages, and respond to forum comments while lounging in your bed decked out in your pajamas.
Additionally forum ‘conversations’ happen in an asynchronous fashion: somebody creates a thread and posts something, later someone responds, still later another follow-up. Every time someone posts something, you get an email which allows you to stay up to speed.
Let me stop to make a point: I find written lectures to be a far superior way both to teach and learn screenwriting content. As opposed to sitting in an on-site class setting, scribbling down notes as fast as you can while the instructor delivers their lecture verbally, in an online class you download the entire lecture. That means: (A) You can read the lectures on your own time. (B) You may re-read and even re-re-read them as many times as you want. © You can keep them in a folder on your computer or print them out and put into a binder. But perhaps the main thing is you get the benefit of all that work by the instructor in creating a coherent narrative for each lecture. Tom and I spend an enormous amount of time and energy crafting lectures, so they are informative, understandable and readable.
In an on-site class setting, we can screen movie clips tied to lectures. Can you do that online?
Absolutely. Thanks to outfits like MovieClips and YouTube, we can embed links in lectures, so when you click on it, within seconds you’re seeing the relevant clip.
What about the teleconferences?
They provide a live, real-time component to our courses. Typically we schedule a one-hour call per week. We use Skype which allows to do two things: (A) The entire class can participate in the call. (B) We can record the calls and post them for users to listen to later, either in case they missed the teleconference or there was subject matter in the call the writer wants to go through more carefully. The latter can be especially helpful when we dig into script pages and come up with great spontaneous ideas.
Two additional aspects about the teleconferences. First because most of the writers we work with are in North America, we schedule the calls at night during the week U.S. time. We know this is not convenient for participants who live in other parts of the world. That’s one of the reasons we tape each call and post a recording. But we can set up additional calls at times convenient for our international users. And in some cases, we will do special one-on-one calls. That way everyone gets an opportunity to have a real-time experience with their classmates and/or their instructor.
The other thing is this: I have had some remarkable experiences on these teleconferences. For example, in a recent Pages I writing workshop, we scheduled a special phone call for a writer. On that call, we had writers from Saudi Arabia, Brazil, northern California, Canada, and North Carolina. That was remarkable in and of itself, but the quality of the observations, feedback and suggestions was incredible. I feel like there’s a special synergy created by the global dynamic in an online course setting.
Isn’t the online experience a second-rate one compared to an in-class course?
I will be perfectly honest with you: I actually prefer online because it’s a better way to learn. I’ve already noted how you can do things on your own schedule, how the lectures are written out for you, no need to take notes. Here’s another plus: As opposed to a typical on-site situation where you present your script pages and you get comments like this, “Uh, it like… worked. The dialogue was like… good. So yeah, good work,” in an online course, writers know that their words aren’t going to just disappear into the air. People will read their comments. As a result, I am absolutely certain that the quality of feedback from participants is substantially better than in an on-site setting. Moreover — again — you don’t have to scribble down notes, rather you can copy/paste or print out all of the comments on your pages, and really get a chance to consider them thoughtfully. That in and of itself is a huge plus to the online class experience.
Indeed I know this for a fact, too, because writers have told me as much: Whereas in an on-site class, there tend to be a few people who dominate discussion, in an online class there is much more feedback from a greater number of participants. Why? Two reasons, I think: (1) Every writer has time to formulate their thoughts, type them out, and revise them. (2) The relative anonymity of being online encourages even the shyest person to speak up, as compared to an on-site setting. In fact, some of the best analysis I’ve ever seen posted online came from writers who began a course as a quiet observer, but by the end of had become one of the most active participants.
I could go on…
* How every class, I have at least a few participants who actually work in the entertainment business, which brings an additional insider’s perspective to the discussion.
* How you may be 10,000 miles from Los Angeles, but the online course, taught by actual screenwriters who have worked in Hollywood, puts you in contact with professionals who can help advance your entertainment career.
* How you get exposed to an incredible array of people and stories as well, a great way to develop your critical analytical chops as you are immersed in a wide variety of narratives.
But the most amazing thing to me is the sense of community that can emerge. Writing is a lonely gig. Taking an online writing class is a terrific way to hear others sharing their thoughts and feelings about craft, and for you to lay out where you are, too. These people can become Hollywood contacts, members of your very own writing group to read and critique material, even your friends.
Tom and I have barely opened the doors to Screenwriting Master Class and we’re already blown away by what the writers who have taken courses with us have accomplished. We’ve taken what we’ve learned through years of teaching online to create a vibrant learning experience.
In fact, we’re rolling out our next round of writing workshops:
Prep: From Concept to Outline (5/30–7/10). Instructor: Tom Benedek
Pages I: The First Draft (6/6–8/15). Instructor: Scott Myers
Pages II: Rewriting the Script (6/6–8/15). Instructor: Tom Benedek
If you have any questions about the online learning experience, feel free to post in comments. Or email me. To me, online learning is the wave of the future… and it’s happening right now.