Regarding your questions:

1) Content amount was just right – even though I was perpetually behind. I agree with Deb, there is never too much content. I think the weekly lessons would have been easier to navigate if they were broken down into chapter chunks (an index of hyperlinks would be helpful). I think another way to tackle the vast amount of content is to include assignments at the end of each chapter, instead of just at the end of the weekly lesson. For those who only have little bits of time here and there, it might be easier to keep up if we knew what we needed to focus on for each chapter.

2) I think the class might be easier to digest if it was broken down into two courses – maybe even three. An idea is that the first course could focus on installation, configuration, customization (themes, plugins, changing headers, side bars, etc.) and the in’s and out’s of posting. Maybe the second course could focus on the social networking, promotion, fame and fortune aspect of blogging. Another idea is that a third course could focus on critiquing one’s established blog and brainstorming, but maybe that’s what Magnolia is about (haven’t gotten to lesson 6 yet).

3) The order of topics made sense, though I think that effective writing would have been a beneficial topic to cover earlier in the course.

4) Less detail – none.

5) I would have like to see pingbacks, trackbacks, categories, and tags covered in greater detail, perhaps with additional real world examples (screenshots) and additional explanations as to why/how these aspects of blogging are important, what they are used for, etc.

6) I think introducing social networking in week 5 allowed for many to at least try it. However, as many others have suggested, a whole course on social networking would be beneficial. If you do decide to break the blogging course into two classes, I still think it would be worthwhile to introduce it in the first course since it takes so much time to develop.

There were so many valuable resources, which was wonderful, but after a while I found it difficult to locate them (e.g., was this specific link or information located in lesson 2, 3, 5? etc.) I would love to see a “Resources” PDF made available at the end of the course to help organize all of the fantastic information to which we were introduced.

If you decided to keep blogging as one course, I like it organized as you had it, with the exception of introducing writing earlier and providing a “resource” guide of sorts.

Thanks so much for a great course, Bean! I have never been disappointed in courses offered by LVS, and this is no exception. It’s obvious that you spent a great deal of time and effort developing this course. I really enjoyed learning about blogging.

There is so much to blogging, that each lesson could have been an entire class on it’s own! The two big things that people, including myself, seemed to get hung up on were choosing/customizing a theme and the social networking. The thing is, however, that everyone coming into this class was at a different level in their blogging skills and knowledge. Spreading things out & slowing things down a little in the lessons would help those that are new to blogging, but would then frustrate those who have some experience under their belt. One possible solution would be to have a beginners class for those who are starting at square one, and have a second class for those who already have blogs, and want to learn more about effective writing, sources of blogging income, social networking, etc.

All in all, it was a great class and I’m grateful for all the time and energy you put into the lessons and especially for the insightful feedback and critique you gave me.

Viki Nygaard

I enjoyed the class very much, but I definitely think that breaking it up into 2 parts would make it easier on both the students…..and the instructor.

Okay, I know you’re looking for critical feedback in order to improve upon the great work that is already there, so let’s see what I can offer.

I would like to see a little more white space on the pages so one could make notes and comments. Also having soooo much information crammed on every page seemed somewhat overwhelming sometimes (I often think “how in the world am I going to remember all of this”, just because it ‘looked’ worse than it really was.

Food for thought: I wonder if lessons could be set up to learn in bite-size-chunks. For example break the weekly lesson up into five or seven distinct sections and suggest that each day, one focuses on just that section until they understand it completely. I mean, to be honest, I’m registered on: Technorati / BlogLines / Blogarama / BlogCatalog / MyBlogLog / Ma.gnolia / Digg / Amazon / Google AdSense / Feedburner … and more and the point is there just seemed to be sooo much information that I felt I had to learn all at once that I’d just register, look around for a couple of minutes, get back to my lesson notes, register for the next one, etc., etc., etc. Maybe that’s just me, and no one else had the same problem, but I thought I’d mention it.

As for the amount of content, I’m with some of the others above that say if you were going to break it up into two classes, it would be nice to have part 2 follow immediately after, rather than having a long period in between.

I seemed to peter-out right before lessons 5 and 6 and that is through no fault of the material, but because I came up with a GREAT idea for a new blog that I kind of lost interest in this one. I can’t wait for the next session to start from scratch, as I have thought of nothing else since the idea came to me. LOL (not telling till next semester).

Anyway, great course! I totally enjoyed the company of my lovely classmates and am looking forward to seeing great things from all of you.

Thanks, Sandy

I am lost in the networking world with joining some many sites, I’m not sure where I am or where I am going because they are all different. I personally didn’t have enough time to explore each site like I wanted. I have so many questions but naturally I can’t think of one right now. When I do, I will ask it on the board.

I am still trying to associate real names, nicknames, and blog titles. My blogroll is probably out of date because names were changed or blogs were moved and I didn’t have time to read every post on the board to catch all of the changes. But that is my fault and will try to get everything updated soon.

I agree with samtex about the more links the better, but there were so many that I didn’t have time to read the material. But I plan to go back through all of the lessons to catch what I missed.

I am guilty of not reading all of the posts from class members. “Life” seemed to get in the way and I just didn’t have time to keep up with each blog and read the lesson material.

With that said, two courses would be great!

* Too much content or not enough?

I had posted a blog on Blogger previous to this course which while easy to do, was nothing like the experience of all there is to learn. Just because I got bogged down in trying to set up a self hosted blog doesn’t mean that I thought there was too much content. I was thrilled and excited by the quality and content of this written course, the quality of the instructor’s responses and the quality of the other people in this course.

I would have liked to have taken more time to post responses on more blogger’s posts. I was delighted to see that there are several artists in the course and I intend to keep up with their blogs even though I have barely posed on them so far.

The ONLY reason I did not make more comments was because I spent hours in boring and time consuming things like trying to set up my self-hosted blog in a sub directory in a web hosted place that I already have and they did not have the latest and greatest tools. Added to that is not knowing what I didn’t know. But that too was a big learning experience. I had no clue about what I was getting into. And this is not a complaint. Even though I have no where near finished all the assignments because I have to do some over after switching my blog, I am grateful for all that I did learn even if some of it was something I did not want to learn or know that I needed to.

* Should it be divided into two classes? If so how? personal and business blogging? blog writing and social networking? building a blog and building a theme?

From my perspective I think I would not have wasted so much time if I had known the difference between a WordPress hosted Blog and a Self-hosted blog. I was naive about that and began with the WP hosted one. When I saw all the issues that people were having in setting up their blogs I became intimidated and decided to stay with the WP hosted Blog, mainly because I was more interested in learning all the things presented in the course and didn’t want to get slowed down with setting up the new system. That was a mistake. I paid dearly for not doing that in the first place. I know Bean urged me to jump right in when she saw what I was trying to do — and I haven’t even really begun to show that. I have a lot more material to post. So if there are two courses I think they should be one the WordPress hosted and one for the Self-hosted. Perhaps there could be a description on the LVS board giving the prospective student details on what the differences are and what to be prepared for.

I know people who have Blogger hosted blogs and they blog away in total contentment without doing another thing to get people to read their blogs. I have told everyone I know who is interested in blogging to take this course and they simply don’t get it. But if they took the easier course – i.e. the WP hosted one, and perhaps could be able to read the posts of the Self-hosted blogs then they would be inspired – or not – to take the second course.

I agree with the person who said that if there are two courses they should not be separated by the break in the Summer. I wish I could do another blog course here starting next week.

* Did the order of topics make sense? What did you wish you learned earlier or later than was presented?

The order was fine for me except for what I mentioned about in not knowing what I didn’t know.

* What did you wish I had covered in less detail?

Nothing.

* What did you wish I had covered in more detail?

I would like to know more about changing the design of a theme. That’s another thing that has slowed me down in my homework. I want my own header design and no one else’s will do. I have spent hours on that while neglecting some important other things in the class. I know nothing about php so am working in the dark almost. But that may belong in yet another course. As Bean says, she doesn’t have a 30 hour week. And neither do we.

If there is only only one course I could have benefited by understanding more more about the differences in the two kinds of blogs.

* By waiting to introduce social networking until week 5, do you think you will have enough time to at least try it out before the class ends? Realize that internet social networks, like all networks, take time to develop.

I’m not there yet and I want to be. I’m relieved to see that Bean will keep the blogs going so I can check in on what people are doing. And hopefully, if I have questions there will be people to respond.

It sounds sort of silly in a way for me to say, “This is the best course ever,” when I am so behind. I also feel it is not fair to say, “This is he best course ever,” because all but one instructor of all the courses I have taken with LVS were ALL fabulous! Maybe I should say, that at this time, for me, this is the best possible class I could take. I am going to take it again. Who knows, I may just keep on keeping on taking this class.

All that being said, I hope to post more stuff in the next few days. Bean never commented on my postings for the writing part. And I lost my pings and Blog Roll when I switched over but that’s part of my huge ToDo list. So if you do comment, wait until I post again.

Peggy

I agree that there can never be too much content, but a
listing up front in each lesson outlining the main topics in each lesson
with internal links to text that follows would be useful for the course and as well as subsequent review. I must admit that I prefer lessons in html format.

2. Two classes:

The mechanics would appear to be the first order of business for Course No. 1,
and the writing techniques/social networking for Course 2.

3. Order of Topics

The order seemed logical

4. Covered in less detail
Social Networking

5. Covered in more detail

Methods for displaying images to enhance blogs.
Also, where should images be stored such as online albums or on host site, linking image from the file stored on the host. Only in the last week of this course was I aware of my host providing “online photo filer” ..even * NEW! Post your photos to Quick Blogcast – fast – with “Blog This Photo.” Essentially I have used Picassa which enabled selecting images and uploading to Google Picassa Album. I have just started to recognize the many methods images can be displayed for blogging.

Sammy

Links provided in the lessons are very valuable. The more the better.

The course material was fantastic and the responses and comments were most valuable in the learning experience.

I would be interested in retaking the course next year for a review, especially if you have more than one course on the topic of blogging.

Thanks for all the effort you put into the course. That effort really shows up in the weekly lessons.