Review of 3D Printer course

[Brett Sutton]

So as many of you will be aware I'm currently running a 3D printer course out of the space.

We are getting close to the end of the course and I thought it worth opening up a discussion about whether we run these type of courses again and if so how.

During the course we have had from 6-11 people attend each night.

I will look to the participants for some feed back on the final night but my impressions so far is that it has been fairly successful (they keep coming back at least).

I think its also been fairly successful financially for the space, I would estimate we raised $500+ all of which has gone back to the space and its cost nothing to run the course.

I get the impression that we may have also gotten some new members out of the course (I know of at least one that said they had signed up).

The key down side to the course, that I can see, is that we pretty much dominated the space on Monday nights which might be problematic.

Having said that, I have certainly found it useful to have other members in the space to help  with some of the hands on practical parts (a big thanks to Rob Britain in particular) .

So there are a number of obvious questions for the community.

Are we happy to run more of this type of semi-formal courses?

If we do run these type of courses should they be run on the same nights as regular nights or should we keep them separate? (If separate we may need a second volunteer to help out).

Are there other members who would be prepared to deliver these type of course covering different topics? These could even be single night course covering a smaller subject matter. (I would be prepared to assist in setting up the course if you have never done this type of thing before).

What should the fees be?

I set the fees at $10 per night for non-members and $5 for members.

I suspect we could charge more for these courses and still get good attendance but personally I would like to see us striking a balance between revenue and inclusion.

From my perspective I see the deliver of these type of courses as an opportunity to give back to a community that has given me a lot of help over the years and would not like to see anyone excluded because of money. Perhaps we could raise fees but offer student/unemployed/pensioner discounts.

How often should we run these course? Do we aim to have a course running every week (do we have enough volunteers do even do that?)? I would certainly be happy to run the course again.

If we are going to run courses then how are we going to market them?

In summary, it looks to me like running courses is a good way of:

• raising revenue for the group
• attracting new members
• giving back to the community.

So is this something we want to do?

Are others interested in being presenters?

Brett

P.S.

I've had some help from other members during the course, unfortunately I'm not good with names, so I apologise for not mentioning you directly but thank you very much.

[tubular]

Brett, I'll provide some detailed feedback later, but in short I think you should be really proud of your efforts.   And from a treasurers point of view, its been a brilliant help.   

[Conor Maher]

I think I started the course in week 3 but I knew I was late to the party. It was a great introduction to the space and made it easy for me to get my foot in the door. I really enjoyed the course and its certainly a great way to attract new members

Some feedback ( I did miss week 1 and 2 so let me know if this was covered )

Onshape was fantastic as its friendly to use and runs in the browser so theres no messing with setup / big downloads etc

It took me from essentially zero knowledge of CAD / modelling to being able to make some detailed drawings / models and thought the techniques in a hands on way.

Maybe there should be "homework" as it takes a while for the techniques to sink in. People will get a lot more from the class when they get over the initial learning curve.

I think in the very first session there should be a hands on demo, just to dangle the carrot. Just a small simple print that shows the full toolchain from model to finished print. The print can run throughout the class just to show how time consuming it is. 

The meat and potatoes of the course was CAD and it should be, but I feel like some people may have felt short changed as there was little "3d printing" Maybe the title should be "CAD for 3d printing." or "Design for 3d printing" etc. There are limited machines and its impossible to have 10 people printing but I can't help but feel some people were hankering to actually use the machines / learn the toolchain.

The meetup titles needs to specify the week number as people were turning up confused on week 4 etc.

All in all it was a really enjoyable course and incredibly good value. 

Brett did a fantastic job and had endless patience!

[bsu...@noojee.com.au]

Conner, 

thanks for the full and frank review.

We did actually spool up a print job on the first night and I agree giving people a taste is an important element.

The meetup names were a mess and the next round will definitely contain the week names.

I did consider some homework but wasn't sure how it would go down. I will look at including some non critical exercises that people can optionally do at home and see how that goes in the next course.

The amount of printing viable during the course was always going to be a challenge and I'm still not quite certain how to deal with this. One thought might be to invite a student or two each week to bring a model to print and we let it run during the night.

I hear what you are saying about the content vs the title and I did make a fair effort in the course overview in meetup to highlight the large amount of cad. I'm still inclined to leave the title as it is as it is a headline grabber and the aim of the course is to take you to the point of where you can start printing and I think we do achieve that.

I'm glad you enjoyed the course!

Thanks

Brett