Have any of the more experienced people here thought of having an online seminar for noobs and beyond?
Where you would take one or two simple concepts and give a challenge on creating something with that topic and then grading and commenting on the participants submissions? You could limit the seminar to a reasonable number like five to ten people per instructor so nobody gets overwhelmed- or maybe even have a by invitation forum where there is a published challenge or exercise and APPROVED people can rate the submission and give critique and guidance.
Such as core python needs, instancing and nodepaths, or making blender scenes, animation, gui’s, game design, theme, etc…
I used to be really active in a writer’s workshop that did this for fiction and people could earn “badges or awards” to place in their taglines for participating or completing the seminars or contests. It really helped grow the boards interaction and helped get the old brain thinking on new ideas some of the submissions actually ended up winning international praise and started careers. I think also it would help build stronger people networks for panda usage in general as people become more involved with each other then openings for joint projects become more feasible after trust has been earned.
Seriously, even if I hate to say it, but for most people time and money correlates somehow. If you want to learn python/panda you can find all stuff you need online. If you find peeps who have spare time to spend on such project - fine, and good for karma - but I guess you wont find very much.
I think its a good idea. You need (people having) lots of time for teaching but somehow wikiversity seems to ‘work’.
Im not one of those able to actually teach panda3d but as panda3d seems to be a topic for courses at Carnegie Mellon there propably is a way to get online courses (for which you - also propably - have to pay).
I have run an online bible college since 2003- the key would be to keep each seminar very small- one specific topic and no chasing rabbits! Second keeping the class small- it’s easier to help say five people than twenty when reading code. The college I help run is free- but we have accepted donations too.
Lastly keep the time frame open to the teacher’s schedule- maybe one person would only have time to teach one seminar a year, or maybe someone wouldn’t mind informally help out with a seminar but can’t commit because of time.
A nice side effect would be eventually knowing you have people you trained who you can use for your own projects as a teaching method!
I don’t mind setting up a forum for this or even a moodle to do so and would host it at my cost, but I don’t have the experience enough to offer anything personally outside of game design in general, 2d graphic’s creation, themes and gui design. But I am a novice at python and panda3d.
