More Learning centric hangout every other week

[Helmi74]

Hi,

though we just talked about this on the hangout i thought it might still be a good idea to write it down here.

The former weekly hangout is 2-weekly now and as this hangout is mostly not so learning centric, i thought it could be a good idea to shout out for some more learning every other week.

Maybe it would be nice if we could discuss possible topics and special needs of users in the forum and Mike, Keqing and Kat could find someone or possibly jump in theirselves on one or the other topic. This could be a good thing to allow some advanced training for the ones getting stuck in their work like we already had seen that on hangouts in the past. I think the potential of showing things in a presentation in this cases is much higher than in forums or written guides and in the case of advanced training even better than with prerecorded video (which is perfectly okay too).

People could also send in their projects/files for discussion in this hangouts like Ron suggested in the hangout.

[kat.ingalls]

Hey Helmi! First, thank you so much for sharing this suggestion. The idea of something like an online "Office Hours" is something we've been considering. These would differ from the hangouts in that we don't really come "prepared" with anything info to share, but instead have you guys tell us what you need help with and want to talk about. Does that sound like something that would be helpful? 

The obvious downside is that if one person is struggling with a very particular challenge, the conversation might not be that valuable to other attendees. Maybe something like Google Helpouts would be an interesting platform to explore. Thoughts?

Definitely welcome input from other community members!

[Helmi74]

Hi Kat,

thanks for your feedback. To be honest i don't think that the "Office Hours" Idea as a standalone offer would be so helpful just because what you already said - in lots of cases that wouldn't help others that much. That is why i suggested to discuss possible topics of these sessions in the forum beforehand so everyone could decide if it is interesting for them to participate.

Maybe it could be an idea to add something like a Q&A at the end where random unrelated questions could be asked or smaller problems could be discussed where a single session would be too much. In this case others that are not interested could leave the session at this point.

I guess most of the smaller problems can easily be discussed in the forums and solved even quicker than waiting for a solution until the next free session. The "learning hangout" or whatever you want to call it shall be more of a deeper discussion of design strategies and ways to solve problems - at least in my opinion 🙂

An example session could be the positioning stuff that we already discussed with Garin in the Beta Feedback hangout. I think these sessions could not only be valuable for users but also for your team as i think there will be loads of feedback and ideas in these sessions how things could be done different - at least that was my impression from the other hangouts where we discussed special functions.

Regarding helpouts: I don't know that product very well but as i understand it is a one to one solution that is of course the best for individual problems but question is if resources are big enough to offer such a thing. Do you think of autodesk offering that to customers as a paid service? Users helping each other? Engineers helping Users (all of them, only a closed group of)?

[Oceanconcepts]

I know I have benefited most from seeing real world examples of how people used Fusion (or other programs) to solve specific issues.  I may not have exactly the same problem, but can usually take something away.  I think we, including Autodesk people, would learn a lot from seeing what sort of thornier issues that real users run across- questions can be curated so that the problems are not overly specific, and have some general applicability.

For instance, one area that I work a lot with, and that doesn't come up too much in tool specific tutorials: methods for working with both T-Spline organic shapes, and matching those shapes to precisely dimensioned components.  There are a number of strategies possible, and some good tools, but I probably don't have a handle on all of them.  There is a forum post now from someone dealing with these questions- I think this sort of thing could make a great hangout subject. 

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Get-Help-with-Fusion-360/Turning-a-closed-sketch-into-a-face/td-p/4750...

[kat.ingalls]

That makes a lot of sense, guys - thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. So it looks almost like you're looking for a sort of "class" - is that right, Helmi? And Ron, I definitely agree that I find project-based workflows more helpful - it really helps to see things in the context of how they're being applied. So are you looking for more workflow/project-based learning, or specific tool/feature-based learning? 

On the topic of classes, have you guys seen Skillshare? Would love to hear your perspectives on that sort of learning structure (format, project-based classes, courses you'd find hlepful). Would something like this, but for Fusion, be helpful? http://www.skillshare.com/shapeways

[MichaelAubry]

Hello Helmi and Ron!  I'm very excited to see the continuity of what we talked about in our last hangout.  We're looking into it.  I love the ideas about augmenting training with real world examples. Natrually, those real world examples come from you, our elite users. I know as a community can make this both usefull and awesome. We're all looking to get better and how to best use all this super cool new technology.  We'll put some ideas together and present on the next hangout.  (Jan 28 - 11AM PST)

As you have ideas, please post and we'll nail down what's best!

Best,

Mike

[Helmi74]

@kat i haven't used skillshare so far. looks nice though. i don't know if a classical class would solve the problems here but of course classes could make learning for newbies easier. I thought more in a direction where you (autodesk) could get us ("elite users" though i don't name myself beeing elite normally *g*) deeper into Fusion360 and help us solve problems as i guess at least some of us would be multipliers and somehow forward knowledge to new users - through the forums or in real life.

I just thought dividing that from the other hangouts would make it easier a) to not other topics/presentations you have on the normal hangouts and b) to concentrate more on this Fusion360-function-conentric topics and maybe get even more direct feedback on Fusion360 for your Product managers and developers.

This only works of course if these guys find that helpful and valuable. I think it could be something where both sides should benefit from.