Gwen Hernandez’s Scrivener for
Mac3 course met my needs perfectly.
The course consisted of four
weeks of lessons, posted five days a week. Color screenshots illustrated
anything that might be unclear or tricky to figure out from explanation alone,
or gave us a reference point to which we could compare our own results at the
end of a lesson’s instructions. Each lesson finished with a homework
assignment, and I thought Gwen did a good job with those. They were each brief,
but left scope for stretching and trying out the trick of the day on our own
work after practicing on the course material. Gwen was clearly interested in
having us practice what we’d learned rather than testing us on how well we
remembered where to access what—the assignment instructions frequently included
a parenthetical hint on which item we needed to find under which drop-down
menu. (Thank you for that, Gwen!)
Students were subscribed to a
discussion board where Gwen cheerfully and thoroughly answered questions, and
where students could exchange ideas and ask each other questions. The
discussion board remained open for one week after lessons ended, so that those
who were catching up or those who simply wanted to keep practicing still had a
place to get answers from Gwen.
Gwen had us set up a little
mock writing project for the course so that everyone was trying the exact same
thing; it made it easier for her, too, when one of us had a question, because
she knew where we had started and what results we should have gotten. (And if
any of us messed up our project too badly, she'd give us a copy of whatever form
it was supposed to be for that day, so that we didn't lose time trying to fix
things just to get going again.)
I spent an hour or two a day
working my way through the lesson and doing the homework. Often I was a day or
two behind, and judging from posts in the discussion board, that was a common
occurrence, but the course is well-designed to allow for that. Some students
clearly spent more time than I did on the lessons, applied the day’s new
knowledge to projects of their own, tested variations of what we’d learned, and
came to the discussion board with thoughtful questions (frequently with
screenshots of what they’d tried).
Different people learn in
different ways. Some folks coming to Scrivener will explore and play and master
it well. Others will read the tutorial or manual or one of the commercially
available books and watch the videos and read the blog posts and do just fine
from there. But for those who need or would simply enjoy a systematic and
comprehensive tour, Gwen’s course is IT. And the price is totally reasonable.
Literature & Latte even offers a 30 day free trial of Scrivener, meaning a
person can try it out thoroughly without the cost of the software, while taking
this course. (Just to be clear: it’s the software that has the free trial;
you’d still have to pay for Gwen’s course.)
So, bravo to Gwen Hernandez for
designing an excellent online course for a wonderful piece of software! I think
just about any writer would enjoy using Scrivener, and I look forward to more
genealogists integrating it into their research and writing processes and then
starting conversations about how they’re using it.
1 http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php
2 http://www.copylicious.com/2012/02/my-favorite-writing-tool-ever-how-it-makes-me-a-productive-member-of-society/
3 Gwen also offers a Scrivener
for Windows course; see http://gwenhernandez.com/scrivener-online-classes/ for
both courses. Gwen is also the author of Scrivener for Dummies.
