Teaching EQ at Community Colleges - December 2007

By Barb Gorges, Cheyenne, Wyoming

As a longtime quilting instructor for my local community college and an Electric Quilt user, about five years ago it occurred to me that the campus computer labs would be perfect places to teach EQ.

Whether my courses are a single, half day introductory session or multi-evening drawing classes, my students are a mix of quilters thinking about buying EQ and owners finally taking time to figure it out. The advantage to the computer lab is that no one needs to bring a laptop or software and the instructor's computer screen is projected for all the students to see.

The Electric Quilt Company has been very supportive of EQ teaching endeavors and offers a free listing of classes on their Web site.

Choosing a teaching option

While computer labs are available in other settings—high schools, universities, libraries—community colleges are the most amenable. There are three different ways to work with them.

For quilt shops or anyone wanting to teach in a lab independently, ask about renting a computer lab. I was quoted $125 per day recently for a lab with 24 computers. In this scenario, you would be figuring your own class fee, doing your own advertising and possibly handling registration yourself.

An alternative is to propose EQ classes to the non-credit course department. These departments go by names such as Life Enrichment, Continuing Education, Community Education and Life Long Learning. You are paid either by the hour or by the student contact hour. You may have to plan more than six months in advance to make the deadline for having your class listed in the schedule. Ask what advertising the college will do for your class and ask permission to do some yourself. The college will take care of registration. After class you either receive a paycheck or you turn in an invoice, depending on how you and the college set it up.

Because coordinators of our annual state quilt guild meetings have chosen to hold them at the university and community colleges around the state the last four years, I've been able to propose EQ classes to each organizing committee. But before I send a proposal to the committee, I ask them for a college contact, a person usually in the conferences department. The conferences person introduces me to a tech person to whom I can explain what I need to teach EQ. I send them a copy of the software and they test it out and approve before I send my proposal to the committee. I also find out if there will be an extra fee to use the lab or for allowing printing. If there is, the guild's registration form may ask EQ students for a lab fee.

Working with technicians

I put the college tech people in touch with the Electric Quilt Company and leave software installation up to them. Currently, EQ offers a teacher's edition of EQ6 for $10. It is essentially an incomplete trial edition so there are no licensing issues when I make a copy to send to a college. I give EQ tech support an introduction to the college tech person who will be requesting the activation file that makes the trial software work. The activation file is sent by e-mail and has a life span of two weeks so it is necessary to request it for the initial test and again for the dates of the class.

Before I teach in a lab, I ask for a tour with the technician to find out where the power buttons are for the computers and the digital projector, how to boot up and what passwords I need to know. I also need to know how to get help and if there are any lab rules such as no food and drink allowed.

Planning lessons

When designing the lessons I've learned to keep the projects fairly short and somewhat independent of each other. Sometimes a lab computer will crash and all the work a student did disappears because of the nature of the network in the lab, whereas at home you'd be OK if you save regularly. Also, sometimes a student gets so scrambled, it's better to start over.

I provide one-sheet handouts. For an introductory class it will have the basic instructions for navigating worktables, sketchbooks, libraries and printing options. For a drawing class I have thumbnail illustrations of the projects we will work on together. They are drawn with EQ and have drawing board setup information.

I try to include room for personal choices as we build quilts and draw blocks, plus allow play time for students to try their own ideas.

Teaching

Over the last five years, I've noticed that in general, we quilters are becoming more comfortable with computers and our mousing skills have improved. But, keep in mind that however fast you as the instructor can navigate a lesson, the class will take at least twice as long. Be patient with your students. If one makes a complicated mistake while working on a group exercise, fix it for them so they can catch up and the rest of the students aren't kept waiting too long. Try not to let their neighbors do your job other than the occasional helpful comment.

Locking up

When I'm finished using a lab, I leave it the way the technician prefers. Usually, this means turning everything off: computers, monitors, projectors and light switches. Unless instructed otherwise, I make sure that the door locks behind me or I call to get the janitorial or security staff to lock the lab.


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