Tutoring Scheme - YGO Card Making 101

[bilaterus]

There are new members and experienced members and it can be hard to cross the bridge between the two. Tutorials and theory can only go so far in teaching players how to create cards that are realistic and balanced, with good artwork and other formalities included.

One idea to improve the quality of the rates, cards and just the number of active members is a tutoring scheme.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with Smogon (Pokemon!) but they have battling 101 there and its in pretty heavy demand: [url="http://www.smogon.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=42"]http://www.smogon.co...isplay.php?f=42[/url]

As for the details regarding how it would run here, we could sort that out soon enough if this idea gathers enough support, but this is how it would work roughly: there would be a number of selected 'tutors' and players sign up to be tutored by them for a fixed time period, during which they can improve their grammar, get the gist of balance, and on the whole make their cards more professional. It would also give them a leg-up into the community, hopefully leading them to becoming active and contributing members. After the time period, the tutor would then get a new tutee to take on (assuming they are willing to stay on!)

What do you all think? If you're experienced, would you like the idea of being a tutor? if you're newer, would you be interested in being tutored?

[Bull3tM0nk3y]

Meh, not half bad of an idea. I support.

[{Galvantula}]

I support this. Could work to help us see more awesome cards around here, more easily.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

I'll support this.

[Nu-Mou Knight]

I also support. It saddens me when I look at the majority of PC and RC nowadays.

[This Account is Unplayable]

We already have something similar to this: [url=http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/254233-card-maker-academy/]Card Maker Academy.[/url]

As much as there is no actual 1 on 1 tutoring it would be plausible for the newer members to ask for 1 on 1 tutoring with a teacher that is willing to accept them under their wing.

[bilaterus]

Hm, I didn't notice that an Academy existed. However I still think there may be room for a more established 1 to 1 tutoring program since as far as I tell everything just gets posted into the one org. thread you have. We could either add the 'function' to your organisation or host this separately.

Keep the opinions coming. Some from inexperienced members would be nice too: would you prefer this or the Academy? Not sure how many newer members would find this thread though lol

[Agro]

Support this whether there's an academy or not. New members have a hard time finding the academy, so having a small tutoring section under either realistic or written (written might be better because it's more straightforward and you can teach newbies what to put in a pic or not later) would be a good idea.

[bilaterus]

Bumpity Bump! I really want to hear some more opinions on this, whether you're experienced or not! The quicker people comment the quicker we can get this up and running! (Or, you know, dash my hopes of making a contribution to the site...)

[Blake]

Won't really work. It's, honestly, only good on paper. People considered something similar for RPs, in the past.

[Althemia]

No support. Can lead to elitism and people thinking they're more superior/less significant than others. On top of that, won't work. It's been tried multiple times in the past and I've lived to see them die in a week.

[Nathanael D. Striker]

I tutor people when I have time, but it is time exhausting. This is the OCG head of the Card Maker Academy btw. Besides, the Academy has been slow.

[NumberCruncher]

I'll support it if you can get the details in order, but your a ways away from a finished proposal.

[вєgσттєη ιηѕαηιту]

I support, i could either be tutor'd or be a tutor lol

[RoaringSilence0]

I think its a good idea. I don't have time to be a tutor or be tutor'd, but I support.

[bilaterus]

[indent=1]Details of how the system will run! [/indent]
[indent=1]It will largely be based on Smogon’s ‘battling 101’ scheme, mentioned in the OP.[/indent]
[list=1]
[*]One or two people are selected to oversee the whole process. They will obviously have to be some pretty experienced members who might as well be Konami card designers with their skills, will be active, and are actually willing to run this.
[*]Open a thread for signups to be tutors. They will have to go through some sort of quality control, which will be handled by the person/people chosen to run this. They will need to provide details of when they’d be online and what they are able to teach a newbie how to do (basically, realistic and/or written, OCG grammar and/or balance, how to play the game etc.)
[*]Open a new thread for signups to be a tutee. They will need to provide times for when they will be online too so that they can be matched suitably, and also what they want to learn. They will also need to verify they will be active.
[*]The tutors are then assigned to tutees, one to one. They will remain paired for 2 weeks during which the tutor will teach etc. (through pm most likely) and after which the tutor will be assigned to another tutee. After of course, the old tutee provides feedback on how helpful the tutor was, for purposes of improving the system.
[/list]

There are of course lots of details along the way, so is there anything I missed? Anything that can be improved? Has all this been tried before?

[Icy]

Good lord, I've tried this myself at least 5 times since I became a moderator of Custom Cards in 2009. It simply doesn't work, and we've tried an extensive amount of ways to do this. And while yes, more threads would also mean that there would be more clutter, and like it or not the primary focus is individual threads not stickies. This idea at the moment is very very impractical.

Not to say we won't do it again down the line, but right now it simply isn't something we can do.
(Note to Moderators Reading this: Do not lock, I'd like it open at least to maintain brainstorming and those never hurt).

[Ieyasu Tokugawa]

[quote name='bilaterus' timestamp='1315488940' post='5499934']
and are actually willing to run this.
[/quote]
I found your first problem

[seattleite]

I do support, but I think you should be prepared for a ton of tutors signing up and not many being tutor'd. Most people here have their "own way" of doing things in card making but it doesn't necessarily make them right or wrong. People enjoy feeling like they are right and an expert. A disproportionate number of self-proclaimed "experts" bumping heads together can result in unteachability, stubborness and arguing.

So I had some ideas for your suggestion. You could suggest the "teaching" thing mandatory for new cardmakers - so at least you have enough students to compare to the teachers. Or if necessary, just set up a mixture of new and old members in a support-group kind of thing and allow everyone to help on each others' cards, instead of setting yourself up for people who don't think they need to learn anything from anyone else.

[bilaterus]

Well if its been tried before then, can't argue with that. experience>theory.

But, for brainstorming's sake...

There would only be two threads that would be ongoing, one for tutees and one for tutors, so that shouldn't cause too much clutter right? Or maybe just one thread for posters specifying which they are applying to be.

As for tutors, they would be judged based on card balance and grammar, which are fairly objective criteria. Also, the tutees would be expected to give feedback after the process which may help to weed out poor tutors.

In order to prevent the threads just dying from lack of tutees (since they probably wouldn't know it exists) it would just be a matter of directly PMing them and asking if they want tutoring. I know that not all of them but at least some will jump at the chance since there are people who genuinely want to be good at card making.