Kristin Connell keeps pretty busy these days. As the manager for Shoefly, an upscale Seattle shoe boutique, she spends between forty and fifty hours a week in the shop--that is, when she's not planning special events or jetting off to Los Angeles for a week of meetings with wholesalers.
While she values her professional experience, Kristin also knows the importance of a solid education. In order to advance her career in the world of fashion, she's pursuing a bachelor's degree in fashion design. As many working students know, making a school schedule dovetail with professional responsibilities can be tough. For Kristin, the solution includes participation in online coursework. I sat down with her in her Capitol Hill apartment to get the 411 on her online fashion design class.
Mr. Smith: Your fashion design program includes both online coursework and classroom work, so you have the best of both worlds. What are you currently studying?
KC: I'm taking a few courses, but the online course is fashion sketching.
Mr. Smith: Which involves what?
KC: It's the start of creating a piece or line of attire. You develop a basic visual concept--a sketch--for a piece of clothing. From there you can draft patterns and actually create the piece.
Mr. Smith: Could you describe your online interface?
KC: It's basically an all-in-one website. There's a place for you to get assignments, a place for class discussions, a link to lectures and research materials, and the grade book, which is where you can check your grades after you turn in a new assignment. That part's helpful, because you can monitor your progress daily.
Mr. Smith: How often does the material update?
KC: Well, the syllabus pre-established at the beginning of the quarter. But the teacher can post assignments as often as he likes. The discussion boards are constantly updating, throughout the duration of the class.
Mr. Smith: Could you describe a week of coursework?
KC: The lesson plan follows the textbook, so we do a chapter each week. The teacher posts a reading assignment, discussion questions, and homework. We use Adobe Illustrator to design fashion sketches, and turn it in as an email attachment when we're done.
Mr. Smith: How would you compare your online class to a traditional brick-and-mortar classroom?
KC: It's actually more strenuous. It's not like a normal class, where just showing up gets you a participation grade. The onus is on you to participate heavily. For example, with the class discussion board, you have to post often and your posts have to be insightful. I got nabbed on that a couple of times.
Mr. Smith: And compared to traditional classroom, how much classmate interaction is there?
KC: Well, of course you don't get face time, but you have about as much interaction. It was a requirement for us. With the discussion boards, each student has to respond to the teacher's question, and then to at least two classmates per posting to receive credit.
Mr. Smith: What's your favorite thing about your online coursework?
KC: Well, while you do have deadlines, you can still work at your own pace. Even though we had weekly deadlines, I was able to turn in my work on the first day of the week.
Mr. Smith: How about your least favorite thing?
KC: To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of my professor, but that really didn't have anything to do with the online format of the class.
In addition to her online coursework, Kristin also attends a four-hour pattern-drafting course each week (the brick and mortar being necessary for hands-on participation). While her schedule is tight, she remains determined: "I work as hard as I do because I know it's worth it," she says. "I think it's important to have goals and to make a point of pursuing them."
Well spoken, I think. After all, if--as Thomas Paine once observed, "What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly," then busy professionals can look to Kristin and others like her, for a model. After all, Kristin and her fellow students may be determined, but they aren't all that unusual. As far busy professionals who moonlight as students go, Kristin's really a textbook example.
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