I have been interested in at least 3 E-courses offered by FWW, the most recent being the Veneering course by Tom McLaughlin. The 40% off recently has been more of an incentive. However, the course descriptions are so general and non-specific that it becomes a decision limited to whether you want a course with who’s teaching it not what the content is. When I go to an in-person class on turning, for example, I want to know before registering what the content is from day-to-day. The e-courses are, of course, less expensive than in-person classes, spending from $240-$400 on an online class is still a lot of money, especially when you really don’t the specific content and whether it suits your woodworking needs and experience level.
So, FWW, do your bottom line a favor and have the instructor provide a complete listing of session by session content, what materials will be distributed, what the student is expected to do, etc. I’m still deciding about the Veneering e-course, but am leaning to not doing it because, even at 40% off, it’s still a lot of money to pay for something that may or may not meet my needs.
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Full disclosure in advertising is a mortal sin. I’ll often seek alternatives, knowing they are hiding something. Otherwise it would be a selling point.
I don't really get why your comment is relevant to mine. I'm not saying FWW is hiding anything at all. I'm merely interested in only taking courses that address my gaps in knowledge or skills or provide me with the basics of something I don't have any knowledge of.
I should have addressed my comment toward your point of view. My comment comes from what I’ve been experiencing as a customer.
I did finally find a more detailed e-course description but not all links lead to the same page.
I would email Epic Woodworking and ask Tom himself. McLaughlin’s own courses aren’t as expensive as Fine Woodworking. I don’t know why they are so expensive.
The increased price is probably due to the reseller (FWW) markup. Middlemen always add their take to the price of things sold via a supplier-to-customer chain. Sometimes middlemen do something useful but sometimes not. As you suggest, no need for a middleman with the veneering course. :-)
Perhaps I'm missing something here but I wonder what FWW is doing selling courses at all? The ethos of the magazine has always been that it offers high quality education of itself, as an intrinsic part of the magazine (and now website) content for which subscribers pay.
I learnt 90% of my woodworking theory from FWW and feel no need for whatever additions the e-courses supposedly offer. If one examines the FWW index and what it points to, one can easily construct a personal virtual course from a collection of FWW articles gathered according to particular interests. If it helps, buy an FWW book on this or that. I have several.
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I suppose its the USA so everything is milked until dry for profits but I always felt that a magazine that concentrated on being a magazine is likely to be better at producing a good one if it sticks to that rather than turning its primary interest from making informative articles to primarily making money. Profit should be a hygienic factor, not the primary objective.
Still, if the owners are primarily money makers rather than woodworkers ......
All speculation aside with regard to AIM and FWW and Taunton, when a site solicits my business for an online class or other product it's up to them to ensure that the potential user has consistent access regardless of what link is used (in an email or on their site) and that there is an adequate detail for the course so I know what I'm getting. I shouldn't have to go to another source for that information. In the end, I did find a description which was detailed enough. It was buried however, and not accessible from every link I had available to me for FWW e-courses.
I’m not a subscriber to FWW but from what I read on forums it looked like FWW was having some problems with their website and some other issues. Maybe AIM will clean up some that mess and bring some stability and reliability.