Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2014 4:47 am
From my abortive experience trying to resurrect ACS some time back -- I don't think the traditional faction-of-the-week syllabus is a good fit for the community anymore. In fact, I don't know if it ever was.
The original ACS syllabus was geared towards pilots who were new to the community, who had zero comm experience, who needed extra help getting over that initial hump. But we have very few truly "tabula rasa" pilots these days. Most people who express an interest in ACS, actually have a good deal of comm experience already, as well as a basic knowledge of faction perks, nerfs, and special tech. But they still want to get better.
So that's the first reality that needs to be confronted when trying to rebuild ACS.
It's also really hard to get real, quality games of decent size that are worth learning from during the week. That's the second reality that needs to be dealt with.
My takeaway from that whole experience was really questioning how much of a need there is for ACS anyways. As I see it, unmotivated students can't be taught, and motivated students need no teacher. They might need a coach or a mentor, but the one thing they don't need is someone to read the wiki to them at the rate of one faction page a week.
A mentorship program or a workshop thing might be an improvement. Anything to get away from the stale old model of "students as empty vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge by an all-knowing teacher", more towards a model of "students as journeyman comms trying to improve their craft by learning from each other".
The original ACS syllabus was geared towards pilots who were new to the community, who had zero comm experience, who needed extra help getting over that initial hump. But we have very few truly "tabula rasa" pilots these days. Most people who express an interest in ACS, actually have a good deal of comm experience already, as well as a basic knowledge of faction perks, nerfs, and special tech. But they still want to get better.
So that's the first reality that needs to be confronted when trying to rebuild ACS.
It's also really hard to get real, quality games of decent size that are worth learning from during the week. That's the second reality that needs to be dealt with.
My takeaway from that whole experience was really questioning how much of a need there is for ACS anyways. As I see it, unmotivated students can't be taught, and motivated students need no teacher. They might need a coach or a mentor, but the one thing they don't need is someone to read the wiki to them at the rate of one faction page a week.
A mentorship program or a workshop thing might be an improvement. Anything to get away from the stale old model of "students as empty vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge by an all-knowing teacher", more towards a model of "students as journeyman comms trying to improve their craft by learning from each other".