Introducing our newest Community Partner: Creat-EE
We’re happy to announce a new Community Partner! Creat-EE offers online training in ExpressionEngine. From their website, “The idea behind Creat//ee is simple: to provide professional, practical, yet affordable classes on web design in a personal, friendly, and convenient setting.”
I had a chance to interview Jae Barclay this week to get to know him a bit more.
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Can you tell me about your background? You’re a University Professor turned ExpressionEngine online trainer? How did this shift in career happen?
Sure, I got my first job way back in `96, driving 16 hours through a huge snow storm from Upstate New York to Boston. The manager hired me on the spot, but it was pretty crazy when I look back at it.
After working at agencies in New York and Boston, I had a chance to teach at Alfred University, New York (also my alma mater). The incredible Fred Troller, who was the head of the program at that time, gave me the opportunity to teach. I couldn’t refuse this chance even though it was during the height of the internet boom.
After a few amazing years teaching, I went back to New York City for several years to work on some very large projects for Agency.com, including being the Creative Director for the global Samsung.com project (30 people team, across 70 countries, many sleepless nights).
Then in 2007 we finally decided to break out on our own, and started ejaeDesign. Actually, most of the credit goes to my wife (and boss!) Angelina, who always had the vision of us running our own studio (and starting Creat-ee as well).
When we started our fledgling studio, we couldn’t afford the expensive CMS that we were used to. So, we did an extensive survey of all the CMS that were available at that time. It was pretty clear after a short period that ExpressionEngine was absolutely the right choice for us.
And we really haven’t looked back since – building the site for some high profile sites like TopGear.com (designed by the uber-talented Cuban Council, under the expert guidance of Chalkdustconsulting.com), and working with the wondeful Dominican priests at Op-stjoseph.org (apparently our work caught the eyes of the Vatican, but we never heard from them.)
Creat-ee happened because we felt we were ready to combine our two passions: EE and teaching. The agency side and the teaching side actually work really well together, and sort of feed each other. I discover new approaches while preparing for the classes, and lessons learned from actual projects become part of Creat-ee.
How do you run your courses on line?
We have anywhere from 1 to 3 courses a month. They include the CSS/XHTML class for beginners and two popular ExpressionEngine courses: “Building Dynamic Websites with ExpressionEngine” (geared towards those new to EE), and “Advanced ExpressionEngine” course (geared towards more experienced designers, builders, and site owners.)
We recently started to offer an 1-hour “1-on-1 Live Support and Training” class, which has been surprisingly popular with folks who already run their sites on EE.
What types of students do you have in your courses? If you have a blend of abilities, do you find that blend is beneficial or detrimental to the learning of the class as a whole and why?
Oh boy – it really is varied! From print designers making the switch to web design, WordPress or Drupal developers jumping over to EE, in-house creative team tasked to build their next site on EE and wants a jump-start on their projects, and anywhere in between. Then there are EE site owners who’d like to learn new techniques, or even different approaches than what they’re doing now.
It’s funny but we just talked about the fact that even after you earn a “black belt” in EE, there are always 2nd, 3rd, 4th degrees to go for. It’s like that Korean proverb that says, “if you’re walking, there’s always someone running infront of you. And if you’re running, there’s always someone flying above you.” I can tell you that we also learn new stuff practically every day, even after buildng over 30 sites on EE.
I do think that having a “blend of abilities” cannot be anything but advantageous when learning EE. Because a great EE site is also a well designed site – not just on the front-end but on the back-end as well, in providing the absolute optimal “MX” (Managing Experience) for the end-users. It really becomes half-art and half-science, especially for more complex sites.
What is your favorite aspect of teaching online EE courses?
There are many, but it has to be those times when you can almost hear the “aha!”s on the other side, even across the web and sometimes with their microphones turned off.
You also develop a camaraderie as a group, and many former students are stay in touch with me and each other afterwards. That’s something that I really appreciate and am lucky to be a part of it.
What type of classes are coming up and how often do you run these?
The next EE class is the “Building Dynamic Websites with ExpressionEngine” course starting on May 3rd running through the 26th, followed by “Advanced ExpressionEngine” course from June 6th through 29th.
Both classes runs for 4 weeks, Tuesdays and Thursdays for the “Building with EE” class and Mondays and Wednesdays for the “Advanced” class. All classes start at 7:30pm EST and runs for 90 minutes per session.
Are there any other points you’d like to let our community know? Like what kind of chocolate you like best so Creat-EE fans can send you some?
I should send our fans chocolates! They’ve been really supportive, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. We really do love working with EE and it’s great to see the community grow. And yes, #eecms Twitter hash tag is awesome and invaluable.
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You can find out more on the Creat-EE. Check out other Community Partners on the community page!
