Last weekend I spent a LOT of time downloading old class materials from online education sites where I signed up for things and then never really worked through the curriculum. I hope to spend my summer digging in and working through the classes – some I've been hoping to get to since 2009…
Anyway, after downloading the materials, I thought you all might be interested in how they ended up in my catalog.
The thing that surprised me most as I went through the items is how much free digital supplies there are in those classes! I could kick myself for not downloading these elements and templates sooner – I so could have been using them all this time!
The first class I started to organize was all the content for Ali Edward's Yesterday and Today class at BPS (circa 2009). With 13 weeks of class and a lot of amazing content, it was quite a process to download everything. However, I have to say that being able to organize most everything in Lightroom made it more than worthwhile. I am also becoming a convert to the idea that students should be able to download videos and content for classrooms so web access isn't required to learn.
Ok back to the process. After downloading everything, I imported what I could to Lightroom (digital supplies and tutorial videos). Then I went back and converted all the PNG files and imported again. I was left with a lot of PDF files. I just moved those over into the class folder I created under Ali's designer folder where I store my scrapbooking materials.
Inside each week of content I put the relative digital supplies and videos so as I want to work through each week of class, I just click on the keyword to bring up all the materials, open the PDF handouts and then work through the materials.
Having things organized and easy to find makes me so much more excited to learn! It will also be easy over time to refer back to the materials to find anything I need.
Just another way you can use Lightroom to make your life easier – hope you find it helpful.
Ann
What an awesome idea – I don’t have Lightroom but I have been following your blog because you have some wonderful ideas that I can use. This post is exactly what I need to help me get my class material organized. Thank you very much for taking the time to do this.
Kayla Lamoreaux
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment Ann – I’m really glad you are finding the posts helpful. all the best to you!
Linda
Kayla,
This is a great idea! I have another post questions for you. How did you you combine the pdf manuals into one master manual with bookmarks? Did you convert it to tiff? Your work is amazing, just amazing:)
Sarah
Hi Kayla!
I have the same question as Linda, about combining the PDFs to make a master manual.
Kayla Lamoreaux
Ill add that to the tutorial list you need the full version of acrobat to do it
Sent from my iPhone
Kayla Lamoreaux
Working on a tutorial
. Hopefully next week 
Sent from my iPhone
Roberta Frederick
Are the videos for this class downloadable? If so I would like to know how to do that. I have to admit I haven’t viewed them because my internet access is limited in the amount of bandwidth I can use so I know I am missing out. Videos often burn up the time a great deal. That said, if the videos are downloadable (is that a real word? Ha~) I could go to the local internet cafe to download then I would have them available at home. I just can’t seem to view the videos elsewhere and then come home to try to apply the information without having the information there as I work along. I am new to Lightroom it is just too much information for me to retain.
I don’t have any connection with these people other than as a customer but this might help someone else: I just found a really good general instructional tutorial for Lightroom via Photography Concentrate called Super Photo Editing Skills. It is a huge download but I now have all of their videos right at my finger tips and the light (pun intended) has actually begun to come on for me. If I could download the videos for this class then I feel certain between the two sets of tutorials I could actually do some scrapbooking in Lightroom.
Thanks~
Roberta Frederick
PS If anyone is interested in the above mentioned tutorial there is a discount on the price if you sign up for their email updates, etc.
Kayla Lamoreaux
The videos for this class are not downloadable for a few reasons:
1) The class is free so I don’t feel the pressure to make materials available. I think I am doing enough just putting this out here for free to help people to be able to learn. Making the videos downloadable would increase both my preparation time and my costs to do this class.
2) This is the first time this class has been taught. What I’ve learned in teaching over the years is that the first time curriculum is introduced, you learn a lot as a teacher on how to refine it and make it better for the next class. I don’t feel comfortable creating materials for download until I have something that I want out there with my name on it – to put it simply if I am going to make it downloadable, I want it to be my best work.
3) You will notice in this post that I said I am becoming a convert to the idea that classes should have downloadable materials. The classes I have organized class materials for in Lightroom mentioned above I paid anywhere from $35-$95 to take the class. So if I ever did do a paid class in the future, you can bet that I am going to go above and beyond to make sure I cater to the students and make it easy for them to utilize the materials. However, this class is different because it is free.
Lastly, if I were looking for paid Lightroom content for scrapbookers, my first stop would be here – http://www.reneepearson.com/classes/lightroom.php Molly is an amazing teacher and just the editing part of her class promises to be amazing! I am not sure if they offer downloadable videos on that site but that would be the first place I would check.
All the best to you in your journey to learn Lightroom!
Roberta Frederick
Thank you for such a detailed reply to my question about the videos. Hopefully you did not take my question or comments as criticism or my mention of the tutorial I purchased as anything other than the spirit I offered it in. I understand your points about the videos and wish you the best in your teaching and possible future marketing of this class.
sue
Kayla – I just want to say “you are marvelous”. Your generosity is amazing and very much appreciated. Thank you thank you thank you!
Wendy T.
Hi Kayla,
I have a quick question re: the pdf part of this. I watched your video on converting pdf’s to tiff, and just want to make sure I’m not missing something. when i converted them, i lost the ability to see more than the first page. is that right? or did i miss a step? luckily i didn’t delete my pdf’s before checking out the tiff files, so it’s no big deal, but i just wanted to double check with you to see if i missed a step, or if there is an easy way to “see” your multi-page pdf’s in LR? After reading this post about the class materials it looks like you might keep your class pdf’s in the right folder in your folder structure, but not in LR.
Thanks!
Wendy
Kayla Lamoreaux
In the tutorials to convert PDFs I should have mentioned that I only convert PDFs to TIF that are one page – i.e. hybrid printables, etc. For class materials and such that are longer than one page – I just move them to appropriate file folders in finder. hth!
Toni Van Cleve
Hi Kayla,
I purchased LR some time ago, but abandoned it for a couple of reasons. First it pulled all of the jpg files out of my scrap kits, and second there was no way to import the png files. For me without the ability to assign keywords to both jpgs and pngs, it was a a real wast of money. I read above that you converted you png file and imported them into LR. Did you do a tutorial for that? Does it maintain the transparent background? If all of those answers are, “Yes,” could you direct me to it? Also, I assume it is possible to import kits one at a time, correct?
Thanks,
Toni