Autodesk University: What makes a great AU class?
If you’ve been to AU or watched classes on the AU website, you know a great class when you see it. But if you’re thinking about giving a presentation at AU, how do you make yours good? With the AU 2015 Call for Proposals rapidly approaching, we put our heads together and came up with a short list of what we think takes a class from interesting to awesome.
Relevance
First and foremost, people attend AU to learn about industry trends and best practices in engineering and design. For speakers, this means that, while obscure content may be interesting, rich, robust material that can be put into daily practice is preferred.
The right tools for the right job
Offline or online, different approaches to learning demand different tools. For AU classes like hands-on labs and tutorials, illustrations and product demonstrations can be essential. For classes in front of a live audience, that’s easy to do. On the web, however, illustrating workflow and product usage might mean the smart use of visual supplements, like Autodesk Screencast .
Then again, not every learning experience relies on visual demonstrations and illustrations. Whether your experience is firsthand or on demand, AU lectures, roundtables, and panel discussions are often dynamic because the speakers’ enthusiasm and presentation skills bring new ideas to life.
Classes that connect the dots
AU will always have its catalog of 101 classes. Some are perennial favorites; many remain indispensable. But as the store of AU learning content grows—from 1 event to the next as well as online—there’s a growing opportunity to connect new learning to what’s come before. So create a class that builds on existing knowledge or an existing class online and help create larger learning pathways.
Topics that trend
Collaboration and cloud are 2 big topics today. So is everything 3D. And AU is 1 of the very few places today’s design and engineering professionals can explore learning—offline and online—that is both forward-thinking and for real.
Autodesk products may improve collaboration and make the cloud safe, secure, and essential to productivity. But it’s members of the AU community—from the learners to the classroom leaders—who are driving innovation in the world today. Great AU classes demonstrate that time and again.
We can't wait to see what you’ve cooked up for us.
 
AU 2015 submissions begin April 22. Be sure to register for the Call for Proposals notification to stay in the know, and check out the Speaker Resource Center for important information as it becomes available.
Click here to view the entire blog post.
Relevance
First and foremost, people attend AU to learn about industry trends and best practices in engineering and design. For speakers, this means that, while obscure content may be interesting, rich, robust material that can be put into daily practice is preferred.
The right tools for the right job
Offline or online, different approaches to learning demand different tools. For AU classes like hands-on labs and tutorials, illustrations and product demonstrations can be essential. For classes in front of a live audience, that’s easy to do. On the web, however, illustrating workflow and product usage might mean the smart use of visual supplements, like Autodesk Screencast .
Then again, not every learning experience relies on visual demonstrations and illustrations. Whether your experience is firsthand or on demand, AU lectures, roundtables, and panel discussions are often dynamic because the speakers’ enthusiasm and presentation skills bring new ideas to life.
Classes that connect the dots
AU will always have its catalog of 101 classes. Some are perennial favorites; many remain indispensable. But as the store of AU learning content grows—from 1 event to the next as well as online—there’s a growing opportunity to connect new learning to what’s come before. So create a class that builds on existing knowledge or an existing class online and help create larger learning pathways.
Topics that trend
Collaboration and cloud are 2 big topics today. So is everything 3D. And AU is 1 of the very few places today’s design and engineering professionals can explore learning—offline and online—that is both forward-thinking and for real.
Autodesk products may improve collaboration and make the cloud safe, secure, and essential to productivity. But it’s members of the AU community—from the learners to the classroom leaders—who are driving innovation in the world today. Great AU classes demonstrate that time and again.
We can't wait to see what you’ve cooked up for us.
 
AU 2015 submissions begin April 22. Be sure to register for the Call for Proposals notification to stay in the know, and check out the Speaker Resource Center for important information as it becomes available.
Click here to view the entire blog post.