Leveling Up Chat with Crista Cowan and the Virtual Genealogical Association

I've been writing a column now for the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly for the last couple of years and I've thoroughly enjoyed researching and studying some new topics for the articles.  Last year I did a full year series on a study we did about the perceptions people have about professional genealogists.  The study had some super surprising results--basically that 2/3 of people who hire professionals are not happy with the results, and combined with the fact that most people don't trust professionals to hire them in the first place, we're really only effectively serving 7% of the market.  There's lots of room for growth and improvement, starting with communicating the value of a professional and making sure the researcher sets expectations correctly so that clients are happy. I was honored to speak about the study as the Keynote for the APG Professional Management Conference in 2018, to give presentations to the ICAPGEN and APG boards and to present it for a Colloquium discussion at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy.  I hope it has sparked some new movement in the genealogy industry. 

The latest thing I've been working on though is some articles on the Dunning Kruger effect and how it affects the genealogy community.  They will be published in the upcoming issues of APGQ for 2019.  I'm really excited to get this conversation started and see what we can do to change things up a bit.

Along with that, last night my dear friend Crista Cowan and I presented a webinar for the Virtual Genealogical Association entitled "Leveling Up in the Game of Genealogy"  We've made it available for everyone.  It was a great discussion and as always I loved hanging out with Crista.  I'm sure it will inspire you to be a better genealogist as much as it did for me.

You can see the show notes on Crista's website at http://cristacowan.com/LevelingUp

Lecture Summary: Lots of people approach family history like a video game-collecting the most number of ancestors or chasing the shaky leaves. In genealogy, just like in a video game, or in life for that matter, you don’t know what you don’t know. You could be playing along for years before you realize that there are power-ups and secret passageways in the game that can take you to the next level. In this session, attendees will learn about typical light-bulb moments and how to get to the “Did you know this was possible” stage faster. They will then be given a walk through on how to advance through the levels of the game of genealogy.

Attendees will be introduced to the Genealogical Maturity Model and the new concept of a continuum of genealogical proficiency. They will also be introduced to the high quality resources available for advancing their own skills.

Online Genealogy Courses at Salt Lake Community College: GEN1000 and GEN1014

Sign up here

I've just finished teaching the first semester of my new course "Making Money in Genealogy" at SLCC and I want to tell you about the two genealogy courses I teach for the genealogy program at Salt Lake Community College.  They keep me fresh and focused on the needs of genealogists as I get to work with wonderful students.  The program teaches you to become an excellent genealogist and are all taught entirely online.  In fact the entire SLCC program is academically rigorous and you can receive college credit while you are sharpening  your family history skills.  Now is the time to sign up for summer term  if you are interested.  I'd love to have you join us. 

I've been teaching GEN 1000 "Computer & Internet Tools for Genealogy" for 6 years now and I think it is a fantastic way for anyone to bring their genealogy technology skills up to date.  Kelly Summers and I wrote it together and we came up with a program that works for beginners as well as seasoned genealogists who just need to brush up on their tech skills.  After learning about basic genealogy research and documentation standards and how to enter your research into genealogy software, students use census and vital records to carefully document their own lives, their parents and their grandparents.  There are lessons about picture tagging and restoration, oral interviews, and internet publishing and sharing, and then the midterm project is just to take 6 hours to do something that needs to be done in your family along those lines.  After learning about continuing education opportunities and watching a webinar, and then surveying software and mobile apps, the final project is simply to turn in the three generation research compiled into software generated reports with complete documentation.  Grades are based on methodology, not the amount of research completed.  Most genealogists I know haven't taken the time to completely document the first three generations of their family and by the time the student is finished, they are ready to move forward with excellent technology and documentation skills.

Then, the new course I've just developed is GEN 1014, "Making Money in Genealogy."  This is the course I wish I had had 12 years ago when we started Family ChartMasters.  I've poured all of the things I've learned into this course to save the students all the learning curve I've had to overcome.  We survey genealogy opportunities and the structure of running  your own business and then the second half of the course is all about marketing (something all genealogists can improve on.)  By the end of the course you have written a complete business plan, begun branding, and interviewed a professional genealogist.  I think the course has everything students need to get started on the right track to becoming a successful genealogy professional. 

You can take either course for credit or as an audit and seniors who live in Utah can take each course for only $10.  The entire genealogy program at SLCC is an excellent curriculum that unfortunately is not very well known in the national genealogy community.  Hopefully that will change soon.  The program is designed to prepare students for credentialing with ICAPGEN or BCG and has fantastic instructors. There are 13 courses and you can complete enough in one year to obtain a certificate of completion. I've really enjoyed working with Kelly, Karen Clifford, and Sharon DeBartolo Carmack.  They are excellent genealogists and wonderful people.  I can highly recommend this program to anyone who is serious about becoming an excellent genealogist. 

I'm teaching a fantastic new genealogy course at SLCC

If you read this blog, you may or may not know that I have been teaching Genealogy and Library Science courses for several years in the Continuing Education Department of Salt Lake Communtity College.  I was recruited by Karen Clifford to teach the Genealogy technology course that she and Lorraine Bourne had already developed.  It is three college credit hours and is taught entirely online.  This was a great fit for me.  I had been Lead Reference Librarian at SLCC before having my children and while there, I was on a multi-university team that wrote the first online class in the state of Utah.  (dating myself there aren't I?). Teaching online and creating engaging curriculums is something I've loved since my years teaching at BYU, SLCC, and then at my children's charter schools.

As I became more busy over the last couple of years, I kept teaching this class, I enjoyed interacting with the students but I didn't have time to do the technical and content updates that I wanted to with the class.  When Karen Johnsson asked me to teach a library course last year, of course I jumped at the chance to use my library skills, but the wonderful Library course developed by Jen Hughes made me want to find the time even more to update the Genealogy course and make it something worthy of this discipline I love and a worthy opening course to the whole Genealogy program.  The program has continued to develop too, with fantastic courses designed to help you prepare for certification, and taught by a world-class faculty with Kelly Summers and Sharon DeBartolo Carmack joining Karen and Lorraine and I.

Finally, this summer, Kelly and I dove in and re-wrote Genealogy 1000 Computer and Internet tools for Genealogy.  It is a fantastic course and I am really proud of it.  Anyone can take it, even an experienced genealogist who just wants to brush up on their tech skills.  The course is really quite brilliant.. It takes you through the basic principles of genealogy research and let's you explore and practice on the new technology by having you start with yourself and completely document and analyze the first three generations in your family.  So a beginner can start here, but even most experienced genealogists haven't usually gone back and really well documented their parents' and grandparents' lives.  It gives you the excuse to go back and do that first part right while you are trying out the new technology.

And the reason I want to take it myself is because of the "Preserving the Past and Present" module.  We go through websites where you can post your family history findings, blogs and social networking, interviewing, scanning and publishing and then your assignment is to pick a project that you have wanted to do and spend six hours working on what is most important in your history. It really is a chance to just spend some time doing what you have been wanting to do.  My sons have been talking about taking the course and  I really think it is a good enough course to hold their attention.  There are lots of videos and it is well organized.  I am excited to see what they would pick for the Preservation project.

I really loved working with Kelly.  We completely saw what needed to be done with the class in the same way, and we brought different skills and experience to the course which made a great combination.  I really respect and love Kelly as a person, and I'm really proud of what we've accomplished here together.

So take a look.... And come join us.  Registration needs to be done by August 16th.  You can take it from wherever you are... for credit or as an audit.  I know you'll learn something and you'll have an excuse to work more on your own family history.