Late last week, I sent out a survey of all members of PCMech University. So far, I’ve had about 25% of our member base respond and I’m getting some interesting feedback. Actually, pretty good feedback.

One thing I wanted to know is how we’re doing now. I’m happy to report that a full 100% of respondents rated the quality of our content as either good or great. Specifically, 34% rated it as good while 66% rated it as great. That is, well, great! Also, 84.6% of our members rated our speed of new content as good or great (48.7% good, 35.9% great).

When asked what they like about PCMU, I found several common themes, including:

1. Ability to go at your own pace.
2. Quality content.
3. The personal approach, clear instruction with minimal jargon.

One said: “I like the idea of the resource both for PCs and for making money!”

So, this is all good news for us. We must be doing something right, and that’s what I want to hear. But, I ALSO want to hear what we can do better.

Looking Ahead

When asked what we can do better, we got a few good ideas:

1. More advanced topics
2. A course on Mac OS X.
3. More diverse content offering.
4. Ability to download material for access offline.

Some suggestions for new topics we got from members include:

1. Fixing and troubleshooting computers (in addition to the course on building one)
2. “Power User” information on Windows XP and Vista.
3. CSS and Javascript
4. Computer graphics
5. Short videos on replacing hardware in a computer

So, great feedback and look for this kind of material to come to PCMU in the near future.

A few other notes for you:

1. We are thinking strongly of creating a new, PDF e-zine which will only be available to PCMU members. Right now, I’m thinking it will be bi-weekly and it will be an extension to PCMU. We will cover industry news, but will also do some in-depth how-to information that may not warrant an entire course in PCMU.
2. A few members noted that scheduled phone calls would be good, but others had issues with the timing. So, just letting you know that, should I begin using teleseminar format to help members, all calls will be recorded and available on the web. So, don’t worry!

So, thanks to everybody who has filled in the survey. I thought I would post here publicaly so people on the outside can see where things stand. PCMU is not even 3 months old yet, but we’re off to a roaring start. Many thanks to all of you who have put enough faith in me and PCMech to join in at the ground level.