April Michelle who is a professional indexer offers Indexing 101, a 7-week online course for individuals interested in learning more about indexing and in refreshing their indexing skills. The coursework covers the fundamentals and theory of indexing. During the final session, the participants put into practice their new gained knowledge and create their own index for the course textbook, which already has an index, allowing students to compare their index to a professionally written index. An added value of this exercise is that the participants’ indexes are critiqued by April Michelle. And as a bonus and to reinforce participant understanding of the material, the participants work one-on-one with April Michelle, a master in the indexing profession, again putting into practice the learned skills by indexing a portion of a book of their choice.

The regular demand of April Michelle’s courses is proof that these skills are sought after by professionals and transfer into a respectful-paying job.

The success of this hands-on learning experience is accredited to April Michelle’s leadership and expertise in the indexing profession. April Michelle showcases her talents in this field as a former chair and webmaster of the Mid- and South-Atlantic Chapter for the American Society for Indexing; as an author of  The Guide for the Freelance Indexer (out of print); in the articles she has written for Key Words, the American Society for Indexing publication, and for The Atlantic Indexer, the Mid- and South-Atlantic Chapter’s newsletter; and by teaching indexing courses and offering one-on-one training through associations and organizations.