I think you can figure it out with the manual and some playtime with the camera. Just remember that unlike film each image you take won't cost you anything to develop so you have a "safety net" in that you can do al kinds of experimentation with it.

A classs can help and does for some people, but sometimes it also limits what you can do because it may not be "accepted standard" and you get trained into a mindset of having only one way to do something.

I dunno though I guess if the teacher is really open minded about letting people do their thing, and comments based on artistic merit rather than technical perfection (though many times one begets the other) I think it would help...really depends a lot on the instructor.