Idea: Class Interest checklist/database/automated_thingy

Education
#1

(not sure where this belongs, so please feel free to move - starting with @Team_Education )

Idea/Question: Would there be a way for members to indicate interest in certain topics/classes and have a spreadsheet/database/automated_thingamajig keep track of it to know when there’s enough interest in a class? Or when more classes need to be offered?

Example: Let’s say 10 people join this month and all go into “the system” to indicate interests. Each checks off Wood Shop, Reloading, CNC Router, Auto Lift, Sewing Machine, Babylock, Knitting and Trebuchet. “The System” adds these people to “the list” of others signed up for these topics and generates tallies for respective committees. It might even be smart enough to figure out pre-requisites. Maybe it sends a message via e-mail: “Hey, woodshop, there’s 10 new and 18 pre-existing members who want to take wood shop basics, plus a couple of people that want to take Wood Lathe but don’t yet have credit for Basics.”

I am not advocating a preferential system, or queue to get in a class or anything like that, just to be clear.

I’m not enough of a programmer to figure out how to make it work.

Potential Drawback: Members’ interests change and they forget to take themselves off “the list” for the topic(s) they wanted to take. Or they forget to add themselves to “the list” for new topics.

Thoughts?

Membership growth has implications on training
#2

Posting here is the only thing we have now and so it remains unless someone volunteers to build an alternative.

2 Likes
#3

In your mind, what would that alternative look like?

The current method of asking for classes works, sort of, but leaves a lot of information out. Like how many people are wanting the class, and how many seats will be in a class. Take MultiCAM CNC for example. I joined in November. There was a class in November and one in December that were full when I joined (or at least by when I knew enough to check the schedule). There’s a class coming up in a couple of weeks but I don’t know how many seats there are, and I don’t know how many people are also waiting to take that class, so I don’t know if I need to check the calendar obsessively to make sure I get in, or if there are only two people who want to take it.

#4

I’ll tell you what it would look like in my head:
On the calendar, where it says “sign up” or “this class full” (or whatever the actual words are) it would also say “click here to submit your interest”. Then each event would show a counter of “people interested in another class like this”. Especially on the “hosted classes” page…
There’s a rough outline, anyway, of what I think.
This is roughly “borrowed” from a software vendor I work with who uses a forum system which allows “I have that issue, too” votes, which, at various levels, is used to drive their development work (for fixes as well as enhancements/improvements). It ain’t perfect, but I like the idea, and would apply something similar here.

My experience here: when I decided I really wanted to take “it”, I didn’t care how many others were wanting “it”; I began obsessively watching…

4 Likes
#5

Yes - check it obsessively … it wil fill up fast. FCFS.

2 Likes
#6

Maybe offering training more than once a month would help…

#7

I like that idea. I wonder how implementable it is here?

#8

Simple, volunteer as an instructor for some classes and make it happen.

1 Like
#9

This has already been requested by a handful of other members and we have determined that it is outside of the scope of the Calendar system.

#10

If you’re waiting for me to implement, zero chance. Don’t posses the skills, fortitude, nor impetus. :slight_smile:
But I like the idea, and that’s what it would look like if I did posses those things.

1 Like