Recent increase in classes and attendance!

[bpamplin]

I just checked to see if there were seats available in my Arduino class this evening or should I put out a last minute note on seats available. It was great to see that six classes are being offered this evening and all are FULL! Scrolling forward, many future classes are also FULL. We seem to be recovering toward our exciting pre-Covid days of many classes being offered. I think this was a key item in our growth to over 2,000 members.

As always I will say that we do not have enough classes. If you have never taught and would like to there are many sources of information including:

• Check with the chair person of the area of interest
• Check with those who have taught related classes. You will find that the teacher community is very encouraging toward those interested in starting a class.
• Post a topic here, “How do I plan and deliver a class on ____?”
• My somewhat dated posting has thoughts on classes from several teachers.
• Thoughts on developing and running a class

[simurghi]

One thing that frustrates me to no end as a teacher is no shows. Between people who ghost my class or just don’t bother to come and provide no explanation/communication, it really feels like they don’t respect my time. Since I’m teaching a multi-part class, I can’t really open it up to the public, since I don’t know if you have the required experience. Currently, I’m at about 50% attendance after ~3 weeks of lecture. I had to open up another section because of the signups, but now I’m tempted to merge them into one section.

I’d like to not charge for my class, since I want it to be accessible, but if this is going to be the trend in the future, I might have to put in some fees to ensure commitment. It’s especially frustrating since I do have students who are engaged with the subject matter, have been showing up with no issues, and have been getting a lot from my class, so I don’t want to put in barriers.

This is definitely a problem that’s going to need to be addressed by DMS going forward if we keep on wanting to expand teaching/classes.

[SWA]

@simurghi

Some skill evaluation methods.
Consider having them complete a code test.
Submit some sample code they have previously written.
Have a quick chat to probe their general understanding.

if they are motivated and smart, they can still catch up at this point.

[SWA]

oh, charge $5 a class.

[Photomancer]

Some instructors require permission to sign up, this is just to make sure it’s a What-the-hell-I-may-go. If you don’t show in the future doesn’t allow you to sign-up but you can show-up and there is a opening, you can attend.

No shows are problem where there is zero skin in the game.

[simurghi]

Most of the people who dropped out did so before we got to lists or flow control. Not much I can test them on.

I might just charge all of the class fees up front like 100 USD or so. If you don’t bother to show up to all of the lectures, then that’s your problem. But unless you can show me that you understand the material or that you have a good excuse, I won’t let you back in. I still need to figure it out.

[SWA]

Write up a short 5 question quiz.

What is a data type?
What is a list?
What is flow control used for?
Basic concepts like that.
Even if they hit Sack Overflow, who cares?

[simurghi]

Yeah, I have all of my lectures setup to approval only, and I’m keeping a blacklist of people who didn’t show up to my class. W.r.t. zero skin in the game, that’s more of a culture problem. If people can’t or don’t attend a class, the least they can do is have the courtesy to cancel and/or inform the instructor so that they can open up a slot. I know the board has mentioned the idea of a global blacklist and I’m fully behind that.

[simurghi]

It’s something I might consider for the future, but if they only know the theory and don’t know how to code, that’s a problem. I’m not going to administer a coding test, since I think that’s asking for too much work of me at that point.

If you’re really that dedicated, you can just show up to the class anyway. I’m not going to physically tell you to leave (within reason), so it’s your onus to catch up.

[Lordrook]

@simurghi

One thing that frustrates me to no end as a teacher is no shows. Between people who ghost my class or just don’t bother to come and provide no explanation/communication, it really feels like they don’t respect my time.

This is why I took a few months off. In October I had a fairly large number of no shows. I got lucky in a few cases and had some walk ons last minute but one class had 1 out of 5 show. I have heard others have been texting their students to remind them a day or 2 in advance to allow them to cancel if they needed to and open spots for others. going to try that this month and see how it goes.

[SWA]

Let’s develop a process to deal with this. it is unacceptable. I would like to see a long term solution that would allow a refund/partial refund of the class fee when people actually attend. You could call a good behavior bonus, but most likely some would call it a fine.

[bpamplin]

@simurghi No-shows are from a new problem. Below is a link to a topic I posted over five years ago that got 112 replies mainly from teachers. I limit classes to six or eight so I can have time to work with everyone as needed. This, like your own classes, sets us up for empty seats. I have generally had good results from sending a reminder three days ahead of time but I overlooked that for my class tonight. I’ll report back here on how that works out.

You might have noticed that when you first posted your first class, I immediately signed up but within a few minutes I cancelled. I like to support electronics related teachers and attend their first class. Actually, I popped up the page and registered without reading the description. When I read the description, I realized that you wanted only students who commit for all classes. That is great but I was not in position to make that commitment.

Five No-Shows, a Late Cancellation and No Honorarium

Today five people did now show up and one cancelled within thirty minutes of class start time. The good news is that two great guys showed up and we had a great time. I limit the class to eight because I furnish all the microcontrollers and sensors and don’t care to manage more. It also lets me use the Purple Classroom and keep the larger rooms available for others. Chris @John_Marlow suggested once that teachers should send a note out a couple of days ahead asking that folks cancel early if…

[simurghi]

Hi Brady,

I already send out emails with the class notes and reminders for attendance, on upcoming sessions. I actually need to setup my laptop for your class tonight, as I’m on linux, but arduino shouldn’t be a problem there.

Since I have open spaces right now, I’m more flexible to letting people just drop in. As Burt mentioned, if you have prior experience, I don’t mind people coming in so long as I don’t have to restart my material from day 1. For me, I just don’t want to create exams to test knowledge, as I have no way to guarantee that someone isn’t just looking up all of the answers online.

[dryad2b]

My two cents:

Monday and Friday nights are bad days for people to totally forget that they’ve signed up for a class. And, classes more than about a week ahead seem to involve some memory issues, too. I know that Sue likes to put her classes up about 3 months at a time, and then the later classes don’t “make” because people forgot that they ever signed up. The Calendar “claims” that you can get a reminder, but I don’t think it actually sends those reminders.

[bpamplin]

If you install the Arduino IDE, you will be ahead of the game. There are a couple more steps I’ go over in class.

I will be in the North Lobby Classroom around six. If you get a chance, come on in.

Thanks for opening up more. I’m doing an online Python class and I’ll definitely catch one of yours when you have an opening on the day of the class.

[jphelps]

A note: Any DMS provided solution that increases credit card activity will need to be approved by the Infra and Finance teams at least, perhaps others. They make it happen as well as deal with problems when it breaks and this sort of thing may increase the workload of our all-volunteer teams.

I’m not opposed though and have spent time noodling broader needs: I wish we had a system where incidentals and classes could be charged to a ‘DMS account’ that is settled every month, etc. Doing a Kiosk buy for $1 always makes me cringe.

[SWA]

@jphelps

Doing a Kiosk buy for $1 always makes me cringe.

It also never gets out of hand for people.

@jphelps

A note: Any DMS provided solution that increases credit card activity will need to be approved by the Infra and Finance teams at least, perhaps others

I agree. I’m just trying get folks to think outside of the box a little.

[John_Marlow]

@Lordrook

I have heard others have been texting their students to remind them a day or 2 in advance to allow them to cancel if they needed to and open spots for others. going to try that this month and see how it goes.

That has worked super well for me!

[Scott_Blevins]

This has been an issue for years, and I would have thought the Board would have solutioned it by now, and communicated the ‘go forward’ process to all committee chairs and uploaded the process to the Wiki.

Tell any ‘would-be’ instructors who don’t like no-shows to charge a small fee, say $5.00, or perhaps more, if the cost of any class being taught results in quantifiable ‘tool usage/materials costs’ (per-person) that cannot be recovered. Then charge that amount as your class fee.

This ‘off the cuff’ process modeling above likely solves 90% of the issue. The remaining 10% (odd-ball scenarios) can be fleshed out by the Board, or their appointees.

[simurghi]

Part of the current problem is that long form classes aren’t great for honarium/no show fees.

5-10 dollars is fine for a single class, but if it is a 9-10 part class, then you can’t restart from the beginning every time. Perhaps I should do a bootcamp like weekend of welding, but I want people to retain the material and practice in between lectures.

It’s a rock and a hard place situation, unfortunately, and there isn’t an easy solution to our problems.