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, āHow do I plan and deliver a class on ____?ā
My somewhat dated posting has thoughts on classes from several teachers.
One thing that frustrates me to no end as a teacher is no shows. Between people who ghost my class or just donāt bother to come and provide no explanation/communication, it really feels like they donāt respect my time. Since Iām teaching a multi-part class, I canāt really open it up to the public, since I donāt know if you have the required experience. Currently, Iām at about 50% attendance after ~3 weeks of lecture. I had to open up another section because of the signups, but now Iām tempted to merge them into one section.
Iād 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. Itās 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 donāt want to put in barriers.
This is definitely a problem thatās going to need to be addressed by DMS going forward if we keep on wanting to expand teaching/classes.
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.
Some instructors require permission to sign up, this is just to make sure itās a What-the-hell-I-may-go. If you donāt show in the future doesnāt 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.
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 donāt bother to show up to all of the lectures, then thatās your problem. But unless you can show me that you understand the material or that you have a good excuse, I wonāt let you back in. I still need to figure it out.
Yeah, I have all of my lectures setup to approval only, and Iām keeping a blacklist of people who didnāt show up to my class. W.r.t. zero skin in the game, thatās more of a culture problem. If people canāt or donāt 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 Iām fully behind that.
Itās something I might consider for the future, but if they only know the theory and donāt know how to code, thatās a problem. Iām not going to administer a coding test, since I think thatās asking for too much work of me at that point.
If youāre really that dedicated, you can just show up to the class anyway. Iām not going to physically tell you to leave (within reason), so itās your onus to catch up.
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.
Letās 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.
@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. Iāll 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.
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 Iām on linux, but arduino shouldnāt be a problem there.
Since I have open spaces right now, Iām more flexible to letting people just drop in. As Burt mentioned, if you have prior experience, I donāt mind people coming in so long as I donāt have to restart my material from day 1. For me, I just donāt want to create exams to test knowledge, as I have no way to guarantee that someone isnāt just looking up all of the answers online.
Monday and Friday nights are bad days for people to totally forget that theyāve 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 donāt āmakeā because people forgot that they ever signed up. The Calendar āclaimsā that you can get a reminder, but I donāt think it actually sends those reminders.
If you install the Arduino IDE, you will be ahead of the game. There are a couple more steps Iā 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. Iām doing an online Python class and Iāll definitely catch one of yours when you have an opening on the day of the class.
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.
Iām 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 āDMS accountā that is settled every month, etc. Doing a Kiosk buy for $1 always makes me cringe.
This has been an issue for years, and I would have thought the Board would have solutioned it by now, and communicated the āgo forwardā process to all committee chairs and uploaded the process to the Wiki.
Tell any āwould-beā instructors who donāt 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 ātool usage/materials costsā (per-person) that cannot be recovered. Then charge that amount as your class fee.
This āoff the cuffā 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.
Part of the current problem is that long form classes arenāt 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 canāt 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.
Itās a rock and a hard place situation, unfortunately, and there isnāt an easy solution to our problems.