How can we improve our classes?

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Anya en Ruddhisa
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Re: How can we improve our classes?

Post by Anya en Ruddhisa »

The best way students can help the E-Uni teaching staff, in my opinion, is to step up and start teaching classes on those topics that they know something about.
Exactly what I was going to say! If there's something you know about and want to teach a class on, step up and volunteer. Our Teaching Department won't turn down a volunteer teacher, and they'll support you however they can.

But watch out, if you're too helpful or resourceful, they might try to recruit you to join the department! ;)
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Jindo Lee
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Re: How can we improve our classes?

Post by Jindo Lee »

Paledan Safemal wrote:
The best way students can help the E-Uni teaching staff, in my opinion, is to step up and start teaching classes on those topics that they know something about.
That.
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Marius Labo
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Re: How can we improve our classes?

Post by Marius Labo »

Jindo Lee wrote:
Paledan Safemal wrote:
The best way students can help the E-Uni teaching staff, in my opinion, is to step up and start teaching classes on those topics that they know something about.
That.
And make it easy for them to do so.
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Danielle en Divalone
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Re: How can we improve our classes?

Post by Danielle en Divalone »

Ok, I have a few things to say, this may not be the correct place to put this but it needs to be said.

1. To keep guest lecturers and teachers, you need to make it as easy for them to teach as possible. The person who posted my last class for me was contacted and asked to have my class "approved" by the teaching management from now on. Then I was contacted and asked for a syllabus for my class. (If you wish to retain the teachers you have making them do extra work in order to help Uni players is not the way to do it.) And to add in I have been teaching classes with the Uni for over 2 years. I love meeting and helping the new players. But I will be honest, if I am going to have to jump thru hoops, I am not sure that I will continue.

2. The best way to learn certain aspects of the game is to actually teach a class in the Uni. I taught my first class when I was about 3 or 4 months old. I was fully supported by the teaching management and even given a few tips and told to go have fun with it. Not to worry if I did not know everything, teach what I did know. It worked great. I even learned lots of new stuff in the process. I was recently contacted by a newer player (at least 6 months old) that told me he was asked to remove his class because someone did not feel he was "experienced" enough. Part of what the Uni is built on is new players teaching other new players. I am really hoping this concept is not being lost.

3. Let teachers teach their way. Everyone has their own methods. If students do not like the methods that teacher uses they will not return to their class. It is simple enough. It is just like in any other educational environment, students tend to stay away from elective classes they find to harsh or boring. You have a large amount of players that all learn differently. Having teachers that teach the same class completely different is a good thing.
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Re: How can we improve our classes?

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Marius Labo
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Re: How can we improve our classes?

Post by Marius Labo »

Danielle en Divalone wrote:1. To keep guest lecturers and teachers, you need to make it as easy for them to teach as possible. The person who posted my last class for me was contacted and asked to have my class "approved" by the teaching management from now on. Then I was contacted and asked for a syllabus for my class. (If you wish to retain the teachers you have making them do extra work in order to help Uni players is not the way to do it.) And to add in I have been teaching classes with the Uni for over 2 years. I love meeting and helping the new players. But I will be honest, if I am going to have to jump thru hoops, I am not sure that I will continue.
I'm somewhat astonished to hear of this. If this is in regards to the class you teach quite often, and have done for more than a year when you were in the Uni, I'd say there was some sort of mix up. Perhaps the persons involved didn't know who you are? Trust me, I still have to get over that one myself ;).

Seriously, though, it seems like a major mix up. I know for years that new guest lecturers were asked to supply some material in advance, as this was done mainly as a mechanism to prevent experienced pilots from joining the Uni under the pretext of teaching when that wasn't really why they wanted to join. And of course, the recruiting parameters have changed and grown with the Uni's current scope.

If this isn't a mix-up then someone really needs to give their head a shake. After all, why would you want to bite the hand that is willing to teach for you? Someone that's already a proven commodity.
Last edited by Marius Labo on 2015.10.17 13:52, edited 1 time in total.
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Paledan Safemal
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Re: How can we improve our classes?

Post by Paledan Safemal »

Danielle en Divalone wrote:1. To keep guest lecturers and teachers, you need to make it as easy for them to teach as possible. The person who posted my last class for me was contacted and asked to have my class "approved" by the teaching management from now on. Then I was contacted and asked for a syllabus for my class. (If you wish to retain the teachers you have making them do extra work in order to help Uni players is not the way to do it.) And to add in I have been teaching classes with the Uni for over 2 years. I love meeting and helping the new players. But I will be honest, if I am going to have to jump thru hoops, I am not sure that I will continue.
You're much too polite. Speaking for myself, I am completely, 100% certain that if the Uni asks me for some red tape to retain my unpaid, unofficial, unrecognized guest lecturer status, I will just stop.

The good news is they haven't so far.

My own experience (TL-DR: I'm entirely happy with my working conditions.):

- When I mentioned that it was a pain to have people schedule your classes on the E-Uni calendar, the teaching department kindly asked me to give them the name of an alt that they might invite to HALL.

- With this alt, I can schedule or reschedule stuff. The alt is obviously not doing anything embarrassing like shooting IVY blues: it's not doing anything, really, except log on somewhere in space when I want to schedule a class, and then I log it off again. Sometimes, I'll use it to post a reminder about the class on the alliance chat channel, but 90% of the time I don't even bother. I did not submit an API for the toon, let alone the account.

- I was never asked in advance for my syllabus. In my time in the Uni, I updated some E-Uni wiki pages relating to other classes' syllabi, but I have never created one. Since I left the Uni, I'm happy pointing out to any student attending my classes when something needs updating so they can earn brownie points toward their graduation. There are class names that as far as I can tell I have invented (the class didn't exist as such at the time) and that other people have picked up, teaching them and doubtless writing an appropriate syllabus page for. Which is great: it means they're no longer my idea, but the Uni's.

- I do fill in the class report thingie to help E-Uni management, which takes me all of 2 minutes. Sometimes, instead of linking a proper "syllabus" page when asked in the form, I link the regular E-Uni wiki page that comes closest to the class I taught. Never got in trouble over that.

- I was given the ability to mute people in the public Mumble server at some point. Probably don't have it anymore on the new server, but that's fine because I've never had to use it.

I have no idea how many regular or semi-regular teachers are on the rolls. I have no idea how many guest lecturers there are, and how many can be considered regular. For example, I do not teach a class every month though I do teach more than 12 classes a year.
The current "guest lecturer" status is clearly an afterthought. Maybe the teaching department would need to update a list and make it public, maybe people who were teachers and want to continue teaching should always be allowed alts in HALL to make their lives easier (with alt's name clearly noted somewhere, to be kicked if/when the main stops teaching). But since all of that that would also need more work for the teaching department, and since I'm really not sure having your name on the Roll of Official And Current Holders of the title would generate more classes, I'm not going to ask for it.
Danielle en Divalone wrote:3. Let teachers teach their way. Everyone has their own methods. If students do not like the methods that teacher uses they will not return to their class. It is simple enough. It is just like in any other educational environment, students tend to stay away from elective classes they find to harsh or boring. You have a large amount of players that all learn differently. Having teachers that teach the same class completely different is a good thing.
That.
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Jindo Lee
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Re: How can we improve our classes?

Post by Jindo Lee »

Marius Labo wrote:
Danielle en Divalone wrote:The person who posted my last class for me was contacted and asked to have my class "approved" by the teaching management from now on. Then I was contacted and asked for a syllabus for my class... if I am going to have to jump thru hoops, I am not sure that I will continue.
I'm somewhat astonished to hear of this.
So am I, considering I'm the person who contacted you about a syllabus, and it was clear that it wasn't for approval -- but to share what you were doing, and see if we could get something on the wiki, for the benefit of future teachers who might want to run the class. I even offered to do it for you...

I sense some over-dramtitification and/or rumor-milling happening here... :wink:
All those damn buttons
From: Jindo Lee
To: Danielle en Divalone, unstable unit
Hey guys!

I saw you just ran your class "All those Damn Buttons" again. Sorry I missed it!

I was wondering if it would be possible for you to turn your notes into some type of syllabus for our wiki?

It wouldn't have to be an in-depth guide -- just a simple outline of the topic covered would be a nice start.

If you don't feel like you are up to it, if you want to give me your notes, I could probably get around to it eventually...

Anyway, let me know what you think.

Jindo
If I recall, you said you don't have any notes, and you just wing it from memory -- although UU did mention she was working on some type of syllabus she might contribute at some point... And that was the end of that, no problem. Or so I thought.

If you were told you needed to have a class you've already taught many times before "approved" -- then that's just wrong. My guess is that telephone relay game dynamics kicked in at some point. :)

The only people we ask to contact us before teaching are brand-spanking new, first-time teachers, so we can help them out and make sure they are on the right track.

As for "if their classes suck, then no one will come..." Well, this method really isn't the best approach for maintaining any kind of image as a reliable source of education in New Eden. In fact, it can't work -- since new players start the game every month, there will always be plenty of people attending all of our classes for the first time, without any idea about who the teachers are...

Almost all of our classes are open to the entire EvE Community, and the public at large. As a significant part of our mission and identity, they go a long way toward representing E-Uni to New Eden, and shaping public perception of our corporation. So it's important that we have some type of minimal contact with people before they decide to give public lectures under our name. I don't think anyone could seriously argue, that asking someone who has never taught a class for E-Uni, to contact us before stepping up on stage and representing our corp to the public, is an unreasonable hoop to jump through.

There has been a lot of talk lately behind the scenes about how we can get more people involved and stepping up to teach, while simultaneously reducing the amount of bureaucracy involved (both for the staff and the teachers), while still maintaining some minimum standards of quality. Those three things aren't easy to balance, but we have all agreed to try our best to lean more toward the "less-bureaucracy" to make it as painless as possible for all our volunteers.
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Praetoris Domitian
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Re: How can we improve our classes?

Post by Praetoris Domitian »

Can't say I've ever had an issue. From the sounds of it, there's just been some misunderstanding.
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Re: How can we improve our classes?

Post by Professor Academiac »

I really don't see what's the issue here Danielle. You are already recognized as a GL, and in fact you and Marius are the only ones officially acknowledged on our list because I've been slacking on updating this for some time and only your names popped in my head while editing this one day. We won't ask existing acknowledge lecturers for pre-approval, and I can't really understand how you inferred that Jindo asked to see your materials for approval.

We only approve new guest lecturers' materials because in some cases some have tried to abuse their GL status to scam or otherwise take harmful actions against new unsuspecting students that trust the Uni, which can hurt the Uni's image. We will keep doing that, cause showing us notes before a class that should be already prepared is neither red tape nor an illogical request, and by not doing so it can have detrimental consequences on our reputation.

Also, no one takes out big fleets before taking out small gangs first. Similarly, no teacher should teach to the general public under the Uni's name before teaching in a more controlled envrionment (such as a campus class). We can then provide feedback and help them develop if needed to make sure they can effectively teach public classes, consequently improving the teaching experience in the Uni. Our aim is not to cull, but help make teaching more effective.
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Re: How can we improve our classes?

Post by Danielle en Divalone »

Professor Academiac wrote:We won't ask existing acknowledge lecturers for pre-approval, and I can't really understand how you inferred that Jindo asked to see your materials for approval.
You may need to talk with your fellow staff. Unstable was contacted prior to the class and told that I needed approval and that a corp mail was recently sent out to this effect.
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Re: How can we improve our classes?

Post by Azmodeus Valar »

I believe the corp mail in question is this:
EVE University teaching
From: Spanky Ikkala
Sent: 2015.09.24 18:55
To: EVE University,

Unistas,

Some, all, or none of you may not be aware of the E-Uni founding principles:

Here, gathered under a common cause, we agree to recognise that together, as a community,
we can teach those new generations of capsuleers.
Together, we can prepare them better than any guides or agents can.
Together, we can give them the best start possible, without limiting their options.
Together, we can instil in them the skills needed not only to survive, but to be successful.
We do this not for power, or influence, or money.
We do this because we too recognise that ‘more’ does not have to be the solitary goal.
We do this because...we are EVE University!

In the past few months, there has been a significant increase in the number of classes that EVE University has offered to the pilots of New Eden. This is down to the sterling work done by Jindo Lee (who looks after all our teaching resources) and Professor Academiac (who looks after all our teachers and guest lecturers). The hard work of class delivery is undertaken by our solid core of teachers, guest lecturers, and everyone else who gives up their time and energy to enable EVE University to support its founding principles, to educate new pilots. To all these people we say "THANK YOU!"

As a department, we want to continue to encourage every member of EVE University to share their knowledge and their experience with their fellow capsuleers, and to help us to make sure that we are providing a suitable breadth and depth of classes for new players. If you notice that a class on something that you consider an important topic hasn't been offered for a while, and you feel like you have the requisite expertise to pass that knowledge on, then please help us out by scheduling a class or at the least asking us to schedule one.

If you have never never taught a class for EVE University before, then don't let that stop you from trying to teach - all we ask is that you contact the teaching management first (Jindo Lee, Professor Academiac or Spanky Ikkala) to discuss your plans, before you add it to the public calendar and the forum. We can help you with syllabii, slides and teaching tips.

We have also seen a few unistas arrange guest lecturers without letting the department know. While we applaud your enthusiasm can we please just ask people trying to arrange guest lecturers to also contact the teaching department, as we may have existing plans in that direction already in the works.

Once again, thank you so much to everyone that helps us to pass knowledge on to new capsuleers, and keep up the awesome work!

Spanky Ikkala
Teaching Manager
The most important parts are :
If you have never never taught a class for EVE University before, then don't let that stop you from trying to teach - all we ask is that you contact the teaching management first (Jindo Lee, Professor Academiac or Spanky Ikkala) to discuss your plans, before you add it to the public calendar and the forum. We can help you with syllabii, slides and teaching tips.
which isn't about approval. It just is to make sure people have some sort of plan and access to resources that might help them. It only applies to people who never taught before.

Also:
We have also seen a few unistas arrange guest lecturers without letting the department know. While we applaud your enthusiasm can we please just ask people trying to arrange guest lecturers to also contact the teaching department, as we may have existing plans in that direction already in the works.
This is meant to avoid embarassing situations like this:
Uni member A contacts group X to talk about Y
Uni member B also contacts group X to talk about Y
Uni member C has a great idea, and contacts group X to talk about Y.

Instead, it would go like this:
Uni member A wants to contact group X a class. Lets a teacher know, and is told to go ahead
Uni member B wants to contact group X for a class. Teachers let him know its already happening.
Uni member C wants to contact group X for a class. Teachers let him know its already happening.


It seems as if this is a misunderstanding, or wording was not clear in communications. If you could PM me with whatever you read/were sent that sent the wrong impression, we will fix it.

I apologize if anyone was upset by the situation. Wires seem to have been crossed at some point.

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Re: How can we improve our classes?

Post by Spanky Ikkala »

The reason I spoke to UU about this was not to vet Dani's suitability as I know that she does an awesome job, it was to get hold of her teaching resources / plan / syllabus so that we could try and stick it in some form of E-Uni syllabus to allow us to grow our teaching resources and allow other people to cover similar stuff at a future date.

While we love the uniqueness that intensely passionate people such as Dani bring to our classes, it should always be about the education and learning of our students, never about the teachers (not that I am suggesting Dani is making this about her). I personally (and I'm not the only one) have had issues in the past trying to get hold of teaching materials that other teachers have sucessfully used so that I can use that as a basis for a lecture I wanted to do. TOur teaching material (and I accept that Dani is a GL not an E-Uni member) should always be available to the most number of people and that was my only interest in what Dani was planning to do.

[ 2015.09.26 11:54:35 ] unstable unit > I've started writing up a syllabus for the Buttons class actually, as we've never had one (and I dont even have my original notes on my half of the lesson).
[ 2015.09.26 11:55:03 ] unstable unit > It'd be good to get it written up so others can run it.
[ 2015.09.26 11:55:25 ] Spanky Ikkala > Yeah if it's something you think is worth teaching, then we could do with a syllabus, a copy of the slides and a recording please.
[ 2015.09.26 11:57:09 ] unstable unit > It could take a while cos it's not high on my list of priorites atm. Dani took over my half when I left the other year, but with her out of corp, I think we need to have it ready to hand over to others.
[ 2015.09.26 11:59:34 ] Spanky Ikkala > Indeed, however I suggest we give it an official 101 name so anyone feel they can run with it.
[ 2015.09.26 12:00:20 ] Spanky Ikkala > Can you speak to Jindo Lee about the syllabus, recording, slides etc please as he's responsible for all that.


If any of the individuals concerned had spoken to me about their worries, I would have happily cleared this point up and put everyone's mind at ease. I'm just sorry it's taken me this long to realise that it had caused this much concern. :D
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Re: How can we improve our classes?

Post by Eris Snoogie »

I think where applicable, practicals should be much more common place. It would give not only direct application for the knowlege learned, but also a hightened sense of community in E-Uni
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Re: How can we improve our classes?

Post by Fhulgrhim »

First, I will caveat what I am about to say with this. Despite my request below, it will not guarantee my participation in all classes...but it will at least give me (and others) the opportunity to do so. Also, I understand that this corporation is world wide. Im not sure of the population break down, so feasibility may not be practical.

My recommendation is to have more classes that take place after the United States working class gets off work and home and settled. It seems that most classes take place between 1500-2000 server time. I personally am on US Central time which is -0500 hours from server time. So this means most classes for me take place between 1000-1500 local time. Well...I work 0700-1600 M-F. Very rarely does a class take place in my weekday evenings. Now I do actually read up a lot on the wiki, so learning is occurring. But it would be nice to maybe sit in a class on a weekday evening when I would otherwise just be doing a BYOC with the AMC. Weekends are also weird because if I don't have plans in RL, I am probably doing a SC or something else. So I will end this with yes, I may be able to attend some weekend classes after from prioritization adjustment. But I think it would be great for many Americans to have the opportunity to do some night classes during the week.

- Fhulgrhim

PS - I know I have probably just put my foot in my mouth cause as Murphy's Law will hit when more classes are scheduled at a time that fits and I will not be able to attend for one reason or another. But if others are afforded an opportunity, then all is well and I will eat that foot with gusto.
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