Hi,
I agree with Bianca here, class sizes of 20 (2 instructors + 2 helpers)
work nicely, and I also would not go above 30 (with more helpers in this
case 3-4). This is perhaps only marginally relevant, but I have been
struggling to book rooms (at Uni of Manchester, UK) that can comfortably
fit 30 (let alone > 30) people with enough room for helpers to move
around and reach and talk to trainees without disturbing the rest of the
class and for trainees to see the screen at the front properly (but this
may be a limitation of rooms we have at our disposal here).
Anything below 20 is possibly not such a good use of resources
(instructors' and helpers' times), even though I did workshops for ~15
people from the same cohort in a nice and friendly environment.
Regards,
Aleks
--
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Dr Aleksandra Nenadic, Training Lead
The Software Sustainability Institute
The University of Manchester
Email: a.nena...@manchester.ac.uk
Email: a.nena...@software.ac.uk
Skype: a.nenadic
Office: +44 (0)161 275 0672
Web: www.software.ac.uk
Twitter: @SoftwareSaved
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
On 24/04/2018 16:41, Bianca Peterson wrote:
Hi Maneesha,
From past workshop experience (n=5), a class size of 20 has worked the
best (in my opinion). For this class size, 2 instructors and 2 helpers
were enough, since the one instructor usually helps while the other
one teaches. However, it's important to keep in mind that one of the
helpers might need to run/drive around to handle crises.
Then again, on request, I did a one-day R workshop all by myself (I
forgot to ask for helpers) with 15 participants, and I was able to
manage it. However, there weren't a lot of questions and most of them
just wanted to "have a look at R" and were not necessarily interested
in using this post-workshop.
Personally, I would not run a workshop with more than 30 people,
because, as you said, the workshops should be engaging and interactive.
Hope this helps!
Bianca Peterson
North-West University
Potchefstroom
2531
On Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 5:22 PM, Maneesha Sane
<manee...@carpentries.org <mailto:manee...@carpentries.org>> wrote:
Hey all -
As I think about Carpentries workshop operations, I have a
question for discussion.
What's your ideal Carpentries class size?
Assume 2 instructors and a 1:10 helper:learner ratio (3 people
total for a class of 10, 4 people total for a class of 20, and so on)
We want our workshops to be engaging, hands on, and interactive.
Is there a lower limit to this, where it doesn't seem big enough
to worthwhile in those ways?
And is there an upper limit, where it's too big to be worthwhile
in those ways?
Perspectives from instructors, hosts, helpers, and learners are
welcome! Feel free to reply all or email me directly. Thanks for
your feedback.
(Cross posted on slack. Not part of that communications platform?
Join here: https://swc-slack-invite.herokuapp.com
<https://swc-slack-invite.herokuapp.com/>)
Maneesha Sane
/Program Manager/
/Instructor and Trainer/
Software Carpentry: https://software-carpentry.org/
<https://software-carpentry.org/>
Data Carpentry: http://www.datacarpentry.org/
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