Good teaching guide: Difference between revisions

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; Always make clear when you are stating your own opinion, rather than facts. Recognise that other opinions may exist.

: For example, "The Caracal is a great ship and I would normally passive tank it for missions, although you'll see people active tanking it as well. It comes down to personal preferences. For a passive tanked Caracal, you'd fit with..." is a lot better than "A Caracal should be passive tanked for missions. You need to fit...". The last thing you want is to have people arguing with you in the middle of a class - recognise up front that alternative opinions are valid, and then present your own.

~~; Always be polite.~~

: The moment you start raising your voice to someone, you've lost control. Keep polite and your class is on your side - if someone keeps misbehaving, eject them and carry on. Your class will thank you for dealing with the troublemaker, and you come across a lot more professional.

; Don't rush.

: You'd be surprised how fast you run through material. It might seem to you like you are taking your time, but often you will be going through things more quickly than you think. Take time to explain things, slow down your delivery, and don't be afraid to pause for a second or two before answering a question. You'll sound and come across better for it.

: Don't worry too much about being recorded. You will probably be pleasantly surprised to hear later that you come across a lot more fluent and not as slow as you thought - and no one minds any nervous hesitations nearly as much as you do. If the content is good, your audience will focus on that - if you can do it with a smooth delivery, so much the better, but it's not required for a good class.

; Note what your annoying habits are and damp them down.

; ~~Find out~~ what your annoying habits are and ~~cut~~ them ~~out~~.

: Almost everyone, erm, says "erm", a lot, at first. But with, erm, some practice, you'll, erm, say it less often. Which is, erm, good.

; Don't get ~~sidetracked~~.

; Don't get side-tracked.

: Especially when questions come up, it is tempting to answer them right away. However, this might be a totally different part of the class than what you are currently talking about. It is much easier to follow for everyone if your story/explanation progresses logically, so do your best not to get sidetracked. If necessary, answer questions with "I'll cover this later on in the class".

; Practice makes perfect.

: Players will memorize the subject matter better if they are able to put the knowledge into practice. Therefore, adding a practical part to your class greatly enhances its effectiveness, as well as making it more entertaining for the students. This is, of course, not possible with all classes, but a Research & Production class, for example, can be greatly enhanced by handing out 1-run BPCs at the start of the class. Then, as the class progresses, the teacher talks the students through all the required steps to install, run and deliver their production job. Consider adding a practical exercise or two to make your class more interactive and engaging.

=== Fielding questions ===

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* If someone asks a question that you are not sure how to answer, then don't answer definitively. You might think you know the answer, in which case let them know: "''Someone has asked how moon mining works - I know the rough details, but it is a bit beyond the scope of this course, so if it is OK with you, I'll leave that for a more detailed course on POSes''".

The important thing with questions is to deal with them when you want ~~and to stay in control~~.

The important thing with questions is to deal with them when you want, without letting them disarrange your class structure.

=== Keeping control ===

~~Speaking of staying in control, it's vital. You are the instructor and this is your class.~~

This means that you need to ~~discipline~~:

Serious or malicious disruption is rare in EVE University classes, but you need to be able to keep control of the class, and occasionally channel the efforts of people who might want to help but are misdirecting their efforts.

* anyone chatting in the class channel (ask them to take it private)

* anyone continually trying to answer questions "for you" in the class channel ("Could those of you responding to questions in the class channel, please stop - I know you are trying to be helpful but it is a distraction and I intend to cover points as I go along.")

This means that you need to manage:

* anyone chatting in the class channel (ask them to take it to another channel in Discord, or to private messages)

* anyone continually trying to answer questions "for you" in the class channel ("Could those of you responding to questions in the class channel please stop? I know you are trying to be helpful, but it's a distraction, and I intend to cover these points as I go along.")

* anyone misbehaving in channel

* anyone repeatedly speaking or keying up on Mumble because they do not have "Push to Talk" enabled correctly.

In the first instance, ~~be polite and~~ ask them to stop.

In the first instance, courteously ask them to stop. If they don't, then mute or kick them. Ask a Teaching Officer for assistance with this if necessary. Always be polite! The moment you start raising your voice to someone, you've lost control. Stay polite, and your class will be on your side.

If they don't, then do kick them ~~from the Mumble Class (EVE Uni) channel and in-game chat channel~~. ~~Using the in-game channel commands~~, you ~~can choose to mute them for a period as well~~.

~~=== Wrapping up ===~~

~~After the class is over~~, ~~you will need to fill out a class report~~ and ~~update the forum thread for the~~ class~~. For details, please refer to the "[[How_to_Schedule_a_Class#Class_Scheduling_and_Administration|How to Schedule a Class]]" page~~.

If ~~you recorded~~ the class you ~~can follow the guide on [[Editing_and_Uploading_Class_Recordings|Editing and Uploading Class Recordings]]~~ to ~~post your recording online~~.

"Backseat teaching" presents a slightly subtler and more complex problem: in some circumstances, experienced players might be unable to resist the temptation to chip in with corrections or expansions. Rare, brief corrections of minor mistakes offered in a generous spirit are not normally a problem (and occur in real-life educational settings: every teacher slips up occasionally). If someone is regularly keying up on Mumble and taking the direction of the class away from your plan, though, you should gently ask them to stop.

== Summary ==

@@ Line 126: / Line 126: @@
 ; Always make clear when you are stating your own opinion, rather than facts. Recognise that other opinions may exist.
 : For example, "The Caracal is a great ship and I would normally passive tank it for missions, although you'll see people active tanking it as well. It comes down to personal preferences. For a passive tanked Caracal, you'd fit with..." is a lot better than "A Caracal should be passive tanked for missions. You need to fit...". The last thing you want is to have people arguing with you in the middle of a class - recognise up front that alternative opinions are valid, and then present your own.
-; Always be polite.
-: The moment you start raising your voice to someone, you've lost control. Keep polite and your class is on your side - if someone keeps misbehaving, eject them and carry on. Your class will thank you for dealing with the troublemaker, and you come across a lot more professional.
 ; Don't rush.
 : You'd be surprised how fast you run through material. It might seem to you like you are taking your time, but often you will be going through things more quickly than you think. Take time to explain things, slow down your delivery, and don't be afraid to pause for a second or two before answering a question. You'll sound and come across better for it.
-: Don't worry too much about being recorded. You will probably be pleasantly surprised to hear later that you come across a lot more fluent and not as slow as you thought - and no one minds any nervous hesitations nearly as much as you do.  If the content is good, your audience will focus on that - if you can do it with a smooth delivery, so much the better, but it's not required for a good class.
+; Note what your annoying habits are and damp them down.
-; Find out what your annoying habits are and cut them out.
 : Almost everyone, erm, says "erm", a lot, at first.  But with, erm, some practice, you'll, erm, say it less often. Which is, erm, good.
-; Don't get sidetracked.
+; Don't get side-tracked.
 : Especially when questions come up, it is tempting to answer them right away. However, this might be a totally different part of the class than what you are currently talking about. It is much easier to follow for everyone if your story/explanation progresses logically, so do your best not to get sidetracked. If necessary, answer questions with "I'll cover this later on in the class".
 ; Practice makes perfect.
-: Players will memorize the subject matter better if they are able to put the knowledge into practice. Therefore, adding a practical part to your class greatly enhances its effectiveness, as well as making it more entertaining for the students. This is, of course, not possible with all classes, but a Research & Production class, for example, can be greatly enhanced by handing out 1-run BPCs at the start of the class. Then, as the class progresses, the teacher talks the students through all the required steps to install, run and deliver their production job.  Consider adding a practical exercise or two to make your class more interactive and engaging.
+: Players will memorize the subject matter better if they are able to put the knowledge into practice. Therefore, adding a practical part to your class greatly enhances its effectiveness, as well as making it more entertaining for the students. This is, of course, not possible with all classes, but a Research & Production class, for example, can be greatly enhanced by handing out 1-run BPCs at the start of the class. Then, as the class progresses, the teacher talks the students through all the required steps to install, run and deliver their production job. Consider adding a practical exercise or two to make your class more interactive and engaging.
 === Fielding questions ===
@@ Line 152: / Line 147: @@
 * If someone asks a question that you are not sure how to answer, then don't answer definitively. You might think you know the answer, in which case let them know: "''Someone has asked how moon mining works - I know the rough details, but it is a bit beyond the scope of this course, so if it is OK with you, I'll leave that for a more detailed course on POSes''".
-The important thing with questions is to deal with them when you want and to stay in control.
+The important thing with questions is to deal with them when you want, without letting them disarrange your class structure.
 === Keeping control ===
-Speaking of staying in control, it's vital. You are the instructor and this is your class.
-This means that you need to discipline:
+Serious or malicious disruption is rare in EVE University classes, but you need to be able to keep control of the class, and occasionally channel the efforts of people who might want to help but are misdirecting their efforts.
-* anyone chatting in the class channel (ask them to take it private)
-* anyone continually trying to answer questions "for you" in the class channel ("Could those of you responding to questions in the class channel, please stop - I know you are trying to be helpful but it is a distraction and I intend to cover points as I go along.")
+This means that you need to manage:
+* anyone chatting in the class channel (ask them to take it to another channel in Discord, or to private messages)
+* anyone continually trying to answer questions "for you" in the class channel ("Could those of you responding to questions in the class channel please stop? I know you are trying to be helpful, but it's a distraction, and I intend to cover these points as I go along.")
 * anyone misbehaving in channel
 * anyone repeatedly speaking or keying up on Mumble because they do not have "Push to Talk" enabled correctly.
-In the first instance, be polite and ask them to stop.
+In the first instance, courteously ask them to stop. If they don't, then mute or kick them. Ask a Teaching Officer for assistance with this if necessary. Always be polite! The moment you start raising your voice to someone, you've lost control. Stay polite, and your class will be on your side.
-If they don't, then do kick them from the Mumble Class (EVE Uni) channel and in-game chat channel. Using the in-game channel commands, you can choose to mute them for a period as well.
-=== Wrapping up ===
-After the class is over, you will need to fill out a class report and update the forum thread for the class.  For details, please refer to the "[[How_to_Schedule_a_Class#Class_Scheduling_and_Administration|How to Schedule a Class]]" page.
-If you recorded the class you can follow the guide on [[Editing_and_Uploading_Class_Recordings|Editing and Uploading Class Recordings]] to post your recording online.
+"Backseat teaching" presents a slightly subtler and more complex problem: in some circumstances, experienced players might be unable to resist the temptation to chip in with corrections or expansions. Rare, brief corrections of minor mistakes offered in a generous spirit are not normally a problem (and occur in real-life educational settings: every teacher slips up occasionally). If someone is regularly keying up on Mumble and taking the direction of the class away from your plan, though, you should gently ask them to stop.
 == Summary ==