Good teaching guide
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This page is specific to EVE University. Other corporations or groups in the game may operate differently. For a summary of EVE University's rules and code of conduct, see EVE University Rules. |
This page helps new teachers to prepare for teaching at EVE University, and passes on some hints and tips for successful classes. It is not a comprehensive guide to teaching: there are often several good ways to teach a topic, and in time everyone develops their own style. Teaching, in general, is a deep topic which occupies full-time researchers at real-life universities. For new teachers, however, the following advice should be useful.
The core messages of this page can be summarised as follows:
- Prepare for what you want to cover
- Make the class your own
- Keep control of the class while giving it
For practical advice on scheduling, advertising and streaming a class, see Teaching Classes at EVE University.
Preparation
Sensible preparation underpins good teaching. You don't need to spend hours scripting every part of your class down to the word—this would make your class inflexible—but you do need to make sure you have laid the groundwork for your teaching.
You should make sure you confidently know:
- what you are covering
- what order you are covering it in
- what extra details you might need to cover, depending on questions that get asked.
EVE University's set of "CORE" classes offer pre-designed templates for teaching essential introductory topics, and a CORE class is a great way to get started with teaching. If you'd like to develop a class on another topic, talk to the Teaching Department: they will be happy to help.
Class notes
Have you ever tried presenting someone else's work? It's harder to give a presentation that you don't know well yourself. Preparing a presentation, or even simply reordering the points in a way that makes the most sense to you, leads to a presentation that flows better and feels more natural as you present it, and so it will feel more natural to your audience as they listen to it.
So, even if you are starting off with a CORE class, go through the following steps. Expect to spend an hour of preparation for an hour-long class.
The best way to prepare for your class is to compose some class notes.
Class notes come in many forms. The level of detail in class notes will depend on your personal preference. At the least, they ought to contain:
- Major headings of the topics you want to cover
- Sub-headings to remind you of the order you want to cover things
- Notes to remind you of the points you want to make
As an example, here is a section of possible notes for a class on research and production:
There is nothing earth-shattering here, but notes such as these will help you remember to cover all the points, and gives a logical sequence to use. By preparing a few bullet-point items to cover, you can still speak fluently without simply reading your notes.
If preparing a CORE class, you can acquire the slide deck PDF from the CORE class page and make notes on paper or in a text file to accompany each slide. The Teaching Department can also provide PowerPoint files of the slides; these come with some electronic notes which you can add to. (If you receive and modify a PowerPoint file for a CORE class, don't pass it to anyone else, to help the department avoid having competing versions circulating!)
If you're at all nervous, you can work through your slides, or the stages of any practical exercise you have planned, and practise saying aloud the kinds of elaborations on your notes which you will be offering. This will ensure a more natural and engaging delivery in the class proper.
For some classes, it is also useful to ready a document containing all the links you might expect to post on Discord, in the rough order of the subjects covered.
Once you've written your class notes, you're almost ready for the class. You know what you want to cover, but students have a habit of asking questions that don't quite fall within your neat class plan.
Additional details
Depending on the class, there may be little need for additional information. However, most classes have related topics that you might not intend to cover, but that you might be asked about. Think through these related topics, and prepare some short notes. It will help you to manage the class and deal with questions, and will also make you look smart!
For example, for a production and research class, you might not intend to cover Upwell structure use in great detail beyond using them for high-sec research, but you could prepare a separate page of class notes on the basics of player structures. As another example, for a CORE class on weapon systems, it is handy to have a few notes on the very basics of overheating, as this topic sometimes comes up during weapons discussion.
If student questions travel too far beyond the topic at hand, you can always say that this question really does lie well beyond the class's topic; if you know of a regularly-taught class or any other resource which does address the question, point the student towards them. Finally, it's always okay to admit that you don't know something if you don't know it!
Final preparations
In the final run-up to your class:
- check that you have your notes to hand
- check that you have any slides you'll be using
- check that you're comfortable with any Discord streaming you will need to do
Make sure your surroundings are as quiet as you can realistically make them, and that you have water or another soft drink to hand to keep yourself refreshed while speaking.
If you feel nervous, that's okay: mild nerves are completely natural before teaching (and even some very experienced teachers still feel them!). EVE University classes are positive, friendly environments, and if you're new to teaching for the University a Teaching Officer will probably be on hand to back you up.
Giving the class
On the day of your class, make sure that you have all your notes on hand, and log in ahead of time to prepare. You want to be there waiting for students to arrive and start on time. Remember, people are taking time out to listen to you - yes, it is a great service you are doing, but they might only have an hour and you owe it to them to keep your end of the bargain.
The best classes (in EVE and in real life) are those that:
- have a clear structure;
- are presented well;
- deal efficiently with questions; and
- maintain control of the class.
Structure
You'll have a very good idea of how you want the class to run. The best way to make sure this happens is to let your class know this in advance.
EVE University classes typically run with audio on the public Mumble server, any slides or game streaming delivered in one of the Discord classrooms, and textual chat or questions in the relevant "class-questions" channel on Discord.
From a professional education standpoint, the following method of class structure reliably helps people retain information:
- Tell them what you are going to tell them (introduce the broad headings of what you are going to discuss)
- Tell them (go through each item that you want to cover in detail)
- Tell them what you've told them (summarise what you've just told them, and list each of the points you've covered)
At the start of the class, spend a few minutes telling people about the class. You might like to cover:
- A brief overview of what you will be covering
- How you intend to use the chat channel and Mumble
- Whether you want a volunteer to link items for you as you talk about them
- How you intend to deal with questions
- How any practical component will work
People want to be helpful, so use them in a controlled manner. If your class is likely to encourage people to link things in the class text channel, you can designate someone to do this for you.
Putting this together, an introduction for a production and research class might look something like:
Presentation tips
Everyone has their own style - some are chatty, and some are more formal - the following hints and tips ought to help you when setting out.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
Ask people to use the in-game Class (EVE Uni) chat channel for questions. It will give you more control over the class and allow you to deal with questions when you want to do so.
- If you are going to defer a topic then let the class know.
- When answering a question from the in-game channel, repeat the question in Mumble before answering it. Recordings will make more sense and there might be people listening only on Mumble.
- If you have a lot of similar questions, then take a short bit of time out to consolidate them into a short topics - "A lot of people are asking questions relating to passive shield tanking so I'm going to take a bit of time out to cover that as a topic" - if appropriate.
- 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.
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:
- 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.")
- 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.
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" page.
If you recorded the class you can follow the guide on Editing and Uploading Class Recordings to post your recording online.
Summary
- Prepare for your class, including those optional questions and topics that might arise
- Make it your own class, presented in the order and manner that you feel comfortable with
- Control the class and questions
Other Resources
Toastmasters International: http://ibmottawa.toastmastersclubs.org/Quick_Guide_To_Public_Speaking.html (toastmastersclubs.org) focuses on public speaking, so this is a great resource for in-game and in-real-life presentations.
