[fedora-classroom] Class Duration

[David]

On Sat, May 16, 2009 at 1:52 PM, Kevin Fenzi <kevin at scrye.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 15 May 2009 12:37:56 +1000
> David <bouncingcats at gmail.com> wrote:

>> Also, having participated in several classrooms, several times I have
>> seen presenters have to rush the latter part of their presentation and
>> question sessions cut short. I strongly suggest for this mode of
>> delivery that 90 minutes would should be allowed, with presenters
>> aiming for a 45 minute presentation and a 30 minute interactive
>> question session.
>
> Yeah, I agree. I think it's very easy to misjudge times for an irc
> class if you are used to giving live or other presentations/classes.
> All that typing can take a while! :)

I'd just like to emphasise that my point is not about the amount of
content in the class. I think all the presenters have done great with
this.

My point is: Given the limitations of IRC as a communications medium,
60 minutes is not enough time for a interesting class plus interesting
questions, so I suggest scheduling class start times to begin at not
less than 90 minute intervals.

What I am really getting at is that optimising the class duration
should be more important than scheduling the class into 1 hour slots.

The fact that we generally conceptualise each day in 24 equal
intervals does not make 1 hour the optimum time for an activity.

It is a tiny inconvenience to begin a classes on the half hour (eg at
xx30 hours), but would allow better classes in my opinion.

I think the classes are great. So once we have got everyone together
in the channel and have a great session going, lets not cut it short
without a good reason. Thats how I'm looking at it.

I dont want to see pressure on presenters to fill the time. If the
class reaches an early finish due to completeing the content or
exhausting the questions, no problem. But lets not prevent great
classes by making the timeslot too short.