As you know, I teach a lot of one-day Tech classes. I also enjoy teaching General classes, and I have yet to tackle an Extra class. I would have held a General class this winter, but oddly enough, there wasn’t enough interest. I’m not exactly sure why, but I was rather disappointed by this.
So, I’m thinking about reviving an idea that I tried once before—a virtual class—but with a more modern twist. The last time I tried this we did it via EchoLink, meaning that there was no video, and students had to either have access to an EchoLink repeater or download the app to their computers.
This time, I’d be using a teleconferencing app like Zoom. This would allow anyone with interent access to join the class, and I could record the sessions and podcast them.
Also, instead of marching through the study guides, my idea is to ask participants to suggest topics that they might be having trouble with and concentrate on those. After all, why waste time on things that students already know? I’d try to keep each session to an hour, covering a particular topic for the first half hour, then taking questions for the second half hour.
At this point, I’m thinking of scheduling the classes for Tuesday evenings at 9:30 Eastern time. That should be early enough for most Easterners, but not too early for Westerners.
So, what do you think? Do you think this format might work? Do you have any suggestions for topics? How about for getting the word out about the class? Please let me know.
Talking about classes, I’m teaching a one-day Tech class on Saturday, May 18, 2019, at the Dayton Hamvention, and there are still spots available. To register someone you love, click here.
I think it is definitely worth a try. Getting the word out there might be the hard part. I know there are a lot of Techs that would like to get General but studying on there own is tough. This also gives them some motivation.
If you do it, I will definitely pass it on to the Techs I know, mention it at the club and post on their website.
Good luck
73, John, WJ0NF
All the cool kids are on GetVokl !
-Luke VE3LDJ
Hmmmm. GetVokl looks a lot like a service I tried a couple of years ago (and whose name I forgot). I actually did a couple of live streams using it. Then, it went bust. I can see one problem right off the bat. It’s forcing me to use Google Chrome. I don’t want to use Chrome.
Will it be a Tech, General or Extra class?
Nice idea!!! I do it, with zoom, in Puerto Rico for classes on spanish.
YES, to all of the above. This is going to be more topic-driven than question-driven. Each of the exams has questions on radio waves and propagation, for example. I’ll talk about the topic first, then take a look at the questions.
You should record an online course where people can watch at their leisure and then have a live question session. This would also give you the ability to charge for it if you wanted to.
Dan,
This is a worthy idea. We’ve been shifting our Technician license class to 1) Read the HamRadioSchool.com book to get coverage of all questions and 2) Focus on the more technical/difficult topics in class. In other words, the two days of class don’t try to provide 100% coverage of exam material.
I don’t know about the various streaming options but you’ll just have to try something and see if it really works.
Dan,
I’ll make it unanimous so far. Seems this is a great idea and frankly the way most would-be hams would expect to study for the exams nowadays. “What’s a ‘book?'” As someone else noted, getting publicity to drive people to a specific online venue at a particular time would be the challenge. But I’d think word-of-mouth might create enough interest to get started and then, if folks were getting what they needed, they would help spread the news.
I look forward to seeing if you go ahead and take a shot. Let us blog-subscribers know and we can help get the word out.
73,
Don N4KC
http://www.n4kc.com
http://www.donkeith.com
Great idea. Some people would choose online “virtual classrooms” over having to drive to a clubhouse, or to limit to audio only. I’ve been teaching online since 2011 (I train former classroom educators on how to bring their traditional curricula into online format), and have found that FreeConferenceCall.com contains the same features as Zoom, but hasn’t – for the years I’ve used it – incurred any cost. For the heavily budget-minded, FCC fits the bill for me.
Teach on! Let me know if I can be of assistance.
Scotty (K3TLC)
I love it. I have Echolink and I’m off Tuesdays so it is perfect for me to connect with this.