Thread: DVA Reorganization

Okay....so now that Shift is out, we need to start thinking about anything that needs to be changed at DVA.


Here is the plan at the moment. I will try to finish Shift's class as best I can. I'll have time off from school in a couple of weeks to do any major work on DVA. In the meantime, please give any suggestions or input or ideas about anything that should be changed.


So, what I think was done right:

Personally I think the way we started doing classes went pretty well. Lectures in chat are really fun and give students time to ask questions in real time and get clarification on things. Having DJs for students all together is also really useful, because it's easier to keep track of student DJs. The badge system is a fun idea, and gives people motivation, so I'm hoping to keep that. The syllabuses are useful because it might help us all cover the same basic info that's needed for each class, and we can all look at them to make sure we haven't forgotten anything important.

What I'm on the fence about:

Homework assignments were not too bad, however, I've never been a big believer in homework so I think that keeping it on the lighter side is best--something that takes less than ten minutes. It's helpful to have them because you can see who was paying attention and see how much people are really learning. Having a final quiz is useful for making sure people remembered the key points, and of course it gives you a solid reason to give a badge. I do have concerns of classes being too demanding of people; on the other hand, I'm not sure how much students want out of it as far as getting really involved and doing a lot for the class.


What I think needs to go:

The student applications (probably gone now anyway) are/were a little bit long, and a few of the questions were a little condescending (I think there was one like "why should you be chosen as a student?").

I think having prerequisites clogs up the whole program and slows it down. Most of my students in the intro class really didn't need it. I think the SoS and SP classes are unnecessary--they could either be combined into one short class or covered at the beginning of a WILD class.

So while we could keep the Intro class, I believe the main classes ought to be recall & Dreamsigns, DILD, WILD, and Dream Control. I would also love to see some different classes based on exploration and experimentation, for example having more adept LDers complete certain lucid tasks like trying to get the lights on in a dream.


When it comes to teaching, unless it's something solid like sleep stages, it's mostly opinion of the teacher. We shouldn't be setting ourselves as the end-all experts of anything, IMO, it could be more like an expanded adoption program, where each teacher has their own experiences and advice and knowledge to offer. I'm hoping that the profs/students will have a more friendly relationship, in that the teachers aren't putting themselves up above students.

As a whole, DVA is much too complicated and intimidating. I think it's best to keep it simple and friendly and fun.