Reduced session frequency
| Status | Driver | Approver | Contributors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Implemented | Jimmy Lew Kwong Yi | NA | Jimmy Lew Kwong Yi |
Situation
Currently, Overflow hosts weekly sessions on a different topic each week, this has proven to be extremely taxing on not just the exco who has to plan and execute these sessions, but also the members who find it to be a large commitment to attend a session every week.
Importance
The current implementation is as prior mentioned taxing on both the exco and members.
This results in a few key consequences:
- High stress on the exco
- Lower quality sessions
- Higher rate of attrition amongst the members
In the exco, we see this consequence in their workload being extremely large and rather taxing. Due to the nature of having a session every week back to back, manpower shortages are a concern, additionally, for the more executive roles such as the Head of Technology their workload will be constant without any breaks. Consequently, on top of a high level of stress placed on the exco, the quality of the sessions also suffer.
A high throughput of sessions results in the time-interval between sessions is very small, leading to low preparation times which in turn causes the prior mention degrade in the quality of sessions.
In the members, we see the consequence in a high attrition rate. The impression of a commitment of having to attend a sessions every week is fairly large which causes many students to steer away from attending. Additionally, with the current implementation of a different topic every single week, members have prior expressed the inability to properly absorb lesson content, this also contributes to the attrition rate.
Recommendation
Bi-weekly Sessions
Cutting down the sessions to bi-weekly instead of weekly would significantly reduce the stress placed on the exco. This will then in turn have a ripple effect of improving the quality of the sessions as there is a larger time-interval between sessions allowing for greater preperation time.
Focused Topics
Rather than the current arrangement of a different topic every week, we could instead change the arrangement to teach a more general topic (i.e. Web Development with VueJS and Nuxt3) over the course of 3-4 sessions. This way, members will have more time to acclimate to the topics being taught and will be able to gain more practical use out of our sessions.
Created: August 23, 2024