What would you say to the academic solution to needing 101 spaces? AKA opening posts with a list of prerequisites and recommended prior readings, and setting a norm that pointing people to that list is acceptable if they make a comment that demonstrates lack of familiarity with same?
Just checking we’re on the same page: academic programs usually have a clear track students move through, with a graph of prerequisites. The idiom “101 space” originates with the way University programs are numbered, with the 100s place denoting what year a uni student expects to take a class. If you don’t have the prereqs or aren’t able to handle a course, you don’t take it/drop out and do the lower material. We’re talking about that solution, right?
Seems decent for them, though obviously students sometimes wind up above or below their capacity. You can kind of approximate this with cohorts in some places. I like the norm of putting required/suggested readings at the top of posts expanding on material or pointing someone to a short, specific post that walks them through a mistake or gap. I kind of don’t like a norm of “read this two thousand page tome” even as it can be tempting sometimes, mostly because I don’t think people are going to take me up on it very often.
There’s an is/ought distinction around here. Sometimes someone makes a reply that indicates they didn’t read the whole tweet, you know? Whether or not your 101 space works (do people use it, do they come out knowing what you want) is relevant to whether it is functioning, even if we think they ought to use it.
Yes we’re talking about the same solution. However, academic institutions usually also have many options for elective courses, which still have prerequisites. That seems like a closer analogy that required courses for a major. Universities also have lectures/seminars/colloquiums that are nominally open to anyone, but that doesn’t mean anyone will be able to actively participate in practice, though usually they’ll be welcome as long as they’re making an effort to learn and aren’t disruptive.
I agree very few people will take up the suggestion to read 2000 pages. That shouldn’t usually be the standard, but sometimes, it really should. If I showed up to a conference of classicists and started asking who Zeus was I’d expect to either be shown the door or told to go study the basics first. Hopefully in a way that suggests everyone there really would like to see me learn, then come back and participate more. At the very least, people who earnestly are here to learn and want to participate should also be learning not to expect short inferential distances, such that suggestions to read specific background material are reasonable, and hopefully welcome.
But yeah, putting assumed prerequisites at the top is the extent of my practical suggestions here. Combined with basic politeness if you decide to engage with commenters who clearly didn’t do the reading, without feeling like you need to explain everything right then and there.
I would also add: if you only have a single 101 space, that’s probably a mistake, too. Universities, and societies, have all different kinds of 101 spaces for all kinds of purposes.
What would you say to the academic solution to needing 101 spaces? AKA opening posts with a list of prerequisites and recommended prior readings, and setting a norm that pointing people to that list is acceptable if they make a comment that demonstrates lack of familiarity with same?
Just checking we’re on the same page: academic programs usually have a clear track students move through, with a graph of prerequisites. The idiom “101 space” originates with the way University programs are numbered, with the 100s place denoting what year a uni student expects to take a class. If you don’t have the prereqs or aren’t able to handle a course, you don’t take it/drop out and do the lower material. We’re talking about that solution, right?
Seems decent for them, though obviously students sometimes wind up above or below their capacity. You can kind of approximate this with cohorts in some places. I like the norm of putting required/suggested readings at the top of posts expanding on material or pointing someone to a short, specific post that walks them through a mistake or gap. I kind of don’t like a norm of “read this two thousand page tome” even as it can be tempting sometimes, mostly because I don’t think people are going to take me up on it very often.
There’s an is/ought distinction around here. Sometimes someone makes a reply that indicates they didn’t read the whole tweet, you know? Whether or not your 101 space works (do people use it, do they come out knowing what you want) is relevant to whether it is functioning, even if we think they ought to use it.
Yes we’re talking about the same solution. However, academic institutions usually also have many options for elective courses, which still have prerequisites. That seems like a closer analogy that required courses for a major. Universities also have lectures/seminars/colloquiums that are nominally open to anyone, but that doesn’t mean anyone will be able to actively participate in practice, though usually they’ll be welcome as long as they’re making an effort to learn and aren’t disruptive.
I agree very few people will take up the suggestion to read 2000 pages. That shouldn’t usually be the standard, but sometimes, it really should. If I showed up to a conference of classicists and started asking who Zeus was I’d expect to either be shown the door or told to go study the basics first. Hopefully in a way that suggests everyone there really would like to see me learn, then come back and participate more. At the very least, people who earnestly are here to learn and want to participate should also be learning not to expect short inferential distances, such that suggestions to read specific background material are reasonable, and hopefully welcome.
But yeah, putting assumed prerequisites at the top is the extent of my practical suggestions here. Combined with basic politeness if you decide to engage with commenters who clearly didn’t do the reading, without feeling like you need to explain everything right then and there.
I would also add: if you only have a single 101 space, that’s probably a mistake, too. Universities, and societies, have all different kinds of 101 spaces for all kinds of purposes.