georeferencing workshop trainer/participant ratio

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Georeferencing Working Group (GWG)

What is the right ratio of trainers to participants? If I put on a georeferencing
workshop and I end up being the only trainer, how many participants
should I limit the workshop to?
I am trying to gauge interest in the northeast before I commit to taking the
"train the trainers" workshop, and want to know if we need additional
trainers for a successful georeferencing workshop.
 
Thanks, Dorothy A.

Submitted by tuco on

Hi Dorothy,
The limiting factors for giving georeferencing training workshops are the how long the trainers can speak when they give presentations and how well they can monitor hands-on activities. The distribution of these activities will have an affect on how many trainers are required as a minimum. More hands-on activities benefit from more trainers.
We try to have workshops with between 20 and 25 students and 4 to 5 trainers. Once the trainers are experienced these ratios are pretty managable, but you can't reasonably go with fewer trainers and hope for everyone in the class to get the interactions they need. People tend to push through without asking questions if there is no one readily available to answer them, and missing something as a result can easily begin to compound over the course of the workshop.
I hope that helps.
John

Submitted by dallard on

Thanks!
 
Have you tried using a combination of experienced, knowledgeable trainers with less-well-trained individuals (geography students for example) who might act as "spotters" to provide help with accessing a web site, hand out a measuring device, etc? I'm wondering if this could reduce the number of trainers needed as well as provide an educational experience for a student or technician.

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