Teaching methods

sigmen4020 · 2019-09-22 17:22:25

Since we got the new player notifications now I've seen teaching becoming more widespread. So I'd like to hear what kind of teaching methods you find most effective. Here are some examples of teaching methods I've used:

1. Teach by showing: Do the entire process of the teaching subject while the student watches, with few comments when needed. This is the most time effective one I can think of, but some students might have trouble remembering what you taught since they didn't have their hands on themselves.

2. Teach by doing: Don't know if that name fits but this method involves the student doing the teaching subject themselves. Ergo you let the student do the task while you tell them what to do. This one takes more time, since many new players are pretty slow when it comes to doing what you tell them, but I have experienced it to be effective.

3. Teach by telling: This one includes just telling the student what to do without showing or letting them do it on their own. I haven't used this one really, since I can't see how it can be that effective. It might be fast, but I doubt the student will remember what you've taught since they haven't seen the process beforehand.

4. Teach by wiki: I add this more as a joke, but this simply involves telling your student to look it up themselves. The best method for people who don't feel like teaching.

I'd like to hear if any of you know any other teaching methods, but I'd also love to hear which ones you think are overall the best in terms of time efficiency and effectiveness (does the student actually take in what you teach them).

Thaulos · 2019-09-22 17:43:14

I usually teach berries/compost to new players that are willing, which is pretty much 100% of them.

Essentially I give a brief introduction and then guide them to do what they need to do, usually providing them all the tools they need, like bowls, sharp stones, buckets with water, soil, shovel. All while feeding them berries.

For berries typically I first I start with an overview explanation, "these dark berries here, need soil and water to give more berries".

Tell them to pick up a bowl (I usually pick one and drop it at their feet and immediately feeding them a berry (I keep feeding them to allow them to focus on the lesson).
Point them to the soil "grab this with bowl" "put it on dark berry" "now water, here is bucket, use bowl" (even saying this the majority of them swaps bowl with bucket and tries to use bucket)

They water the berry and that's it, you say "good job!" and tell them to keep doing it for a while. Keep feeding them berries.

For compost well, you can have a look at it here:
https://youtu.be/vOizzjLy7Gw?t=1649

She did the entire lesson but didn't seem to get everything memorized and starved before she could try to do her second try. She was a bad one to teach haha, for some reason she kept moving around every 1 second or so, really hard to feed, you can see me struggling with that a few times and trying to find a way to feed her when she actually died.

DestinyCall · 2019-09-22 19:00:14

I've been teaching my new kids how to milk a cow. Useful information that seems lacking in many villages.

...

My teaching strategy is to never stop working and to talk to my new kids so they understand what I am trying to achieve when I run around the village like a crazy person, juggling babies and buckets. I get them clothing as quickly as I can, then tell them a little about my current goal - "Let's milk a cow! We are going to need a bucket. Do you see one? Oh there's an empty bucket. Score!" For more complex things, like making stew or compost, I'll explain the steps in broad sweeps, so they'll have a general idea if I get interrupted midway.

When they get older, I will bring them over to the berry bushes and teach them how to pick a bowl of berries or bring them over to the bakery and teach them how to put a pie in their backpack. I will feed them for as long as I can, but also make sure that they realize that they need to start feeding themselves eventually, before they get too big to pickup. I watch them and stuff food into them if they don't seem to be eating often enough. If they express an interest in learning more things, I'll continue to teach as they get older, but I also encourage my younglings to venture out into the village when they are old enough to see what they can do.

I like to focus on teaching critical food information first .... how to tend berries, how to bake pies, how to milk cows, how to feed sheep, how to make compost, how to grow carrots, etc. These are important and usually necessary in every village. I've also spent a few lives teaching about rabbit hunting, another important skill to learn. My babies rarely spend their first three minutes next to a fire. They are traveling babies.

happynova · 2019-09-23 06:38:52

I think "teach by doing" is absolutely the best way to go. Whenever possible, I make the person I'm trying to teach go through every single step themselves. In my experience, if you just have them watch you, they often tend to have trouble following, or to get distracted in the middle, or you turn around and they've wandered off to eat and missed critical steps. I think they're also likely to remember it better if they go through all the actions themselves. Plus, it's easier to type out comments and instructions to them when you're watching them do it instead of doing all the clicking around yourself.

I agree that "teach by telling" is the least useful, except maybe for simple one- or two-step things (and not always even then, for very new players). I do sometimes have to resort to it, though. I've occasionally run out of lifetime before I can finish teaching a task, for instance, and have to try to summarize the rest of it quickly and hope they're able to figure it out.

One thing I will mention about teaching is that there are details that often confuse newbies that people seldom remember to cover. It's all well and good to show someone how to use a bowl on a dirt pile, but if you don't also show them how to use a basket on a compost pile, they're going to be stumped as soon as they run out of already-dumped piles of dirt. And the intricacies of bowls and buckets and different kinds of wells and which thing you use to get water out of which other thing can create ridiculous amounts of confusion. So, as much as possible, I try to address that stuff, too.

I do feel a little bad, right now, though, because I really like teaching new people and think it's important, but the few times I've gotten the "new player" message so far, it's been in situations where I'm afraid if I take too much time to talk or teach instead of working we're going to be in danger of starvation, and I've ended up neglecting the poor newbies much more than I'd like.

sigmen4020 · 2019-09-23 07:22:10

happynova wrote:

One thing I will mention about teaching is that there are details that often confuse newbies that people seldom remember to cover. It's all well and good to show someone how to use a bowl on a dirt pile, but if you don't also show them how to use a basket on a compost pile, they're going to be stumped as soon as they run out of already-dumped piles of dirt. And the intricacies of bowls and buckets and different kinds of wells and which thing you use to get water out of which other thing can create ridiculous amounts of confusion. So, as much as possible, I try to address that stuff, too.
I do feel a little bad, right now, though, because I really like teaching new people and think it's important, but the few times I've gotten the "new player" message so far, it's been in situations where I'm afraid if I take too much time to talk or teach instead of working we're going to be in danger of starvation, and I've ended up neglecting the poor newbies much more than I'd like.

Totally agree that there are some things about Ohol that's confusing for newbies that we used to by now. I've often seen newbies be confused when they can't water out of an empty well. One good thing that Jason added that will help them is there is now a more clear indicator of a buckets contents. Before you could easily mistake a partial bucket of water for an empty one. When I teach I try to show them this too, but I have experienced in the past that most newbies have trouble with those concepts even when it's explained to them. A big example of this is when I teach them to use two bowls of soil to till. Most of them get confused when I explain that.

And yeah sometimes it would be detrimental to a village if you use your time teaching a new player, than teach and in those circumstances you'd just have to prioritize work over the new player. In very early villages it is probably the best decision to let them die unfortunately, since very few newbies know how to survive the rough life of an early camp.

Coconut Fruit · 2019-09-23 11:02:46

I tell them that basics are farming, cooking and smithing and it's best to learn it in that order. From my experience teaching by doing is the best way to learn. I usually teach them one of these things and after they have learned it I tell them to use onetech.info where they can find all recipies and learn things by themselves.

I watched some videos before buying the game and still didn't know what to do in my first game. After my first game I made my own private server with no hunger and aging and become from noob to pretty pro in about two days. I mastered making engine in my 4th day :humble:
So yeah, I think it would be cool if there was single player mode easy accessible from game. That would increase players skill drastically.

Making own server is very simple thanks to Awbz. Just download full windows latest release, open server folder and for the first time opening use runServer.bat as administrator (it will create softlinks. Probably there would be need to make softlinks on your own in older windows versions) and tada, you can connect to localhost. To remove hunger just increase numbers in settings (minFoodDecrementSeconds and maxFoodDecrementSeconds) and to remove aging increase number in secondsPerYear setting. You can also forceEveLocation so you spawn in your town everytime. And don't forget to gently close the server with ctrl+c so it won't crash next time you open it.

Last edited by Coconut Fruit (2019-09-23 15:54:40)

Morti · 2019-09-24 04:26:56

Time.
More nature than nurture.
Infinite seeds.

And at some point, the instinct of every individual, with surpass the present capacity of all current knowledge.

Just keep bumpin in the night.
is greater than underscore is less than

pein · 2019-09-24 11:46:55

5 stab them, they don't do it next time

MrsDuckGirl · 2019-09-25 08:59:51

I often teach compost and burritos. I quite always do the tasks with my pupil, at the same time, telling him/her the steps and showing him/her the actions. Then he/she has to do the same. This way, you get twice the amount of what you're doing. It's also helpful if I forget a word, I just have to say "use this" (taking and putting back the item) "on this" (taking and putting back the other item). And as I use zoom mod, I can get them the tools they need easily.
I remind them to not forget to eat, but I also feed them by precaution.

Lately, as the arc doesn't last long, it didn't bother me to teach a class instead of working on something more important/urgent. This almost-done-engine will disappear in a few hours anyway but this player is gonna play again, and next life he/she'll know a bit more what to do/how to be useful.

CatX · 2019-09-25 09:05:39

MrsDuckGirl wrote:

Lately, as the arc doesn't last long, it didn't bother me to teach a class instead of working on something more important/urgent. This almost-done-engine will disappear in a few hours anyway but this player is gonna play again, and next life he/she'll know a bit more what to do/how to be useful.

Good point. Lives are cheap. Players are not.

DestinyCall · 2019-09-25 22:06:59

CatX wrote:

MrsDuckGirl wrote:
Lately, as the arc doesn't last long, it didn't bother me to teach a class instead of working on something more important/urgent. This almost-done-engine will disappear in a few hours anyway but this player is gonna play again, and next life he/she'll know a bit more what to do/how to be useful.
Good point. Lives are cheap. Players are not.

I had a life recently where I inherited a new player from a mother who had to log off. She asked if anyone could help him and I happened to be nearby. We were about the same age, but he was very new. I ended up spending the majority of my life talking to him about the game and teaching various things, like baking bread, gathering firewood, shearing sheep, making kindling etc. At one point, I even did a medical tutorial and taught him how to stab me with a knife, while another village stood by with supplies, ready to heal me. Remarkably, we all survived.

Unfortunately, the town ran out of girl children and our family died out. By the end of our lives together, we were living in a ghost town with a couple of elderly cousins. On the upside, my life was not wasted, since the new guy learned a ton and had a great time. I was sad to see that life end, but happy that I'd taken the time to teach, instead of building sand castles.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2019-09-22 17:22:25

Teaching methods

#2 2019-09-22 17:43:14

Re: Teaching methods

#3 2019-09-22 19:00:14

Re: Teaching methods

#4 2019-09-23 06:38:52

Re: Teaching methods

#5 2019-09-23 07:22:10

Re: Teaching methods

#6 2019-09-23 11:02:46

Re: Teaching methods

#7 2019-09-24 04:26:56

Re: Teaching methods

#8 2019-09-24 11:46:55

Re: Teaching methods

#9 2019-09-25 08:59:51

Re: Teaching methods

#10 2019-09-25 09:05:39

Re: Teaching methods

#11 2019-09-25 22:06:59

Re: Teaching methods

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