The Numbers Game 10: CMT II

In the last leg, I'll apply the lesson efficiency measure to the events from the second Comic Making Tournament. These numbers are more accurate than those posted back in March.

Note that the measure is only meaningful for six of the parts; short-form original and the card game had no expected number of comics produced, so it's not applicable to them.

Warm-up:

Students: 7
Comics collected: 57
Student efficiency: 8.14
Maximum possible produced: 42
Lesson efficiency: 1.36

Short form Pre-drawn:

Students: 10
Comics collected: 45
Student efficiency: 4.5
Maximum possible produced: 40
Lesson efficiency: 1.13

The high efficiency for this event and the warm-up is largely due to the use of two-in-one templates.

Short form Hybrid:

Students: 9
Comics collected: 34
Student efficiency: 3.78
Maximum possible produced: 36
Lesson efficiency: 0.94

Nonlinear:

Students: 10
Comics collected: 10
Student efficiency: 1
Maximum possible produced: 10
Lesson efficiency: 1.0

In this event, each student was only asked to make one non-linear comic. It's no surprise everyone finished one. If I'd asked for more, this may have been lower since it did take some time just for one.

Long form Pre-drawn:

Students: 12
Comics collected: 59
Student efficiency: 4.92
Maximum possible produced: 60
Lesson efficiency: 0.98

This number is surprisingly high, given the difficulty students had with this event in the first tournament. I'll probably be expanding the long form event in response.

Endurance:

Students: 12
Comics collected: 536
Student efficiency: 44.67
Maximum possible produced: 720
Lesson efficiency: 0.74

Given a half hour, students were able to produced an average of 45 comics each. In the next tournament, I'm going to try and increase this to a full hour. So I'll give each student 90 comics to start, since I know roughly half of them should be able to finish those and more. And if the lesson efficiency remains constant, then I can expect about 68 comics for every 90 given.

The Numbers Game 9: Pittsburgh Modules

This is an overview of the numbers from the six Pittsburgh modules held to date. Now's a good time to go over them since it'll be a couple months at least before another module is held. For the 4/10 and 4/15 modules, this is the first time their numbers have been posted.

The 11/7, 12/3, 12/10, and 7/1 Pitt modules all gave one comic per student, so the lesson and student efficiencies are the same, as are the attendance and maximum possible collected stats. So I've omitted the student efficiency for those modules.

11/7 Module:

Students: 81
Comics collected: 97
Lesson efficiency: 81/97 = 1.20

12/3 Module:

Students: 73
Comics collected: 80
Lesson efficiency: 1.10

12/10 Module:

Students: 59
Comics collected: 69
Lesson efficiency: 1.17

7/1 Module:

Students: 29
Comics collected: 42*
Lesson efficiency: 1.45

*It's possible this number may increase by one or two with a last minute submission, but this is highly unlikely.

These four show the effectiveness of using two-in-one comics to increase the overall number of comics collected. Had I only used single page comics, the efficiencies for each would've been 1.0. An alternate way to measure these would be to count all the students present in class and who didn't submit any comics, but I don't have those numbers.

4/10 Module:

Students: 175
Comics collected: 306
Student efficiency: 1.75
Maximum possible produced: 350
Lesson efficiency: 0.87

4/15 Module:

Students: 175
Comics collected: 184
Student efficiency: 1.05
Maximum possible produced: 525
Lesson efficiency: 0.35

With the 4/10 module, I only gave the students 2 comics to save time and that worked well: the kids were largely able to finish those two in the time they had.

The low efficiency for the 4/15 module's museum trip was due to the late start. Originally, all 175 kids were to be given the chance to work on all three comics, but due to the shortened time frame stemming from the bus delays, only a few of the groups got to the stations involving comic making. If I had the exact numbers for the students who'd been given a chance to create comics, the number would be much higher.

The Numbers Game 8: Pittsburgh Workshops

Now and then I like reviewing the numbers and see if there are any trends. With the new "lesson efficiency" measure, I thought it would be a good time to go over the numbers from the Pittsburgh workshops (12/29, 3/10, 3/13, and 7/24).

12/29 Workshop:

Students: 10
Comics collected: 83
Student efficiency: 8.3
Maximum possible produced: 130
Lesson efficiency: 83/130 = 0.64

The 12/29 Workshop is a clear case of downward bias: the comics collected were far less than the comics produced. Based on the enthusiasm the kids demonstrated in this workshop, the true number is probably closer to 0.8 or 0.9.

3/10 Workshop:

Students: 8
Comics collected: 93
Student efficiency: 11.625
Maximum possible produced: 128
Lesson efficiency: 93/128 = 0.73

Note that it's also possible the maximum possible was 88, not 128, which would set the efficiency at 1.06.

3/13 Workshop:

Students: 11
Comics collected: 129
Student efficiency: 11.73
Maximum possible produced: 121
Lesson efficiency: 1.07

In the case of both 3/10 and 3/13, the efficiency ratings were helped by collecting original comics in addition to the pre-drawn templates.

7/24 Workshop:

Students: 13
Comics collected: 128
Student efficiency: 9.85
Maximum possible produced: 143
Lesson efficiency: 0.90

Another way I increase efficiency: several templates are actually two comics in one, so when a participant completes one of those, it counts as two comics collected instead of one. My use of these in the workshops is definitely a factor in these relatively high efficiency measures.

New CCP Metric: Lesson Efficiency

As you know, I like posting the numbers from the comic project's sessions, workshops, and modules. The numbers I usually list include the number of kids, the number of comics they made, and the averages.

I've recently thought of a new number that I'll be including from now on in future "stats" postings: efficiency. There will be two kinds of efficiency listed. The first is "student efficiency," which is the average comics made by each participant that I've already been listing.

The second type, which is new, is "lesson efficiency." This number will be a proportion of the total number of comics produced with the highest number that could have been collected given the number of participants.

For example, in a session I may give each child 4 warm-up comics and 3 activity comics to complete. So if I had 10 kids, I'd expect to get 70 comics total. However, not every child will finish every comic. Assume a couple kids get distracted and don't work on 5 comics, so I only collect 65. The session efficiency would then be 65/70, or 0.93.

Greater than 1.0 efficiency can be achieved through the production of original comics, which aren't usually planned ahead of time. So in the above example, if I collected 65 comics from the 70 expected, but also received 20 original comics, the efficiency would be 85/70, or 1.21.

The purpose of this number is to allow me to compare various sessions with a number that controls for things like the number of kids and the number of comics made available to them, since these numbers vary widely between sessions. In other words, this allows me to control for the natural link between number of kids and the number of comics produced and see how well the kids are completing the lesson in the time allotted.

A low efficiency means I gave them too much work or didn't instruct them well enough, a high efficiency means they were able to complete everything as planned. The efficiency score is vulnerable to downward bias in cases where kids complete comics but take them home, i.e. when comics aren't collected. The 12/29/07 Workshop was a prime example of this bias at work.

For some lessons, such as modules where participation is defined by comic completion or sessions with no expected number of comic production, the efficiency score will be inapplicable, but it can be defined for most of the lessons I've done so far. Expect a future post where I'll go through and measure the lesson efficiencies for several past sessions/workshops/modules.

7/29/08 Videos

There were five videos taken with the 7/28 sessions: three of the first and two of the second.

7/29 Session 1



7/29 Session 2



7/29 Session 3



7/29 Session 4



7/29 Session 5

7/28/08 Videos

There were two shot videos taken for the 7/28 sessions, one each.

7/28 Session 1



7/28 Session 2



Videos from the 7/29 sessions will be posted soon.

7/29/08 Session

The theme for the 7/29 session is captions and their uses. A lot of students tend to ignore captions, so this will hopefully get the kids to fill them in. As with 7/28, there are two sessions, A and B: one with 9-12 and one with 7-8.

Session A templates used:

And Shine Heaven Now
Chugworth Academy
Coffee Achievers
Copper
Demonology 101
Dicebox
Diesel Sweeties
Dreamland Chronicles
Freshman 15
Ghost Hunters
Hate Song
Lil' Formers
Lil' Mell
Lovarian Adventures
Mac Hall
Marilith
Okashina Okashi
Phineus, Magician for Hire
Piled Higher and Deeper
Planet Karen
Punks and Nerds
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Saturnalia
Scary Go Round
Something Like Life
Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki
Stubble
Templar AZ
Tsunami Channel
Venus Envy
World of Orenda
You'll Have That
Zombies

This will be the first use of Phineus in a session.

Session B templates used:

8-Bit Theater
And Shine Heaven Now
Coffee Achievers
College Roomies From Hell
Dreamland Chronicles
Freshman 15
Ghost Hunters
Lil' Formers
Mac Hall
Narbonic
No Pink Ponies
Nothing Nice to Say
Okashina Okashi
Planet Karen
Questionable Content
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Shortpacked
Tsunami Channel
Unshelved
You'll Have That

One problem I ran into in the 7/28 session was the warm-up taking too long, so I've shortened it for both groups to help this problem. Pictures and video will be posted.

7/28/08 Session

The 7/28/08 session will focus on word bubbles, specifically the different types and how to write them. There will be two sessions (A and B): one for 9-12 year olds and a shorter one for 7-8 year olds.

Session A templates used:

Annie
And Shine Heaven Now
Applegeeks
Awkward Zombie
Chaos Punks
Chugworth Academy
Coolcat Studio
Daisy is Dead
Fans
Flipside
Freshman 15
Girl Genius
Goats
Ice
Kastle Comics
Krakow
Little Dee
Mac Hall
Narbonic
No Pink Ponies
No Rest for the Wicked
Nothing Nice to Say
Okashina Okashi
Penny Arcade
Penny & Aggie
Phoenix
Piled Higher and Deeper
Planet Karen
Questionable Content
Rob and Elliot
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Scary Go Round
Seasons of Constancy
Shortpacked
Sketchies
Skin Horse
Sluggy Freelance
Something Like Life
Sorcerers and Secretaries
Tea Club
Tracy and Tristan
Tsunami Channel
Unshelved
Venus Envy
You'll Have That
Zombies

Session B templates used:

Chaos Punks
Diesel Sweeties
I Come From Mars
Kastle Comics
Lil' Formers
Mac Hall
Nothing Nice to Say
Okashina Okashi
Penny & Aggie
Piled Higher and Deeper
Questionable Content
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Saturnalia
Skin Horse
Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki
Tsunami Channel
Venus Envy
Weirdlings
xkcd

Pictures and videos will be posted from the sessions.

7/24/08 Workshop Videos

I was able to take three short video clips from the 7/24 workshop.

7/24 Workshop 1



7/24 Workshop 2



7/24 Workshop 3

7/24/08 Workshop Report

The 7/24 workshop at a local Boys and Girls Club went mostly as planned. 13 children took part of various ages ranging from 8 to 14. The staff were very accommodating and friendly.

128 comics were created in all, for an average of 9.8 per kid. Several of the older kids were fans of Adult Swim, so the comics they made tended to be more mature in terms of subject matter and language than what I've had before. (Proof that too much TV too early really does warp the mind?)

In contrast, an 8-year old produced some comics that are easily the among the funniest I've read so far. He skipped 2nd grade and already had some experience creating his own comics, so he's likely quite bright. Another student had started his own comic club at school, but he had to leave early before he could tell me more.

Unfortunately, it's unlikely I'll be returning there for their after school program in September because their facilities lack a photocopier. One of their staff went above and beyond by driving to the main office to make photocopies so this workshop could take place, but that isn't a solution that'll work consistently. I try to make the CCP as lite on resource requirements as possible, but a photocopier is very important.

There are a couple more locations I'm looking into for workshops. More on that as it develops.

7/22/08 Session Stats

A break down of the numbers from the 7/22 sessions:

Total comics produced: 373
Total number of kids: 53
Average comics per child: 7.04

Workshop 1:

Total comics produced: 265
Total number of kids: 27
Average comics per child: 9.8

Workshop 2:

Total comics produced: 89
Total number of kids: 11
Average comics per child: 8.1

Workshop 3:

Total comics produced: 19
Total number of kids: 15
Average comics per child: 1.3

Note that with workshop 2, I wasn't able to collect all the comics due to an interruption by snack period. And with workshop 3 I allowed several of the kids to take their comics home (most kids didn't care).

7/22/08 Session Videos

There were only two short clips from the 7/22 session. I need to remember to take more in the future.

7/22 Session 1



7/22 Session 2

7/22/08 Workshops Report

The three workshops went very well! There was the typical chaos that comes from settling into a new venue, but apart from that things flowed smoothly. In all, over 50 kids from many different backgrounds took part in the three workshops.

I've been invited back and will be running additional workshops on Monday and Tuesday through August 15th. So there'll be workshops 7/28, 7/29, 8/4, 8/5, 8/11, and 8/12. (The 8/11 one has questionable status, though, as an other event may conflict with it.) This will put at least 6 lessons at the YMCA, not counting the possibility of weekly lessons with them starting in September, so I'll be calling these sessions from now on instead of workshops.

The first session had 27 kids, far more than was expected. Apparently, enrollment for the YMCA summer camp has recently increased, hence the sudden surge. I've been told to expect 35+ 9-14 year olds for next week. With the extra kids, it became necessary to give them more time since passing out materials took longer. So the first session lasted an hour-and-a-half instead of an hour, which will be its length in the future.

The second and third sessions were swapped, so the 5-6 year olds were next for a half hour. There were about 15 of them. I led them through a simple drawing session and had them make their own original comics. That's really all I can do with them, so I won't be having any future sessions with them. They'll instead get an outdoor exercise session, which is probably better for them.

The last session with 7-8 year olds lasted 30 minutes as intended, but was interrupted at the end by snack time, which kept me from collecting all the comics. There were 11 kids in all, so this was a much easier group to lead than the 9-14 year olds. I'll be dealing with them in future half-hour sessions.

I'll have exact numbers, pictures, and videos later.

7/24/08 Workshop

On July 24, the Create a Comic Project will hold a workshop at a local Boys and Girls Club. It'll be aimed at ~15 kids 8-13 for a full hour. Like the 7/22 workshops, the topic will be "Panels and Layouts" and will feature some of the new material I've been developing.

Templates used:

And Shine Heaven Now
Cool Cat Studio
Chaos Punks
Daisy is Dead
Freshman 15
I Come From Mars
Kastle Comics
Krakow
Little Dee
Mac Hall
No Pink Ponies
No Rest for the Wicked
Nothing Nice to Say
Okashina Okashi
Piled Higher and Deeper
Planet Karen
Questionable Content
Ron and Elliot
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Shortpacked
Skin Horse
Sorcerers and Secretaries
Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki
Unshelved
Weirdlines
xkcd

I tried to use comics that I hadn't used in the YMCA workshops. This is the first time "Sorcerers and Secretaries" and "Kastle Comics" will be used.

Unlike the YMCA workshops, this is likely to be a one-shot deal until the start of the school year, where I may join their after-school program.

Site Updates

The About page has been updated, though I still need to add a link to the recent Daisy is Dead CCP guest comic. I also touched up the FAQ a little.

And oh look! There's a new page labeled Store! I wonder what could be in there?

7/22/08 Workshops

On July 22, the Create a Comic Project will be holding three workshops at a local YMCA. The workshops will be aimed at different age groups: 9-12, 7-8, and 5-6 year olds. The first workshop with the oldest kids will be an hour long, while the latter two are 30 minutes each.

All three workshops will be based on "Panels and Comic Layouts," with varying levels of depth and complexity. For the past few months I've been developing the CCP's material to make it more informative. This will be the trial run to let me work out any bugs.

Workshop 1

The first workshop is the main one, being a full hour and with the primary age group the CCP is designed for. It has the kids working with both pre-drawn and blank comics.

Comics use:

Applegeeks
And Shine Heaven Now
Awkward Zombie
Coffee Achievers
College Roomies From Hell
Chugworth Academy
Faking Life
Flipside
Goats
Lil' Formers
Lil' Mell
Little Dee
Mac Hall
Nothing Nice to Say
Okashina Okashi
Penny Arcade
Planet Karen
Punks and Nerds
Questionable Content
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Scary Go Round
Sketchies
Tracy and Tristan
World of Orenda
You'll Have That

This will be the first time Scary Go Round and You'll Have That are used in the comic project.

Workshop 2

The second workshop is essentially an abbreviated version of the first. It only uses pre-drawn templates due to time and fewer of them. Also, the templates were chosen to be simpler (i.e. fewer word bubbles) than those in the first workshop due to the younger ages (7-8).

Templates used:

And Shine Heaven Now
Chugworth Academy
Daisy is Dead
Diesel Sweeties
Dreamland Chronicles
Dr. McNinja
Faking Life
Flight
Goats
Jellaby
Lil' Formers
Lil' Mell
Mac Hall
Narbonic
Okashina Okashi
Penny Arcade
Phoenix
Questionable Content
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Skin Horse
Tsunami Channel

Workshop 3

The third workshop is for very young children (5-6). I won't be expecting them to write anything and will instead use nothing but blank templates. I'll explain panels and layouts briefly, then let them draw freely. This seems the best way to adapt the project to this age range.

If all goes well, there may be a couple other workshops at the YMCA before their program ends in mid-August.

CCP Events Update

I've been a bit derelict in posting on what the CCP has been up to. Here's quick run down of some of the planned activities for July so you know what to expect:

The 6/26/08 Module was actually held July 1, but went well. I have some of the comics from it, but I'm still waiting for some students to finish them before I post the numbers.

The Human Service Center had to cancel the comic project due to short staffing. They didn't have enough teachers, so they had to cut down on their summer program, which meant canceling a lot of extra activities like the CCP. The HSC seems to be highly vulnerable to a lot of chaos and last minute rescheduling. Back in November, for example, I was supposed to do a workshop there, but it eventually got pushed back all the way to March because of construction going past schedule and staffing issues. Based on this, I don't think the HSC will be a suitable place for regular sessions. I'll approach them with one-shot workshops now and then, but in order to do sessions I need a place that can provide a consistent schedule.

Fortunately, I've found two alternate locations that the CCP could start going to regularly: the YMCA and the Boys and Girls Club. Both are located close to campus and are accessible by bus. They're approaching the end of their summer programs, but I can get a good idea of how the staff are and decide between the two when the school year starts.

On July 22, I'll be running three workshops at the local YMCA: one with 9-12 year olds, one with 7-8 year olds, and the third with 5-6 year olds. The first workshop is 1 hour with ~20 kids, while the other two are 30 minutes with ~13 kids. All the kids have signed release forms, so pictures and videos will be posted.

On July 24, there'll be another 1 hour workshop at a Boys and Girls Club. This will be a one-shot deal for ~15 kids 8-13. Pictures and videos will be posted.

Based on the results of the 7/22 and 7/24 workshops, that will determine where CCP Sessions begin in September. I'm looking at bringing it back as either a weekly or bi-weekly program, depending on how difficult my semester is.

I'll post details such as templates being used and material being covered soon.

Comics and Kids Virtual Panel

Montgomery Lopez of the Monster Scifi Show Blog is putting together a program to introduce kids to comics at a Miami library, scheduled for some time in October. Part of the program is a planned "virtual panel," where various writers, artists, etc. from comics will talk to the kids from online. I've been invited to be one of the panelists and am happy to help with something like this. I've also offered Mr. Lopez access to the CCP's templates if he can find a use for them in the event.

I think the kids will really enjoy what Mr. Lopez is putting together for them. Kudos to him!

4/15/08 Create a Comic Module Videos

These are all six videos from the 4/15 Create a Comic Module. The first is from the field trip stage and the other five are from when the students returned to their school.

4/15 Module 1



4/15 Module 2



4/15 Module 3



4/15 Module 4




4/15 Module 5



4/15 Module 6



Turns out there weren't any videos from the 4/10 module, so these are the last of the videos that remained to be posted.

Create a Comic Project Wins Grant

On June 24, 2008, the Create a Comic Project (CCP) was awarded a Small Neighborhood Grant from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven (CFGNH). The award will go toward sponsoring the Comic Making Tournament III, the CCP's major annual event where children wield their imaginations to create their sequential art masterpieces.

This is the third major award the comic project has won and the second from the CFGNH. The Community Foundation previously awarded the Create a Comic Project with a grant in 2007 to support the Comic Making Tournament II. In February 2008, the Association of Schools of Public Health awarded the CCP a "This is Public Health" Campaign Award to support the project's role in public health education and awareness.

The Comic Making Tournament III is planned to take place in either March or May 2009. Like the previous tournaments, it is aimed at the population of disadvantaged children in New Haven. The tournament hands out prizes that these children would not normally be able to afford, such as art books and supplies, as well as graphic novels and webcomic apparel.

The tournament will feature a number of events for the kids to compete in, such as creating single page comics, multi-page comics, and arranging panels in nonlinear fashion. The tournament, like the comic project, will use two types of templates for its events: blank comics for children to draw their own and those with art but without words for children to provide the dialogue.

Site Updates

The Video Gallery had been updated with links to all the CMT II videos and a playlist that will play all the videos in chronological order. Also, the dropdown menu has been updated.

3/8/08 CMT II Videos: Award Ceremony

These are the videos from the conclusion of the second tournament: the award ceremony! With the first tournament, I forgot to take any pictures or video of the awards. I corrected that mistake this time. These videos let you see the audience, while the pictures in the image gallery focus mainly on the winners, giving you two perspectives on the same event.

Award Ceremony 1



Award Ceremony 2



While these are the last two videos from the Comic Making Tournament II, they're not the last videos that will be uploaded soon. The 4/10 and 4/15 modules both have short clips that I'll be posting.

3/8/08 CMT II Videos: CCP Infinity

These are videos of the final event of the second tournament: CCP Infinity. It was the second time this activity had been tried (the first was in March 2007) and the first time it had been adapted into a card game. Unfortunately, it didn't work well with such a large group. Future tests will be used with smaller groups or with the kids having a chance to read the rules before the tournament starts.


CCP Infinity 1



CCP Infinity 2




CCP Infinity 3



Next up: videos of the award ceremony, the conclusion to the tournament.

3/8/08 CMT II Videos: Endurance

These are five extended length videos from the second tournament's sixth event: Endurance. I posted four short clips before that I recorded with my other camera. These were shot with the main video camera I was using.

Endurance 1



Endurance 2



Endurance 3



Endurance 4




Endurance 5



Videos from the last event, CCP Infinity, will be posted soon.

3/8/08 CMT II Videos: Long form Pre-Drawn

Here are the two videos from the Long form Pre-drawn event.

Long form Pre-drawn 1



Long form Pre-drawn 2



Coming soon: videos from the sixth event, Endurance.