Wednesday, July 30, 2008

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.

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