How can we create a competitive learning environment on TSR?

Poll

Would you enter an academic/learning focused contest on TSR?

Hi everyone,

We're doing a lot of thinking/exploration at the moment to ensure that we're doing everything we can to make TSR a really useful study help resource for students.

One of the things I found really useful when revising was having competitions with my friends. We did this with quotes from Shakespeare plays (I was an English baby :biggrin:

) as for A2 lit all of the exams were closed books so you had to memorise loads and loads of key quotes. The way we revised this was to basically spend ages firing off quotations to each other and it ended up becoming a massive competition within my friendship group to see who was the "best".

This has got me thinking more broadly about the competition element of learning.... how can we integrate a competitive element to revision on TSR?

It would be really cool to have something like the UK Maths Challenge in a TSR format as then everyone could enter and it wouldn't be dependent on whether your school/teachers knew about the contest. There's loads of interesting academic competitions out there that some schools enter and then the winners get really cool prizes but not everyone gets these opportunities.... so how can we do that as a TSR community? Would this be something that you'd find useful both throughout the academic year and also for revision? Or would it be a stupid thing to try and do? :smile:

If you have ideas about how we could do this or have an example of something you may have done in the past that could be adapted for TSR then let me know! We're particularly looking for ways that would allow you to test you knowledge on an on going basis and be able to rank your score(s) against other people who were also studying the same things as you. This could results in a competition of types or it could just be something that happens throughout the entire academic year where you can compare your progress to others. Alternatively, could we create a game/contest situation where you learnt things on a particular topic as you progressed through the stages?

Good luck with exams! :biggrin:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 1

zedeneye1

learning on internet is not a good idea, it never works, theres so many distractions.....

theres this saying in our area that one should divorce computer and television etc when exams are near...

Reply 2

fourdigit

Yup and also being making sure competive is competitive in the title. Don't worry, human mistakes, happens to me all the time.

Reply 3

oxymoronic

Original post by fourdigit

Yup and also being making sure competive is competitive in the title. Don't worry, human mistakes, happens to me all the time.

You'd think that being a teacher I would have learnt how to spell by now.... but sadly my ability to proof read when I change my title at the last minute leaves a bit to be desired! Thanks!!

Reply 4

Groat

Original post by zedeneye1

learning on internet is not a good idea, it never works, theres so many distractions.....

theres this saying in our area that one should divorce computer and television etc when exams are near...

I disagree. There is a lot to learn from looking at other people's solutions, or discussing topics with friends via PM or on threads.

Original post by oxymoronic

One of the things I found really useful when revising was having competitions with my friends. We did this with quotes from Shakespeare plays (I was an English baby :biggrin:

My class loves doing this, but I'm not sure how this could be incorporated. I also think people find it difficult to pick the best quotes for arguments. So there could be some sort of interactive game where you have to pick the best quote for a certain situation or task. When you pick a certain quote, it would give you details of the good points and if it's not the best quote, it'll say why the other one is better.

Just an idea I had!

Reply 5

LETSJaM

I'm not sure, to me TSR is a place to glean notes which I can print out and revise from and for post-exam discussions.

<3 x

Reply 6

Bread Basket

Original post by Groat

Not a bad idea actually. Perhaps you pick an exam board, pick a text and they give you key thematic quotes and you have to fill in the blanks. Bonuses for chains of correct answers and an overall leaderboard.

I'm overly competitive and really I only revise when I have to beat someone or help someone out so this would really push me.

Reply 7

Howbeit

Original post by oxymoronic

so how can we do that as a TSR community? Would this be something that you'd find useful both throughout the academic year and also for revision? Or would it be a stupid thing to try and do? :smile:

Good luck with exams! :biggrin:

I think this is a great idea, it's definitely something I'd like to get involved with.

- I think this could be based on a kind of University Challenge format. You could have teams of four people (as many groups can enter as they wish) on a particular subject area, such as Law or English Literature. In the Back Room we have the live chat thread. We could have a presenter (like Jeremy Paxman) who organises everything and give each team a specific text colour. From there on you could do the competition.

- Alternatively, there could be a forum with a thread on each subject area. On each thread you could have a set of questions each day without the answers. People would have to answer before a certain time and once the results were shown a devoted member could add up the scores and place them on a leader board.

It's hard implementing something like this over the forum. I think it can be done but it's going to take a really good idea. There will always be a problem with people looking up the answers (their loss!) to get on the leader boards (hence why I suggested the live chat style competition). I do think we should try and do something though, this is a student forum and it would be great fun!

Reply 8

Joshalos

Original post by oxymoronic

A very interesting idea! I always use the science forums when studying for my biology and chemistry exams because we are always asking each other questions and it becomes really helpful whether you ask or answer the question!

However, I would be worried slightly about the competitiveness of this idea - what if students become disheartened when they realise they just aren't at the standard of other students that compete. It could potentially create an uncomfortable environment that discourages students from taking part and learning from the experience.

The number one priority would be to create a friendly environment in which everyone at least feels they have an equal chance and if they don't quite do as well as they would have liked, there would be no pressure to stop trying nor pressure from others.

Interesting idea though; like I said, asking each other questions is a very useful resource on TSR and it helped me greatly.