Re: How do teachers use org-mode

[Brian van den Broek <brian.van.den.broek@gmail.com>]

On 1 February 2012 06:10, Venkatesh Choppella
<venkatesh.choppella@iiit.ac.in> wrote:
> Dear Org-mode users:
>
> I am using  org-mode this semester  to host my course notes.   For me
> org-mode was a god-send, since I had been struggling to organize
> course notes in plain html  before that.

<snip>

> I am interested to  hear from others who have used org-mode as part of
> their teaching activities.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Venkatesh Choppella
> IIIT Hyderabad
> Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500 032
> India


Hi Venkatesh,

I'm a philosopher, so, unlike in your case, there's little chance of
my making orgmode itself part of the course material :-)

Depending on the course, I make a lot of use of beamer presentations.
(Lots in Introduction to Logic course, little or none in seminars.)
However, I developed my work-flow before orgmode grew the rich tools
it now has for supporting beamer; so orgmode plays no role, here. Were
I starting again, I'd likely make my workflow more orgmode focused.

The most significant use I make of orgmode that seems peculiar to
teaching is to use org-clone-subtree-with-time-shift to create a
headline for each class session.

Each has a subheading where I jot whatever reminders I need of what to
say in class that won't be triggered for me by the beamer presentation
(if I am employing one for that class). I keep this visible on a
netbook beside the podium with the computer driving the digital
projector.

Each class's heading also has a subheading where, in the minutes
immediately after class, I record a "post-mortem" of the class. This
includes things such as what actually did get covered (as distinct
from what I had planned to cover), any things about the manner of
presenting that class's material that didn't work so well, any student
questions that were especially interesting or surprising, and any
follow-up tasks. The "what got covered" has been invaluable for
planning the next time I offer the same class and has also proved very
helpful when I've had more than one section of a single class.
(Despite the use of beamer, I try to let the class develop as the
students want as much as I do, so there is always some substantial
differences between two sections of the same class to keep track of.)

Hope that  helps,

Brian vdB