UCT students are currently on holiday, so it was great watching our Eventbrite attendance sign up page increase in numbers in the lead up to last night’s Hackathon, to the point where we were expecting 23 people. But even more exciting than this, was having eight new sign ups last night (some signed up but could not stay), which put us at 29 volunteers in attendance! This was a great turnout considering everyone is supposed to be on holiday, and wonderful to still have new people hearing about FHSST and signing up.

This week we decided to continue with uploading exemplar papers to FullMarks and not introduce anything new just yet. This was a good call, as with so many new people present, and some volunteers only uploading to FullMarks for the first time this week, it was all hands on deck for the Siyavula team – it wouldn’t have been possible to provide support to people starting completely new processes.

Volunteers are still getting used to using the template for OpenOffice, which includes formatting equations in the maths editor and all that involves, along with problem solving i.e. how a question should be styled, in terms of reference material or the question-answer format, whether a table should be recreated or if a screenshot is best. These things get better with time and practice, but they are challenges that are still coming up each week that volunteers need assistance with. As a result of this, some people hadn’t yet uploaded their questions to FullMarks, and needed some guidance with this process too. We find that if we sit with a volunteer while they do one whole question, they are more likely to get their next one correct and not need as much help the second time around. This is something that we will be sure to carry on with, as it makes a difference to how confident a volunteer will feel about the whole process, and attempting it on their own.

Carine spent the majority of the Hackathon sitting at the one table of volunteers and working on an assignment, which gave her perspective of what it is like being at a Hackathon from a volunteer’s point of view. She was able to offer guidance to those around her, but also receive help from the table when she encountered a problem that she needed assistance with. In addition to this, it was a nice opportunity to really chat to the volunteers and get to know some of them a bit better. Neels, Heather, Natalia and I spent the evening going from table to table checking on how people were doing, attending to queries as they arose, and taking some time to chat where possible. We really want to get to know our volunteers better, as it is as a result of volunteer contributions that FHSST came about in the first place, and they are the reason we are able to continue and to improve our books. It makes for a really great atmosphere when there’s conversation and people are able to relax into the Hackathon and connect with others at their table and in the room.

It is also important for us to know what the appeal of Hackathons is for volunteers. We have had some interesting feedback from the evenings, and found that some volunteers view working on the model solutions as revision for themselves, to keep the work fresh in their minds. In so doing it is a fun and less stressful way to revise as they can socialise a bit with their friends while giving back to the community too. People are enjoying the work, the process is fun, and a sense of community is being established as everyone is working towards the same goal, while being there with their friends and getting to know other people too.

Heather has created some pie charts that show the progress of uploading exemplar papers to FullMarks, broken down into physics, chemistry and maths assignments:

 

We had 51 questions finalised on FullMarks last night, which is our highest number yet! We are very proud of everyone that finalised questions, but also of everyone who came and contributed. As always, Butler’s Pizza did not disappoint, and they arrived with delicious pizza to keep our volunteers energy levels up.

We will have a Hackathon next week too, and while it will still be the university vacation, we look forward to another strong turnout. Thank you to everyone for coming!

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