Class Composition

The makeup of the student body has an impact on the course. Here are a few considerations based on our experience teaching with Duckietown in Universities across different geographies.

Note

We are assuming here that you are planning to teach a “stand-alone” Duckietown classroom, as opposed to integrating Duckietown as part of an existing course.

Class Size

A first important consideration is the class size, we advocate for limiting enrollment if possible. We have found that classes of 25-30 students, each with a robot of their own, are manageable.

There are several reasons for this:

1. Smaller classes are more amenable to community-building and the cultivation of the type of atmosphere that we are trying to create.

2. It can be difficult to support the technical challenges that some students may have. Particularly, if you are not assuming a lot of prerequisite technical knowledge, it may require a lot of time to get students up to speed with the basics.

3. In many cases, the difficulty of the course ramps upwards, and it is important that no student is left behind. Having a smaller class facilitates this objective.

Student Background

We have found that it is preferable to have as diverse a student body as possible. This refers to not only the demographics of the students but also their academic background. This is particularly true if you choose to teach a curriculum that is relatively high breadth such as the graduate-level Duckietown curricula.

It is useful to have students who are relatively knowledgeable about the covered topics, so that each student feels like they have something to contribute. This is is useful in helping to build a sense of community and strong and balanced student teams if doing projects.