Doing it OLD SCHOOL!

If you browse the Univ of MD Schedule Web pages for the last few years I would:

1. Ask you why you were doing that. Seems like an odd use of your time.
2. Point out to you that Automata Theory which usually gets around 8 people got 23 (it competes with crypto as noted a few blog entries ago).

Why the uptick? Did we use email? blogs? a websites? twitter? FACEBOOK? eBay? None of the above. We had tried some of those in the past to NO effect. We did it Old School! I went around to the classes that feed into Automata Theory and TALKED about them for 5 minutes each around registration time. And the talks were off-the-cuff. No PowerPoint, no fireworks, no technicolor show with an intermission. Also we told advisers to be on the lookout for people who might want to take it and tell them while advising.

1. I had a prior post on why email is less effective then is used to be (I can't find the post- if you know where it is let me know.) To summarize from memory- people get too much email and some goes to SPAM filters or can be claimed to have.
2. (A colleague of mine suggested this.) If I just EMAIL about a class, I have not spend much effort and the students sense that. If I go out of my way to talk about the class then the students think that I care.
3. There are some other explanations for some of the uptick: Comp Sci enrollment is up (might account for 4 students) and by a fluke we have 2 grad students taking the course (which accounts for 2 students). But going from 12 in Spring 2009 to 24 in Spring 2010 is alot. (It was taught be people who are thought us as good teachers both times.)

The point is, if you want something to get attention locally do it old-school! Or at least do it old-school in conjunction with high-tech.