Training colleagues in training them to identify clouds and water vapour boundaries

Training colleagues in training them to identify clouds and water vapour boundaries

by Bodo Zeschke -
Number of replies: 2
Dear fellow CALMeters
My name is Bodo Zeschke and I am a teacher at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology Training Centre (BMTC).
I am also the Point of Contact of the Australian VLab Centre of Excellence.
We have the opportunity to disseminate the BMTC SATIN cloud and water vapour boundary identification quiz to our international community. This will assist colleagues in training them to identify clouds and water vapour boundaries using satellite and other observational data. This quiz consists of 36 questions and is at https://learn.bom.gov.au/mod/quiz/view.php?id=33879 
But before we do this, we need your help in reviewing this. For "street cred" we need the CALMeters to provide feedback.
Please help us to do this.
One CALMeter has already reviewed this with some good feedback and a recommendation.
Two additional CALMeters are working through this.
We would love to get more colleagues completing the quiz, and to give us their valuable feedback.
Regards
Bodo
In reply to Bodo Zeschke

Training colleagues in training them to identify clouds and water vapour boundaries

by Vesa Nietosvaara -
Hi, Bodo,
I was looking at your exercise and was wondering what is the success rate (even with three attempts), if you require 100% correct? Do participants find it stressful to be perfect?

We had a similar decision to make at an ongoing EUMeTrain satellite course first Quiz. We ended up choosing maximum two attempts and a minimum grade 5/10. As this is the first Quiz, it would be pretty depressing for a participant who has just entered the course to find out: "This is the end of the course for me, I didn't pass even the first exam."

Vesa
In reply to Vesa Nietosvaara

Re: Training colleagues in training them to identify clouds and water vapour boundaries

by Bodo Zeschke -
Hi Vesa
Thanks for your question. Actually, all students passed within 3 attempts. That is because they collaborated in working through the questions. As good Operational Forecasters should do :-)
Final stats for the 50 students of 2023: 6 completed the SATIN project with 100% at the first attempt. 28 students completed the SATIN project with 100% at the second attempt. 16 students completed the SATIN project with 100% at the third attempt. I suspect that with the great feedback from CALMET XV attendees the statistics will be even better for next year's SATIN project :-)
Of course, there is always a great diversity amongst 50 students so you will always get the "super confident" and the "super nervous" within the "toes" of the collective Gaussian curve. But collaboration helps a lot. The one subset of students who struggled were those who were "super nervous" and "super introvert". It was then up to the teacher (me) to assist these students by asking questions that encouraged their reasoning. And by setting up a three-way conversation with a more extrovert student sitting in the adjacent seat.
The student who failed three attempts would need to sit a supplementary SATIN quiz. But that would require soooo much more extra work on their part. So, this gave all students the motivation to apply themselves and to collaborate in order to "get through" within three attempts. Cheers Bodo. PS. and let's face it, Operational Forecasting can be a very stressful occupation at times. Therefore, as teachers we do need to build up the student's resilience.