Freelance Quiz Bowl University

[cvdwightw]

PACE Introduces Freelance Quiz Bowl University

PACE believes that the true measure of good quizbowl players and coaches is not just how many points they have scored or tournaments they have won, but also how they have served the larger quizbowl community. Quizbowl as it is known today would not exist without the thousands of hours enthusiastic volunteers put in each year to write questions and run tournaments. PACE believes that one of the biggest obstacles to better questions, better tournaments, and better teams is that players and coaches often do not have a good reference for how to improve their questions, their tournaments, or their teams.

PACE has established Freelance Quiz Bowl University to teach others how to write good questions, run good tournaments, become a better player, or do any number of other things its members have learned to do through years of experience. Every other Thursday, Freelance Quiz Bowl University will debut a new set of “online lecture notes” on a topic important to quizbowl theory or practice.

Freelance Quiz Bowl University will divide its articles into three tiers: “lower division” articles will cover basics and are designed to help new players and coaches get into the game as soon as possible; “upper division” articles will cover more advanced topics or highlight a specific aspect of writing questions or running tournaments; “graduate division” articles will discuss finer points of quizbowl theory and are designed for the experienced player, coach, question writer, or tournament director looking to improve even more. Whether you’ve just been introduced to quizbowl or you’re part of a perennial national championship contender, PACE hopes to help you improve in all aspects of your quizbowl career.

If you have a suggestion for a Freelance Quiz Bowl University article topic, please contact Dwight Wynne at [email protected].

[cvdwightw]

Freelance Quiz Bowl University's first two articles, "Quizbowl 101: Jargon for the Everyday Quizbowler" and "Introduction to the Pyramidal Question," are now online. I'm aware that the timestamp for that second article is not "January 28" as promised; I'll do a better job of getting stuff published on the right date in the future.

[Red-necked Phalarope]

I'm afraid I can't find the link for this...

But yeah, great idea.

[jonah]

http://www.pace-nsc.org/?cat=3

[Important Bird Area]

Please ignore, crossposted with jonah

[Red-necked Phalarope]

Oh; looks like I didn't scroll down far enough on the home page. Thanks!

[Down and out in Quintana Roo]

The latest writeup about pyramidal questions is really excellent. Nice work, Dwight.

[Unicolored Jay]

Wow, these are really good. I'm looking forward to some of the low-level stuff to help the younger group at my school. Thanks!

[jonpin]

Since the initial post came from known humorous guy Dwight, and I'm pretty sure this was joked about at some point last year, I did a double-take once I discovered this was real and serious.

And it looks good. Keep up the good work!

[cvdwightw]

Seven-month bump: Freelance Quiz Bowl University is back for the fall. We'll have another seven articles this fall and are making plans to include Power Point slide shows and videos in and/or as our future articles.

As always, if you have an idea for a topic for Freelance Quiz Bowl University, contact me and I'll try to either write about it or find someone in PACE who wants to do so.

[Cheynem]

This is an excellent idea that I somehow missed during its first iteration. Some ideas for potential future articles (some of which I may write myself if I have time include):

*How to work with frustrated students first getting into quizbowl, both as a coach or as a veteran player
*How to run a successful practice at various skill levels
*Navigating the college/high school intersectional levels
*Simple improvement exercises that can be conducted at one practice
*Getting the most out of online resources, especially the packet archive
*Dealing with team chemistry and problems