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Originally Posted by alecmuller
For me, the motivation is to have a library of modular robot components we can draw from on the very first day of kickoff. These components (loaders, shooters, kickers, manipulators, etc) are far more useful when they're well-documented - whether you're using them as-is or customizing the design.
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I want a mechanism library. I don't know if my students want one. They seem to like Just Making Things.
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Originally Posted by ASD20
Ideally the recognition of the utility and importance of documentation is motivation enough.
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Ideal worlds are for physicists...
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Having said that, I know it takes time to gain an appreciation of the value of documentation.
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It takes experiencing the documentation being valuable, for appreciation to set in. "I didn't know what to do, until I found a solution in last year's documentation." Maybe when i'm in "teacher-mode", working in explicit references to "you know how to do this, you did it last year."?
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In the meantime, I would say that the best way to motivate students to document is to make it clear that it is looked highly upon when selecting team leadership. Let me be clear, this is not bribery at all because by working on documentation, students are showing many of the traits and skills needed to be a good leader. I am going to use the example of the BOM, though this also applies to other forms of documentation. I can't think of a better way to learn about every single part on the robot and what it does, than creating a spreadsheet of every single part on the robot. Writing the BOM also familiarizes you with FRC suppliers, the KOP, and the manual. It also demonstrates a lot of good leadership skills like organization, attention to detail, commitment, and being willing to do less desirable jobs for the sake of the team.
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I like this carrot. Do note this is a carrot that doesn't always work for every student. It worked on me, but I am not every student.