The uva.js course format is designed with extensive feedback in mind as to how the group should be defined. First, there is no concept of a meeting in the traditional club sense. Meetings are difficult to schedule and impossible to cater to the varying levels of experience that we want to engage. The course format that we've devised caters to all levels without wasting anyone's time. By requiring our lecturers to write up full lecture notes, we allow remote learners to be engaged and provide a reference for those who could make it. Finally, our innovative hackshop meets the goal of engaging members of all levels with a challenging problem and getting their hands dirty in the code.

###Courses A course consists of 4 lectures, the first is pointed towards beginners to the topic. The second lecture is pointed toward a) those who attended the first lecture, and b) those who have a general understanding and thus didn’t attend the first lecture. The third course is similar in that it’s aimed at those who attended previous lectures as well as advanced people looking to learn more complicated aspects of a topic. The final lecture is a guest lecture and/or demo along with lightning talks and a forum for questions. If a topic requires more than four lectures, it should be split up into multiple courses. Not all topics require it, but each lecturer is encouraged to put on a hackshop after their course is over.

###Special Topics Special topic lectures are single night events that don’t need the four lecture format of a course to instill some relevant knowledge or skill. These will likely be one-off lectures about a specific and interesting topics or guest lectures. A special topic lecture should be supported by a group no smaller than five members. A guest lecture needs to be sponsored by a student member that will serve as the primary contact.

###Lectures All lectures require certain deliverables in order to be compliant with the uva.js format. First, the lecture must have a well-defined skill or take-away that all members attending the lecture could use or perform afterwards. Second, lectures must provide full lecture notes of all topics covered in the lecture prior to the course’s beginning. Lecture notes will be posted online for people who can’t make it and for those out of town that still want to participate in the course. For certain spontaneous learning exercises planned for the meeting, the lecture notes should be updated to include valuable information within 48 hours of the lecture. All lectures should be recorded and/or live streamed for those who can’t make it.

###Hackshop A hackshop is a mashing of a hackathon and a workshop, centered around applying concepts and information gained in the lecture series. A few days prior to the hackshop, the problem sphere is released. The definition of the problem should be neither too broad as to require a lot of brainstorming for a solution nor too specific as to stifle creativity. There should be reasonable flexibility in the problem sphere to account for the variable experience levels of participants. Hackshops should be around 2 and 4 hours but the instructor of the course can set the times. If required, there can also be an expert team who are required to provide a helping hand when others are stuck as the work on their own hack.

###Lightning Talks Lightning talks are designed to open up the stage for members to show off something cool they've been working on or share a tidbit of information related to the course topic. Members are encouraged to document their lightning talks after the meeting, but it is not required.

###Student Sponsor A student sponsor is responsible for ensuring that the guest lecturer complies with uva.js structure and reserving the lecture space (if applicable).