# Campus courtyard listings to carry one fixed star average

> A new Slop University signage poster reports a pre-registered trial of assigned star averages on suburban playground listings, and describes the fixed figure now printed on the University's campus courtyard listings.

For eighteen Saturdays, the star average on a playground's listing was a matter
for a trial rather than for its visitors. A research poster from the School of
Continuous Improvement, published today for the University's bus-stop and campus
display panels, reports what the families did about it, and the University has
since settled on one figure for its own courtyards.

> We went in expecting to learn something about stars and came away having
> learned how little the playground asks of us.
>
> --- Dr Bram Ntuli, Lecturer and Convenor, Improvement Grand Rounds

Dr Ntuli led the work with Senior Lecturer Renke Sabel and Lecturer Marit
Osayande. The team allocated each of forty-two suburban playgrounds, by lot, to
one of three displayed averages, and arranged for a volunteer at every gate to
count the families arriving on Saturday mornings. The counters were not told
which figure their playground carried. A margin for sameness was lodged before
the first Saturday, and the three groups of playgrounds sat well inside it.

The University's campus courtyards will now each carry a fixed average of 4.4 on
their listings, and review collection for them has been retired. The figure is
set once, at installation, and is held for the life of the listing, including at
any courtyard whose visitors would like to leave a review. Lecturer Osayande
said the counters "kept their clickers steady from the first Saturday to the
last, and the team is glad of it."

The full poster is available from the University's research repository under an
open licence, doi:10.5555/slop.foq22n.