What Do We Need for This? Organized Participant Preparation Before a Hackathon

Hackathon participants are often expected to use unfamiliar technologies or tools, requiring self-organized preparation, potentially supported by hackathon organizers. This work's objective was to implement a toolbox to support hackathon organizers and participants in their preparation. We deployed the prototype toolbox in two hackathons and collected logdata and users' self-reports. Our findings report only few and short interactions of the participants with the toolbox. Further exploration revealed several possible reasons for the low interaction rate, such as full schedules leading up to the hackathons and a reduced need for all group members to engage with the tools. The results suggest that despite the general need for hackathon preparation, not all participants will use offered preparatory materials. Nonetheless, we see multiple purposes for the toolbox: a) as a preparatory resource, b) as a cheat-sheet during the hackathon, and c) as reference after the hackathon to support sustained learning.