Jean,
I agree 100% that students might have very valid points in regards to the material on your course as well as the design. I believe all instructors need to be reflective practitioners and we need to be constantly reviewing our courses and all feedback we get to optimize them in to the best courses they can be. To that end, I would also have a discussion with the student regarding what might be a BETTER experience or assessment in their opinion. Use their expertise to improve your course. I like they way you commented that the course is designed for a wide audience and obtaining their ideas to make it better would give you the opportunity to take that feedback and work with your dept. to FIX the defective course.
Herbert Brown III
Jean,
I agree 100% that students might have very valid points in regards to the material on your course as well as the design. I believe all instructors need to be reflective practitioners and we need to be constantly reviewing our courses and all feedback we get to optimize them in to the best courses they can be. To that end, I would also have a discussion with the student regarding what might be a BETTER experience or assessment in their opinion. Use their expertise to improve your course. I like they way you commented that the course is designed for a wide audience and obtaining their ideas to make it better would give you the opportunity to take that feedback and work with your dept. to FIX the defective course.
Herbert Brown III
Herbert,
With over 200 posts in this thread it would be hard to find something that was not mentioned in regard to adults wanting real-life settings and authentic assignments. Having said that, what if the learner is correct? How would you handle that?
I teach a class in an online HR MBA program on Negotiation & Conflict Resolution. The class is not well-designed and has been recently redesigned in a piecemeal manner. In my humble opinion it is about as far away from a Quality Matters Certification, as you could get. As I am sure you realize, at some institutions you do not always have a choice of what classes you are assigned to. You have to make the best of what you have.
I recently received an email from a student in this class stating, "Dr. Gordon, I am a HR professional with over 20 years experience, and I see no value whatsoever in the week one application. I think that a case study would have much more value." The student is absolutely correct and the assessment did not allow for any experiential learning, which the student clearly needed. Worse than that it was not aligned with any the learning outcomes of the course.
Now of course, I could not tell the student after spending a large sum on the class that it is poorly designed. What I did say was that course was designed for a wide range of learners experience and that you will find the next assessments to be more suited to the wealth of experience that you have.
What would you say? Any suggestions?
Jean
The way to help a student find the relevance of an assignment, especially in a world of standardized assignments, is to connect it to something the student is interested in. It may be his/her major, a hobby, etc. Providing a real-world connection to an assignment is very useful in these situations.
I typically try to explain my choice of assignments and the criteria that will be used to evaluate it. I explain how the particular skill will be used in the workplace, and tie it in that way.
If someone stated he/she didn't like a discussion question for a particular module, I might ask the student to come up with an appropriate question. Depending on what that student posed, I might use both questions.
I would pick up the phone and call this student. I would want to get to the root of this problem. Is he/she having a bad day? Fight with a significant other and just showing their anger. I think they would appreciate a phone call from me.
You will have students to challege the intructors on occassions. I would discuss the situation with the student as to what and why the student the assignment was a waste of time.
I would probably ask the student to make an appointment so we can speak. At that time I would go over the discussion questions and show him the relevance by interjecting some real world examples. With the assignments I would chose a question for him/her to answer that could only come from doing the assignment to also show relevance in completing all parts of the course to aid in understanding the topic.
Well said Linda. Connecting material to real-life skills is especially important for adult students.
First, I would ask for specifics about which question or assignment he is referring to. I would then give examples of how the discussion or assignment relates to a real life situation, and continue to provide practical applications of course material. I would ask the student to please keep an open mind, and then I would check back with the student later in the quarter through a private message.
Janet,
I agree that you might have more experience with the content than the students, but I have also found that at times it is good to listen to what they have to say as sometimes they provide some meaningful insight I have not thought of. You do need to provide them guidance on how the assignments are relative. Would you entertain more feedback from the student on their alternatives and why their's makes more sense?
Herbert Brown III
Hi, Everyone,
Well, I would remind the learner that I have been teaching this subject for 20 years and so I am more familiar with what is important for the students to understand. I would identify reasons why the assignments are relevant and what they are designed to help the student learn and understand.
Janet
Monte,
I agree that the more you can personalize the instruction and help connect students with the content in a more personal way, the more likely they will be to engage the content. Relating the material to the students in meaningful ways helps to motivate them in the learning process.
Herbert Brown III
I would first thank the learner for expressing their concerns about the course. I would then explain that discussions are opportunities for the class to communicate and share their thoughts about subject content related to the class, and that they allow me to share my experience with the class. I would explain that assignments are exercises for students to practice and is a way to help students retain information presented from the course. Last, I would once again let the learner know that I appreciate their opinions and will use them when reevaluating course content.
I would show how the topics do relate and are relevant by using personal work experience. Maybe he could lead the discussions to help others understand. Sometimes teaching others helps learn even more or would benefit the other students.
It's important to recognized the feelings or our students. If we have review all the structure and activities design for the course, we are confident that this activities are related to the course objectives as well as the student's learning process. So, we need to thanks the student for the feedback and then we need to explain how the activities are related to the main goals of the course... and if possible, we can check the profile of the student and relate those activities to his/her real life.
In a response email or even a call to the student you could inquire as to why the student feels this way about the information provided on the discussion questions. After the submittal of his/her answer then explain the relevance to course content of what needs to be covered and provide an example or two of how the information is applicable and / or practical to the real world. I think that since it is an adult learner they would see the value in this.
I would ask how the student to explain why he thought the assignments were a waste of time. He might have thought is was a waste of time because he does not understand the material.
Lori Zander
In these situation we need to encourage and educate and explain why the topic is relevant to course.
This is a tuffy. I honestly have never encountered this sort of gall from a student. I would certainly put on the salesman's hat and go to work on highlighting the value of the activities to the student's career.
Steve
