Career College Instruction vs. Business Instruction
My main teaching background has come from instructing seminars and training sessions in a business setting for products and processes that I have helped create. The classes have usually had a diverse age, cultural and educational makeup of attendees as I suspect many career colleges have. What should I expect to be different from the business instruction setting to the career college instruction setting as related to student retention issues?
Hi Debi,
Great strategies. You are helping to make their studies "real world" in your approach. They get to benefit from your years of experience while learning the latest best practices in accounting. This should really get them ramped up about their careers as a result of the discussion boards and the sharing information among themselves.
Gary
Hi Gary & Jon
I teach Accounting Principles I to Online students. Only some of the students are beginning their education to become an accountant. The rest of the students are there as students that will need to be able to work with accountants or be able to keep their own records in a small business. This class has many detailed assignments and can take up to 10 hours of study time each week. (There is no classroom time in an Online class.) I make sure that all of the students have an opportunity to relate to the material in relation to how they may use it in their future career. For those that are ambitious I want them to see that they may be the accountant's boss some day. To be able to supervise an accountant they need to know what an accountant does. The class has Discussion Boards and they are encouraged to bring their experiences to the class. Also there are topics to direct their motivation for learning accounting so they will be well rounded as a person in the business world. I admit there are some who are not convinced, but as I have over 30 years experience in the business world most of the students take my advice to heart.
Debi
Adjunct Online Instructor
MN School of Business
Hi Jon,
Excellent questions because since I have done similar training myself I am basing my answer on my experiences. The key word is different motivation. My business seminar attendees were there because of their desire to learn a new procedure or about a new product. The motivation was two fold. One, they had to be there for the entire time to keep their jobs or two, because by learning about the new procedure or product they would increase their income.
The same could be said about students in once sense. That is they will learn new skill sets to help them with a new career but many times they don't see their education in this light. They can start to lose motivation as the course progresses so they need reminders of why they are in school and what the pay off can be for them if they complete their training.
Gary
