Course Revision Assessment
Wouldn't it be valuable to both students and teachers alike if students were handed Pre-course assessments asking them what they want to learn from the course?
Elizabeth,
I agree with you. You may ask about ways of learning or what they liked or disliked but the issue is of what to learn is not for them to decide. Students don't know what they don't know!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I would agree. I would not ask students what do they want to learn. As a math instructor, they would not want to learn much, particularly, if they are not majoring in any science field.
Elizabeth
Christopher,
This is smart. You want to develop the type of relationship where you can really facilitate their learning and teach them the value of feedback and what to do with feedback.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Personally,
I build this into my student introductions. There, they can introduce themselves, discuss items of interest on the syllabus, and talk about what they want to gain from the course.
Emmanuel,
Wow, that is interesting. We forget that students (even adult students) don't know what they don't know.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Asking students what they want to learn to me is not a good idea. At my former institution we had an adult learning department (CLIMB). Some students argued that it is waste of their time to learn basic maths and English because they will not need it at their jobs. It was quite an interesting dialogue that students will pick and chose what they will learn or not. There is a standard and a reason for courses being offered to students. Each course/learning leads to another course and understanding.
Sue,
You make a great point. It may get them to think about gaps in their own knowledge. You want them to think about the content more than the grade. That isn't always easy in our educational culture.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
While I agree that asking students what they want to learn can be dangerous, I don't think it's a bad option.
Many will not "know what he/she doesn't know" but the responses may provide insight into the type of student body you're dealing with and can also give you a heads up about content that may be of interest to this particular group. That content may already be part of the course, and you may be able to focus more attention on it and make it an enjoyable learning experience (more so than normal, of course).
Elie,
I think you still must have control of the content but I do think it may effect subsequent courses. You still have to be in control.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I would think not. If you take this approach you could open a can of worms that you might not be able to control. If we allow the students to control content before a class even starts it puts me as an instructor at a great disadvantage when teaching. If you are going to take this type of approach you need to do this after the course is completed and then make modifications to your class.
Don,
You make several good points. I find it interesting your statement about sounding consumer-based. I think you can ask students opinions without sounding consumerish.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Don,
You make several good points. I find it interesting your statement about sounding consumer-based. I think you can ask students opinions without sounding consumerish.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
This would be helpful for students to get a 'big picture' view of the upcoming course and for instructors to have a beginning knowledge of what students may already know or don't know. It would also be useful to identify those students who may have a pre-conceived view of the course and may be sedentary in their view of the upcoming material. "What I want to learn" from a course sounds very "consumer-based" but in the educational exchange course offerings are best built from a quality assessment of industry/real worlds standards and the need to communicate why these industry/real world standards need to be met should not be secondary.
Alan,
You are right. It is a good way to keep the student need in the loop for course design.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
This would be interesting to the facilitator in that he/she would know what the studeents want to achieve from the class. This could be compared to the listed course outcomes/objectives.
Any significant differences should initiate a review to determine if the class needs to be modified or if the students need to exposed to the reasons for some different objectives/outcomes from what they bring to the class.
Paula,
That is true. Students don't even know what they don't know. Also, learning is built on a foundation of learning. The foundation has to be there first.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I can understand why this may be be beneficial but students often do not know what they want to learn in the beginning of the course because of their lack of knowledge of the subject. They may have a general idea but I think their expectations may depend upon what knowledge they already have of the subject and it also depends upon their ability to grasp and retain the content.
Paula
Steven ,
Great point. You also must evaluate the course to make sure it covers what the objectives demand.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Depends on the subject of the course and the student's experience level. Although rare some students would be better suited to take an assessment of skills exam. Upon successful completion they can advance to a next class rather than waste weeks covering material they already know.
