What are your student’s technology education goals?

Course Goals

OK… so you are teaching a technology class and you have it all planned out.  Of course, you need to teach discrete steps so your students can learn how to use the software or write the code–whatever you are teaching.

I have discussed planning your course with meaningful goals, such as when you use Fink’s taxonomy to prepare your lesson.  By “Finking” you can really create a terrific course with really meaningful content.  I absolutely love this idea.

But do you bother asking your students at the course beginning what THEIR goals are?  If I cannot do this, there is no way I can cater the course to my students and I teach strictly what I prepared.  This always backfires for me.

For example, I taught a tips and tricks for Word 2007 last Wednesday to Utah public officials.  The class was too short and too big for me to ask my students what level they are at with Word and what experience they have.  Blah!  I ended up with 1 unhappy person who did not understand what I was teaching.  Well of course I did not know!  I had not asked them what they needed.

So no matter what class you are teaching to adults, I recommend you ask your students to tell you something about them.  You can ask them to tell you who they are and why they are there in your class.  I usually add something else onto this list: I ask them to tell me something silly about themselves, their animal, their car, etc.  This silly story tells me even more about my students than you could possibly dream.  I find out more about their situation and their goals.

Meeting Students’ Goals

I now want to go beyond learning about students goals before class and then adjusting the course to answer specific questions and needs of my students.  That is very taxing on my own energy, but it has appeared to work so far.

Now I want to ask my students if the class met their goals.  I want to ask them when the class is finished.  My students have to fill out an evaluation anyway, but I want to ask more than if they are happy with the course and if the instructor knew her stuff…  I want to ask them if the course met their goals and why?

That can be risky for you.  Your ego can take a blow because you are asking more specific questions. However, I want to know more specifics about my students’ learning.  I want to know if my own course goals somehow meet with my students’ goals.  Am I able to integrate industry standards AND their needs?  How can you know until you ask your students after they have experienced your course?  If not, then you can adjust your course goals, objectives, and activities according to their needs and your goals.