Developing the Classroom for Student and Instructor Experience Series
Growing up, my family watched many stand-up comedians, from Larry the Cable Guy to George Carlin. It fascinated me that one person in an auditorium could entertain a packed house for an hour telling stories. They would make the experience even more special as they perform crowd work and try to engage the audience with their routine off the cuff. I've recently been getting into a puppet comedian, Randy Feltface, who, unlike other puppet comedians where you see the puppeteer with the puppet on stage, Randy is just the puppet, which changes the whole vibe of the puppet comedian. Rather than feeling like an extension, Randy, as a puppet, is connecting with his audience in a different way than typical comedians would because he's a fictional puppet telling stories just like the others would, adding to the hilarity of being a puppet. Randy randomly looks at the crow while doing crowd work, hoping he's not looking at the aisle because puppets don't have real eyes; at least, I don't think they do. If he is, he creates a funny bit for everyone to laugh at because puppets are funny. Randy creates an experience that's unique, unlike other comedians and makes the price of admission feel more valuable than a typical well-known comedian.
Education is not cheap, and even if you are teaching a certification course that costs less than a thousand dollars, it's still a large portion of someone's paycheck they are hoping to get a life-changing experience out of. For thirty dollars, you can buy a ticket to the Helium Comedy Club and Indianapolis and see Randy live on stage and make you laugh for an hour. Randy's not out there changing lives, but his goal is to stretch that 30 dollars into something more. If someone is paying even 500 dollars for your course, you want that 500 to feel like they're getting a thousand-dollar experience and getting a huge bang for their buck.
When creating an educational environment, you have to identify the type of experience you want learners to go through, as well as the instructor. When I teach, I also think about the experience I want to have with a student for 4-5 months. If I don't like my environment or the content I'm teaching, it will show to the students. You, like comedians, have to make the students' time feel valued for what they are paying. From how they interact with your learning management system (LMS), you have to think about the beginning and end experience of a student completing an assignment. It's not just about the student doing the work; it's about them understanding the instructions and knowing how to turn in the project on time, as well as any repercussions of not doing so on time. It also identifies why doing that work is important for their future professional career. However you approach that is up to you; this reading isn't here to justify flipped classroom or student-centered learning, but when you create those experiences, you have to think about how your student will feel.
In this series of five write-ups starting next week, I'll identify approaches I've taken to create classroom environments successfully. One of my most proud achievements in teaching is receiving the Barabra Jackson Outstanding First-Year Advocate award for advocating for the first-year student experience. One of my passions in teaching is the first time a student touches down in a classroom and what it does to shape their future. It's very important to me, as many of the instructors I've had the pleasure of being a student with over the years are the reason I'm a professional in the field by creating a great first day of class and setting up an environment I wanted to engage in.
I'm looking forward to next week as we dive into how to create assignments regarding the student experience!
