“Ability to Make the Course Interesting”

Posted February 8th, 2010 by Chris Gurney

At the end of every course I teach, I hand out an evaluation form.

Generally, I’m happy with the marks I get in return. Alas, there’s this one question in which I consistently don’t do so hot. This question asks everybody to rate the instructor (that’s me) on their…

Ability to make the course interesting

The results aren’t… great.

Without going into too much detail, what I train people on is our software package, which is essentially an all-in-one toolkit for business analysts (BAs).

Granted, the subject matter of the course can get dry, which is why I strive to inject humour into the course, to keep things lively.

And I know some people are forced to be there who would rather not be. Still others have a highly-technical background, making the material seem, well, pedestrian. I can usually tell who these folks are, and identify their evaluation forms.

Call me optimistic, however, because I believe that at some level I can still make the course interesting enough for just about everybody.

So I began to wonder, just how are people interpreting the question in question? Just what does “interesting” mean?

At first, I thought that people might be asking themselves whether I made the course seem fun. I’ve had positive feedback on this front, so I didn’t think that “fun” told the whole story.

And then I thought, maybe it’s about whether I’m making the course relevant to their jobs. After considering this over the span of the past few classes, however, I adjusted my thinking.

The real question was actually this:

How should I rate the instructor on their ability to make what I do seem more interesting?

In my case “what I do” is business analysis. And what I’ve learned is that some — perhaps most — BAs have not been through any sort of formal training to do their jobs. This makes our class, perhaps, the first foray into a study about what they do for a living.

Looking back on my classes through that lens has been rather interesting, indeed.

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