CDD Course Report Walden 6-1-10

Instructor End of Course Report


Center Name: Walden House

Beginning Date: April 27, 2010

Graduation Date: June 1, 2010

Names of the four Instructors: Soni Nagatani, Agraja Sharma, Derin Oyekan, Peter Downey

The Walden House course consisted of two class sessions per week, for six weeks, with 15 students enrolled for the start of the course. Course topics included hardware components, including the monitor, processor, mouse, keyboard, learning how to type, using the Internet and the basic components of Windows. In order to graduate, the students were required to write a 500-word essay, and present their essay in front of the class. This was the first class being taught at the new Walden House facility.

With a few exceptions, the students had very little experience using computers at the start of the course. Some expressed feelings of intimidation from never having used a mouse and keyboard. Despite this, the students expressed much enthusiasm and a desire to gain the knowledge necessary to become proficient with computers. During the first couple classes, the “intimidation factor” started to disappear as the students learned the basic parts of a computer, and learned how to type properly using the instructional typing software. As the course progressed, the students opened up more and started asking questions which demonstrated how they were catching on to the material. For example, Rodney asked how he could copy pictures from a digital camera onto a hard drive. The students eventually took a quiz on the computer hardware terms, and all but two passed with scores over 85%.

Another very positive aspect of the course was the written essay requirement. The announcement that students were required to write a 500-word essay was not well received at first, but once the students created their outlines, the ideas and words started to flow. Because the students had to write most of their essays outside of the classroom, completing their papers really showed their dedication and devotion to graduating. Nearly all of the students had their entire essays written before the final class. When the time came for students to present their papers in front of the class, it was very inspiring to hear about their goals and aspirations. James talked about how essential it is to learn technical skills as part of any career, and how he plans to use computers in his job search. Eric discussed his former fear of technology, and how he now has an email address and is creating his own resume. It was assuring as an instructor to hear how computer skills will help the students with their future lives.

Unfortunately, only half of the original class went on to graduate, with the other half of the students dropping the course for various reasons. However, the students that did graduate really appeared to have a sense of accomplishment by the end of the course, for having achieved so much over such a short period of time. Teaching this course was an enjoyable experience, and the students seemed very grateful at graduation for having the opportunity to take a course with CDD.