Creating Your College Search Roadmap, Module 1: Learn the Lingo

About a week ago I started working on this eLearning project, and I'm happy to say that I have almost finished the first module! The module's plan is complete, and the pieces of the actual eLearning product are coming together.

eLearning series menu

Module 1: Learn the Lingo used at Colleges

The first module focuses on vocabulary and departments specific to higher education - think Bursar and matriculate.

Navigating higher education is what can make the college search process seem so daunting, especially if you do not have someone with experience in higher education to guide you. This feeling of being lost is very common, especially so among first generation students.

While most admissions professionals take the time to explain what they are talking about or substitute higher-edu jargon with words that are more familiar with prospective students and families (I hope!), sometimes you just forget. This module is meant to help expose prospective students and families to these words and offices, to help them "learn the lingo" used at colleges, so that when they are meeting with recruiters or other admissions representatives, they are more confident in their ability to follow the conversation.

Module Plan

I like using Gange's Nine Events of Instruction as a guide when creating lessons or learning experiences. Personally, I use the events as an almost checklist to make sure I am including all pieces of an effective learning activity.

module title page

I've explained parts of the module's plan below, but did not include all nine events - I want some things to be new when I release the finished product! So rest assured, while I do not address all nine events here, they are present in the plan.

Gain Attention

To gain learners' attention, I am introducing the idea of higher education as a bureaucracy with it's own vocabulary, and acknowledge that navigating it can be confusing and overwhelming. The whole reason someone may open this eLearning series is because they are unfamiliar with higher education and aren't sure where to start.

I also assure students that are feeling that way that they are not alone and they do have experience navigating bureaucracies and learning space or community specific vocabulary.

This train of thought leads into another instructional event:

Activate Prior Knowledge

In this event, I relate learning how to navigate a college search, and higher education institutions in general, with starting a new job. While not all of the people that stumble upon and decide to open my series will have worked before, they most likely know people who have and/or are able to imagine what starting a new job may feel like.

I also point out that while all colleges and universities are different, there are commonalities. For example, if you work in a coffee shop, you have an idea of how other coffee shops make their drinks too.

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The Content

Content is organized into four sections: Types of Higher Education Institutions, Admissions and Academics, Paying for School, and Living on Campus.

Each section includes definitions of common terms, how they all relate to each other, and in the case of titles or departments, examples of situations when they can assist you.

After reviewing all of the sections, learners are prompted to move onto the assessment.

Assessment

The formative assessments used in this module are primarily going to be matching activities that test the learners' grasp of vocabulary definitions.

Full disclosure - I have not started building the actual assessment. The summative assessment is going to be a branching scenario activity where learners are choosing which departments to go to get specific information. And, full disclosure, while I have completed the activity's map, I have not started building the actual activity.

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I'm aiming to have the full course completed by mid-July, with updates about once a week. If you've stumbled upon this and have any feedback, please let me know!