Listening to your learners

I am going to choose just three things that I feel have been key to building and growing my business, Aspire Languages.

Here goes!

The first is listening to my learners

This may sound a very obvious point but for me, it is too vital not to include. I would say that most, if not all, of my adult learners have a very clear idea of what they want to learn and what they want to achieve when they join a course - they know the ‘what’ and they trust me to bring the ‘how’. It’s like a partnership and there is lot to gain from working like this! But how?

Design a course

Of course, initially you will have to design a course that you can advertise to attract and recruit your learners but if you want to keep these learners, you need to develop an honest and open dialogue with them from one week to seek feedback, to find out what activities they particularly enjoy and benefit from and how they feel they are progressing with a certain structure or topic.

Listening to your learners and taking on board their feedback will be so valuable in enabling you to plan the following course and to ensure that it is packed with relevant content for your learners and that it is engaging and enjoyable.

Feedback

I have found informal feedback like this and also formal feedback through evaluation forms and learner input surveys crucial in ensuring I can deliver what my learners want. The steer also takes a lot of pressure off me to have to always think of new topics and ideas – and then stops me worrying about my choices!

How do I get the feedback?

Well I use informal chat during classes but I am aware that not everyone will give their true opinion in a group so I encourage feedback via email. I also use Survey Monkey – but be aware that the free version does have some limitations eg you can’t add a comments box. I have also used Google docs which is free and although it has limitations it is very easy to use.

Listening to your learners encourages informed and relevant planning leading to happy and fulfilled learners – perfect!

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