Motivation, Collaboration and Quality Management of Modules of a German Career Service

摘要

How does one motivate busy university students to attend optional courses for which no credits are obtained? How is participation and collaboration achieved amongst the course participants and how are these courses evaluated to ensure consistently high quality and continued adaptation to changing needs? The consideration of multiple intelligences, relevance of the content and adjustment to the prospective participants' time resources are three key factors to bear in mind for motivation purposes. The relevance issue was tackled through the conduct of surveys with the immediate benefactors of the course visit, the students on the one hand and companies as future employers of these very students on the other, to identify urgently required competencies that are not easily obtained through regular course work. Based thereon was the decision for the development of four different semester-long courses in terms of foci, content, delivery methodologies and evaluation and assessment methods. A blended-learning approach has been proven ideal, where extensive e-learning components are accompanied by or interspersed with onsite workshops for competency testing and application.