A few years back, just after finishing a spring semester at my university, I got a message from a parent of a student who had just taken a class with me. For a faculty member, such messages can be cause for angst; there are a lot of horror stories of parents calling to complain about a grade or something else. However, in this case, the father was calling to let me know how much his daughter had appreciated the class, and to thank me for that. This was a pleasant surprise, one that meant a lot to me. 

It might seem a bit cliché, but having a student say how much they appreciated a course they took with you really is rewarding for instructors. It’s hard to explain how much it means to hear that something you had invested a lot of thought and effort into was a good experience. Of course, it’s nice to hear this expressed in general terms (e.g.they “enjoyed” it), but it’s even better when they convey what they specifically learned from the experience. This can really fuel the desire to do an even better job with the course, especially if the praise comes out of the blue.  

We at CBI just had one of these experiences a few days ago when we read a post in the Crisis Response Journal byRobert Fagan, who had just completed our NATO CMDR course through the University of California Irvine. 

(Here is the link to the post: https://crj.co/Articles/603088/Global_learning_opportunities.aspx)  

Robert was generous in his praise. Beside this, were ally appreciated a number of specific things he pointed out about the course. As he noted, the course is unique in making NATO expertise that is usually accessible only to those in NATO available to anyone. He also commented on the multi-faceted nature of the course content; it balances aspects of issues, organization, and policy, and touches on a variety of topics from climate change to gender perspective. His observations about the applicability of the course were especially encouraging. One, it is applicable for people at different career stages, whether they are just beginning or are established in emergency management. Two, while the course is built on NATO curriculum, it is very applicable to those working outside of NATO. As he well puts it, “there is still a lot of value in acting locally but thinking globally.” This is certainly evident with the COVID crisis, and even an event such as that resulting from the recent extreme winter weather in Texas can be better understood with the insight provided by NATO CMDR. 

As I mentioned, such praise can fuel the desire of instructors to do better in a course. In our case, we have continued to revise and improve the course in advance of its next scheduled offering this spring at UCI. For example, on the technical side, we are adding captioning to course videos to enhance student comprehension of the rich content material in them. With regard to course content, we are planning to update some materials to ensure the relatability of the course to current events, such as the ever-evolving COVID crisis. 

In response to Robert’s post about this being a great experience for him, we would say it is a great experience for us as well. Perhaps the key reason for this is the opportunity to work with the students who take the course. As he noted, they represent a variety of perspectives, coming from around the world and different career tracks. Moreover, they have been engaged and invested in the course, making it an enjoyable instructional experience. We thank Robert and his classmates for that.