As a teacher of Applied Blockchain, your students will see you as their expert in Applied Blockchain.
the rails
Whilst this will be true in the context of what you are teaching, we have to remember that our focus is on the courses that we are teaching. Blockchain is a HUGE ecosystem with many moving parts and many areas to focus on. At he moment NFTs and DeFi are hot topics… are we supposed to be experts in these fields? … the answer is clearly NO. It is good to have an understanding or even a working knowledge of directions that blockchain technologies are going… but be an expert in this? the answer is again NO.
The ‘Rails’ are quite clear… the Elements of each unit that we are teaching. The boundaries are the Knowledge and Performance benchmarks for each unit. nothing more… nothing less.
providing consultancy
ADDRESSING THESE REQUESTS
This can be as simple as responding with ‘ Good question, however it falls outside of the scope of this course. I suggest that this might be a question for a consultant who has expertise in this area. Let’s focus now on getting you through what I am going to assess you on.’
If you feel unsure about what they are asking, then you are perfectly within your rights to refrain from responding there and then. What works for me is: ‘Let me get back to you on this’. This will allow you to take this offline from the class and address this directly with the student making these requests.
They may feel like you are fobbing them off and not supporting them. If you sense this, then you should explain that your role is to assist them in gaining their qualification and that you are not qualified to provide the consultancy that they need.
WHAT WE TEACH & ASSESS
We are teaching students ‘how to apply blockchain’. When we assess their projects, we don’t assess the commercial viability of their projects; We teach them ‘how to’ … and when we assess them, we are making judgements about how they have applied what they have learned… NOT the outcomes of their projects.
I hope that this will help in avoiding that slippery slope… Sometimes the lines seem very grey and difficult to be clear on…
It is important to understand the boundaries of what you are teaching and assessing. Refresh yourself on the Performance Benchmarks for each unit before you commence delivery of that unit.