Forum Discussion
How do I regain interest in a class if I’ve lost confidence in the instructor’s depth of knowledge?
I have joined a 3-4 months technical, online course related to my profession. I know the basic of this subject, yet wanted to get in-depth content about it and hence opted for this one. The course is also intended for experienced ones, not someone who is new to it.
We are less than 20 students in the class and the instructor ensures it is an interactive one. I have asked a few questions to which the instructor was unable to answer and tried to dodge the question by saying, 'It is not important', 'Don't worry too much about it' etc. I googled those questions and got it clarified myself. But, later on, may be say, after a month or so, s/he would talk about that topic which s/he had dodged earlier.
The course is for two more months but I have almost lost interest in attending this course, because of those incidents. It is mainly like, though the course is an interactive one, the instructor doesn't want to answer in-depth questions.
I am unable to concentrate in the current sessions. How should I get back my original enthusiasm as when I have joined it?
P.S: This is not a company sponsored course. I have opted it out of my own expenses.
You've already paid for the course. That's what economists call a sunk cost. You won't get that money back.
However, your time is always worth something. The time in classes you've already attended is a sunk cost. Consider whether you want to spend any more of it to attend the remaining sessions.
Are you still learning anything from the course? Would you be able to get the same information somewhere else (such as by googling questions, watching online videos, etc.)? In other words, is there something that makes finishing the class worth your time?
If you do choose to complete the course, try to focus on your original goal when you signed up for it. If the instructor won't engage, perhaps you could use what's presented in the course as the starting point for what questions to investigate on your own.
Best wishes!
Hi Sidra. Excitedly signing up for a course and then discovering it's not what you'd hoped for is never a fun place to be. And it's particularly frustrating when it's something you paid for yourself.
Judy is correct in saying that while your money is spent, your time isn't. So the most important thing to do now is determine if you can still get something from this course that makes it worth the time you're spending on it or if it's a better use of your time to walk away and not finish it.
The course is never going to meet your initial expectations of it. That's really disappointing, but it sometimes happens. But you may still be able to get value from it—and get back just a bit of your initial excitement—if you change your expectations of the course. Clearly, your instructor isn't up for digging into audience questions or talking about content before it's come up in their lesson plans. But outside of that, are the lectures and class activities helping you at all—even if they're simply helping you think about the subject in new ways or making it easier to do those post-class Google searches to get the deeper information you need? Or are you building connections with your classmates that could help you professionally? Then attending the course might still be worth the effort, even if you have to supplement it with Google and other reading.
But if the course isn't teaching you anything you didn't already know, or it's taught in a way you find frustrating and draining, then it really is okay to stop taking it. But it doesn't have to be a complete loss. You could use the course syllabus to guide your own self-driven exploration of the topic. And since you already have time regularly set aside for attending the course, you can always just switch how you use it and study on your own during that time instead.
Regardless of what you decide to do, I'm very sorry you're going through this. It's so disappointing when a learning experience you're excited about doesn't end up being what you need. I hope you're able to find other ways to keep building your professional skills—whether it's on your own, with an online community, or even in another class that better matches what you're looking for.
