Many of the programs that you must face within the programming model fall into the educational category: alcohol awareness, sustainability, financial responsibility, and even the diversity topics.  A challenge that is posed with educational programming is determining the balance between fun and informational.  Let’s face it with many of these topics and the competition for student’s time and energy we need to hook ’em in with something fun, but we need to make certain that objective is not lost in all of that fun.

No matter what the educational topic you choose there will be obstacles to face, but if there is adequate planning and brainstorming about these challenges you can arrive at a successful program with educational value.  First off, pick your topic of choice…got it? Good.  Now think about the information that you want to convey and how much of that information is necessary for an (intro level) program.  Great. you have your topic and the info that you want/need to share, its time to spice things up!  Think about appropriate ways to make this educational program more fun and enjoyable to the average student within the residence halls.  Does that mean that you are going to turn your information into game show format, have a craft, incorporate food, or show YouTube videos?  Whatever your fun element is make sure it compliments the program and information itself.  The tricky part, making sure the educational factor is not over shadowed by the “fun” element of the program.

When thinking about the balance and the trade-off that may need to occur going into this type of programming remember the primary goal of the program is to educate others on topics that they may not be acquainted with.  So, aim to get high numbers of attendees, but don’t be discouraged if this doesn’t happen.  People should leave with a bit more knowledge at their disposal, and in order for that to happen we actually have to teach them something when they are going to our educational programs.

If you are looking for good ideas to get the brainstorming process going check out the OTM winner’s  Educational and diversity programs have their own category

http://otms.nrhh.org/ >>>then click on quick report links NACURH Winners on the left hand side.

Best of luck going forward on your quest to educate through programming.