Steve Corbett's Mini-Analysis: Feng Shui

Steve Corbett

Topic:
Introduction to Feng Shui

Audience:
This course will be designed as an introductory course for anyone interested in Feng Shui. It would not be suited for experts, but can be used as a refresher for enthusiasts.

Mini-Analysis:
I created an 8-question survey called “What would you want to learn about Feng Shui?” I made the survey available to Facebook friends and classmates and also posted it on the Twitter public timeline.

What types of questions did you include in your survey?

There were three demographic questions:
•Which of the following best describes your gender? (Male or Female)
•Which of the following best describes your age group? (17 or younger, 18-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50 or older)
•Where did you take this survey from? (Twitter or Facebook)

There were four multiple choice questions:
•For what reason(s) would you be interested in learning about Feng Shui? (Asked to rank eight possible reasons with "other" being a ninth reason)
•How familiar are you with Feng Shui? (Used a Likert scale from Very Familiar to Somewhat Familiar to Not Familiar at All)
•How familiar are you with each of the following topics associated with Feng Shui? (Listed 12 topics and used a Likert scale from Very Familiar to Somewhat Familiar to Not Familiar at All)
•How interested are you in learning more about each of the following topics associated with Feng Shui? (Listed 12 topics and used a Likert scale from Very Interested to Somewhat Interested to Not Interested at All)

There was one open-ended question (no one used it to provide comments):
•In addition to the topics already mentioned above, is there anything else you would expect to be covered in an introductory course about Feng Shui?

How many people took your survey?
Twelve people took my survey. Eleven respondents were Facebook friends or classmates and one response was received through Twitter. Most of the respondents were female (83%). Most of the respondents were from the 30-39 age group (58.3%) with only one respondent being 29 or younger.

What did you find out from your mini-analysis?
•When asked why they would be interested in learning about Feng Shui, the most cited reason was "for balance in my life" followed by "Just curious," "To improve health," and "For good luck."
•The audience is somewhat familiar (36.4%) to not familiar at all (36.4%) with the topic of Feng Shui.
•At the topic level, the survey results clearly indicated that a majority of the audience was not familiar at all with any of the topics. They were the least familiar with the following topics: Determining your Kua Number, the Bagua and two types of Baguas, the history and origin of Feng Shui, and the five Feng Shui elements and determining your birth element.
•When asked what topics they would be interested in learning more about, the top 6 preferences of the audience were: "How to determine if your home has Good Energy or Bad Energy,"How to use Feng shui to improve health," "How to apply the Feng Shui Five Elements Theory in your home," "How to check the Flow of Chi, or Universal Energy, in your home," "How to strengthen different Feng Shui areas in your home," and "How to create a Feng Shui Energy Map (i.e. the Bagua) of your home."

How can you use this information to help design your course?
The survey highlighted five main content areas to emphasize:

• The history and origin of Feng Shui: The results clearly indicated that the respondents were not familiar with this topic. It will be important to have this introductory topic covered early in the course to give learners a baseline to start from before getting into other topics.

• Determining your Kua Number: The Kua number helps you determine your lucky directions and "For good luck" was cited as a major reason why the survey respondents would be interested in learning about Feng Shui. Also, the results clearly indicated that the respondents were least familiar with this topic.

• The Bagua and two types of Baguas: The Bagua is the Feng Shui Energy Map of your home and "for balance in my life" was cited as a major reason why the survey respondents would be interested in learning about Feng Shui. Also, the results clearly indicated that the respondents were not familiar with this topic. When asked what topics they would be interested in learning more about, the audience expressed interest in learning "How to create a Feng Shui Energy Map (i.e. the Bagua) of your home." They also expressed interest in these related topics: "How to determine if your home has Good Energy or Bad Energy,""How to check the Flow of Chi, or Universal Energy, in your home," and "How to strengthen different Feng Shui areas in your home."

• The Feng Shui Five Elements Theory: When asked what topics they would be interested in learning more about, the audience expressed interest in learning "How to apply the Feng Shui Five Elements Theory in your home." The survey results clearly indicated that a majority of the audience was not familiar at all with the five Feng Shui elements and how to determine one's birth element.

• Using Feng shui to improve health: "To improve health" was cited as a major reason why the survey respondents would be interested in learning about Feng Shui. Furthermore, when asked what topics they would be interested in learning more about, the audience expressed interest in learning "How to use Feng shui to improve health"

Based on the demographic results, the course should be designed for adult learners, so an instructional strategy that optimizes the adult learning experience should be used. A short self-paced distance course would provide this type of audience an appropriate level of autonomy to explore course topics based on their individual needs and interests.