The

e ‘TEACHING
PROFESSOR

 

Volume 1, Number 6

 

Effective Course Materials

Another academic year is about to begin.
‘True, some summer still remains, but, put
bluntly, it's time to start getting psyched up
for another year. We'd like to suggest a way
to ease into fall, gently but profitably, by
thoroughly reviewing the course materials for
the courses you will teach in the fall. (Re-
view only one course if you can't face them
all yet.) Assemble everything, including syl-
labus, textbook, handouts, exams, your notes,
supplementary readings, overhead trans-
parencies, slides -- everything that helps you
achieve the course objectives.
6°" had it all together in one place
a on't know why you should? Lots of rea-
sons, none of them terribly profound, but
most of them too often ignored. Course mater-
ials communicate important information
about course content, policies and procedures.
In addition, they speak volumes about the
atmosphere of the course and the instructor's
attitude. One instructor we know types in
sarge letters on the first page of the sylla-
ius (handed out the first day, of course) I
SHOOT STUDENTS WHO COME TO CLASS
LATE! We don't think he does -- but we won-
der what that says to students about him.

Bringing course materials together in
one place encourages instructors to see the
whole course and thus understand how it all
fits (or should fit) into a coherent instruc-
tional unit. It's difficult to maintain that
vision on a daily basis. But having it is
essential if students are to leave the course
with more than isolated bits of knowledge.

Too often we include particular mater-
ials because everybody else in the department
does or because the person who taught the
c e before proclaimed them essential. Look-
ing@™at a complete set of course materials, in
light of your objectives for the course, and
with an understanding of the instructional
strategies that suit your teaching style,

 

August, 1987

 

makes it easier to see what fits your course
and what doesn't. Anything that is included
should be there for one reason: to help meet
the course's objectives.

A good set of course materials can make
an instructor's job easier. Important policy
decisions, like whether or not to allow make-
up exams, will not need to be made in the
heat of battle. Lecture outlines (not neces-
sarily used every day) including some detailed
diagrams or difficult vocabulary can help an
instructor move efficiently through a compli-
eated content segment.

Many instructors tend to believe course
materials have an indefinite shelf life. But
they get stale and deteriorate, much like
other products, educational and otherwise.
Students don't often point out these indica-
tions of staleness. They consider their posi-
tion too precarious. However, their silence
doesn't mean they're unaware of your neglect.
If a syllabus is prepared the day before the
class starts by "whiting out" spring semester
dates and inserting fall's, that says some-
thing about the instructor's attitude -- espe-
cially if the whiteout shows. No, course ma-
terials need not be new every time the course
is taught. A good course design and set of
effective assignments almost always evolve
over time. But we too often forget that evolu-
tion is a continuing process of small changes.

It doesn't matter that the evolution of
your course materials has been glacial until
now. Start heating things up modestly by jot-
ting some possible revisions of course objec-
tives on the syllabus. Try making the state-
ment on cheating less punitive, more deserip-
tive of the desired standards. Look critically
at the overhead transparencies. Toss out that
especially tattered one. Replace it with
something befitting a professional with
important information to convey.

Because these changes are small, you're
more likely to get them done, but they're
still large enough to affect how you feel
about your teaching. [