SS a ae Eh A ST
Course Materials Review

A Checklist Instructions. Sometimes it helps to look at materials with
some fixed eriteria in mind. This checklist offers a beginning set
of guidelines. You can use it generally: Read over the items and
then look at your course materials. Or, use it more precisely:
Assign each item a number on a five-point scale, for example. Be
forewarned though, this is a checklist, not an empirically verified
instrument. So, take numerical results with a grain of salt.

Other uses? Remember that colleague you talked about your
teaching with last month? Share several of your course materials
with him, attach the relevant parts of the checklist and ask for
some candid input. One more possibility: The editor has (and will
mail to you upon request) a version of this checklist that can be
completed by students. Maybe before major revision of course
materials, you ought to see what the "users" think about them.

Course Syllabus

Identifies instructional resources -- books, films, speakers
Outlines the sequence of topics to be covered
Describes evaluation procedures
Includes a class or activity schedule or calendar
Lists major assignments and due dates
Contains information about the faculty member, i.e. name,
office address, office hours, phone number
Includes a statement or description of course objectives
Is structured to make information clear and easily understood

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Assignments (as they appear on the syllabus or elsewhere)

Produce meaningful and challenging learning experiences

Include a variety of activities which are responsive to varying
student interests, abilities and learning styles

Are appropriate to course objectives and content level

Are spaced at appropriate intervals in the course

Are challenging but not overly burdensome

Prepare students for more complex courses in this subject area

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Contains content consistent with course objectives -- in other
words, the instructor is evaluating students on what she
believes they ought to be able to do or know

Contains items written so that the intent of the questions is
clear and explicit

Covers manageable amounts of material in terms of time
allocated for studying it

Requires analysis and application of content as opposed to
regurgitation of details

A Graded Copy:
Includes written comments which give some feedback about both
right and wrong answers
Presents written comments that are clear and readable
Includes some explanation of how exam scores were calculated Gi

a SSS...