Step-by-Step: Planning a College Course
The information below is from the web site of the now defunct Teaching
and Learning Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It is
reproduced here with their permission.
Introduction
Planning a college course? Although planning a course may seem
like a relatively straightforward task, it is in reality a complex
assignment. A course plan demonstrates our values and beliefs about
higher education in general, and what we believe about our roles
as teachers, specifically. The following steps describe alternative
planning decisions you can make in regard to your own course. They
are ideas taken from a P. Ryan and G. Marten's, Planning a College
Course, published by The National Center for Research to Improve
Postsecondary Teaching and Learning, University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, 1989.
STEP 1. Define Your View of
the Purposes of Education
- If it is to make the world a better place, you'll want to use
contemporary social issues to help students learn their roles
in accomplishing this goal.
- If it is to teach students to think effectively, you'll need
to plan student interaction employing the intellectual skills
of observing, classifying, applying, analyzing, and evaluating.
- If it demands systematical instructional processes, you'll need
to specify course goals and objectives clearly, with the processes
designed to achieve them.
- If it is to provide students with the ability to earn a living
as productive citizens, you'll need to include vocational knowledge
and skills.
- If It is to engage students in personally enriching experiences,
then you need to select individualized content so students will
discover themselves as unique individuals and develop personal
autonomy.
- If it should emphasize the great ideas, products and discoveries
of the human mind, you must select content from the discipline
to illuminate major ideas and concepts of important thinkers.
- If it should help students clarify their beliefs and values
to provide guidance in their lives, you must plan exercises which
consider the merits of alternative values.
STEP 2. Set Course Goals
The goals for your course should reflect some of those identifed
for the department or program. Usually your course can be located
on a "curricular map." For example, it might be described
as:
- a general education course for students with limited background
in the discipline
- a general education course for prospective majors and others
- a general education course for all university students
- an introductory course for prospective majors
- an introductory course in a technical career program
- an advanced course for majors
- a graduate course
Ask the question, "How should students be different when they
finish this course?" Is there consensus in your discipline on
what should be included in such a course?
STEP 3. Select Course Content
Careful selection of content will reflect the most important topics.
Questions to ask include:
Does your topic:
- illustrate a method of inquiry?
- indicate guiding principles in your field?
- teach a valuable skill among course goals?
This step requires a balance so that there is sufficient content to
make the course challenging and not so much content that the pace
of the course is too rushed. Leave room in case a topic takes longer
or other unpredictable events occur. Use student feedback devises
to adjust coverage rate.
STEP 4. Arrange Course Content
Organization of the content is extremely important in enhancing
students' learning. Content can be arranged in several ways:
- Structurally based content is consistent with the way
relationships in the field occur, e.g., spatial, chronological,
physical, etc.
- Conceptually based content uses major ideas or concepts
to show important relationships such as:
- relationships of classes and groups of objects or phenomena
- relationships of theory to application of theory, or rule
to example, or evidence to conclusion
- relationships that proceed from simplest ideas to those
of more complexity, and abstractness
- relationships of logical sequence in which one idea is necessary
to comprehend the next.
- Learning based content is organized by principles such
as:
- students should first learn skills that are likely to be
useful later in life
- students should encounter familiar ideas and simple phenomena
before those that are more unfamiliar and complex
- students should understand an idea or concept before attempting
to interpret and use it
- students should encounter material geared to their readiness
to learn.
- Vocationally based content helps students become familiar
with practice and employer needs.
- Knowledge utilization content is arranged so problem-solving
situations encourage students to take responsibility for developing
logical, organized solutions.
- Knowledge-creation based content is organized around
processes of generating, discovering, or verifying knowledge in
the field. It shows how scholars discover relationships and draw
valid inferences.
- Values-based content is organized around issues, dilemmas,
ethical problems or value dimensions that help students clarify
and become committed to values and beliefs.
STEP 5. Consider Student Goals
and Characteristics
Why are students taking your course? Some reasons may be to:
- develop a philsosphy of life
- learn to interpret numerical data
- understand scientific principles/concepts
- become an informed voter
- learn to communicate effectively
- pass a certificate or licensing exam
- learn to solve complex problems
- learn to organize ideas
- understand how researchers gain knowledge.
They also may be there to get a better job or meet social expectations.
The match between your goals and those of your students is important.
Try asking students what their goals are. Share your goals and explain
why they are important. What background have your students had and
what external pressures are they working? The answers help guide your
pace.
STEP 6. Choose Instructional
Modes
Use both active and passive modes of instruction. Lecture is the
most common passive mode while active modes include discussion,
case studies, labs, clinics, and field experiences. Research about
teaching and learning shows that students learn more content, more
quickly, and retain what they have learned longer if they are actively
engaged. A combination of the two modes often works well.
STEP 7. Select Readings and
Activities
Textbooks can be used as an organizing source wich integrates the
course content. Tell the students how you expect them to use the
text in their learning, and what is useful about it. Do not criticize
it or the author. This isn't constructive and it can undermine learning.
If discrepancies occur between your views and the text, explain
that rival interpretations exist, and give reasons for your choice.
You can encourage realization that clear "truths" are
not always agreed upon. Do clarify for students which ideas are
acceptable for examinations.
If textbooks are not used, you'll need to help students organize
and integrate knowledge in the course. Monographs and articles can:
- provide depth of information
- demonstrate research processes
- provide a variety of perspectives
- provide up-to-date ideas
A combination might be useful.
STEP 8. Write a Syllabus
The syllabus formally communicates your expectations, grading procedures,
and assignments. It may take many forms, but the following elements
are often included:
- your name, title, office number, office telephone, office hours,
and where to leave messages
- course by number, section, title, meeting days and times and
location
- prerequisite(s) for the course
- description of the course
- course goals or objectives
- required purchases: text and supplies
- space for names and telephone numbers of at least two classmates
- due dates for major assignments; place, date, time of final
exam
- grading standards and criteria
- policy regarding P/NP, I, W marks
- policy regarding academic honesty
- policy regarding attendance
- policy regarding late assignments
- topics to be covered in sequence with dates
- reading assignments and dates due
STEP 9. Plan to Get Student
Feedback
The following indicators can help collect information for revision:
- exams or quizzes
- observe students' faces and body language
- monitor participation and attendance
- monitor frequency of out-of-class discussion or use of office
hours
- monitor assignment completion
- analyze students' papers/journals
- examine course evaluations
- ask students directly
The best time to make your own notes about needed changes is after
each class session.
STEP 10. Seek Advice from
Colleagues and Experts
Colleagues from the field or your university/college's teaching
office can provide useful ideas for planning your course on topics
such as instructional modes, test construction, and student feedback.
Your discipline may have teaching journals which have useful ideas.
©1992 University Nebraska-Lincoln Teaching & Learning Center
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