1.  Before you do anything, such as writing learning objectives, or choosing a textbook, you should sit back and think about your experiences with this course in the past. Have you take this course before? Have you been a GTA for the course? If you answer "yes" to either of these two questions then you should pull your notes for the course. Otherwise talk to a faculty member in your department who has taught the course before. Ask them for a copy of their syllabus. Who knows--they might even let you look at their notes for the course. It never hurts to ask.

2.  Make a list as you skim through the notes. What do you like about the way the course was taught? What didn’t you like?

3.  After you read the notes, put them aside. Then, brainstorm about all the things that were not done that you think would help the students, offer a new viewpoint, or, might be just plain fun. Don’t limit yourself—you can do that later.

4.  Finally, ask yourself: what is my area of expertise? Students always enjoy getting to know you, not just the material. You might even be able to incorporate some of your own research into the class?

If you don’t go through these stages, you will end up teaching a "cookie-cutter class" that will spark little enthusiasm—in the students or in you. If you "brainstorm," you will find it much easier to plan the rest of the course. For example, writing learning objectives will not seem so daunting.

GUIDELINES FOR DEFINING COURSE OBJECTIVES
Mark Johnson

I. Understand where a class fits in the overall scheme of a major field.

A. What contribution should the course make toward meeting the objectives of a degree in a particular field?

B. Level of students?

C. Should students gain knowledge, skills, or attitudes?

D. What is currently relevant and important?

E. Are goals reasonable within the scope of the class?

F. Can the desired goals be measured?

II. Remember that teaching is a service of which students are the ultimate consumer.

A. What is useful to the student?

B. What are the student’s objectives for taking the class?

C. Do the instructor’s means match the student’s objectives?

 

CHOOSING A TEXTBOOK
Julia Pounds

Have to select a textbook for your course and you are starting from scratch? There are several good checklists available to guide you. But, I have found that other strategies were useful to first narrow down the (at least in psychology) bewildering field of textbooks on the market.

1. What is available? Are there texts which you like/dislike from past experience? What materials other faculty in your department is currently using? Ask them why they use the textbooks they do. Publishers are always sending out sample copies. Rummage through professor’s bookshelves (with their permission of course). Round up as many different titles as you can find.

2. Narrow the field by eliminating the obvious: out of date, hard to read, you just don’t like it for some unknown reason, etc. You may not know what you want at this point, but if you know what you don’t want, use that criterion to eliminate possibilities. Is there a particular approach/philosophy that you will use to teach your course? It will probably be easier to work with a book that uses a similar approach.

3. Now is a good time to select and start filling out checklists for your final candidates—considering such things such as content, sequence, format. What is the specialty of the author? Does it "color" the rest of the material? Are there any support materials available?

4. Don’t forget the student perspective. Is the price reasonable? Can the book be sold back at the end of the class? Is it durable? Is it too bulky to tote around? Is it readable? Is there an appropriate balance between the amount of text and pictures, illustrations, graphs, etc? Is it written using appropriate vocabulary? Is the publisher trying anything too new/weird (e.g. blue ink)?

5. Don’t rush into a decision. You might not like it in the morning but be stuck with it. A semester can be a long, long time.

TIPS FOR SCHEDULING
Alan Ferris

1. Schedule the entire semester at the beginning to avoid rushing or stretching at the end of the semester.

2. Be sure of holidays and days off during the semester.

3. Be clear about the assignments for each class.

4. Don’t schedule hand-in assignments too close together; allow time for feedback between assignments.

5. Avoid giving exams right after holidays.

6. Don’t give too many exams during the semester.

7. Avoid having too much information for each exam (too few exams).

8. Schedule an open day before an exam to finish up information and/or review.

9. Inform the students that they will be notified when any changes in the schedule are made during the semester.

10. Remember, the schedule is NOT written in stone; allow flexibility for unanticipated circumstances.

 

TIPS FOR GRADING
Doug Tabbert

It is extremely important to consider the purpose of your grading practices. There may be various aims in assigning grades. These may include:

It is also important to consider how the students perceive what grades they receive. These meanings may include:

Additional considerations include the following:

The merits of using a criterion-referenced grading scale versus the merits of using a norm-referenced grading scale.

The level of subjective evaluation one is willing to undertake in evaluating students.

Inform the students what type of grading scale you will use for the class.