Indiana University Teaching Handbook

Preparing to Teach

Course Packets & Readers

When planning their courses, many faculty members find that no commercially published textbooks meet their needs. They choose to compile course packets or readers of photocopied articles instead. Course packets can be a very useful way to make the best texts available to your students. If you decide to compile a course packet for your course, consider the following guidelines so as to make the document as accessible as possible for students.

Start early in developing a course packet. Copyright approvals can take up to six weeks. Work closely with the company that will make copies, since services and policies vary from company to company.
Limit the number of documents you select for the course packet, and be sure that each serves a purpose directly linked to your course objectives. The freedom gained by abandoning textbooks should be balanced against a careful, judicious selection process. This is also important for curbing costs that will be passed on to students.
Create a table of contents, and number pages continuously so that students can easily find assignments.
Provide an introduction to each entry in order to establish a context and rationale for the reading. The introduction can also suggest to students a reading strategy for a given selection.
Provide questions to guide students’ reading and reflection for each selection.
Ensure that the copies are clean and readable. Use originals that are clear. Eliminate black borders by pasting smaller pages on a white background. Do not shrink pages to fit several on one page.
Be aware of current copyright restrictions.