Handbook Table of Contents > Preparing to Teach > Planning a Course
Indiana University Teaching Handbook
Planning a Course
- Introduction
- Identifying Objectives
- Selecting Instructional Strategies That Fit Objectives
- Your Instructional Style
- The First Day of Class
- First Class Survival Tips
- Skills of a Good Teacher
- The Syllabus
- Class Rolls & Grade Books
- Course Packets & Readers
- Classrooms
- Office Hours
Introduction
Adapted with permission from Farris, 1985
Your preparation for teaching a course will depend both upon type of class for which you are responsible, the discipline (science, humanities, etc.), the size of the class, and whether it is a requirement.
Regardless of these factors, all preparation involves establishing what it is you want students to learn (instructional objectives), choosing instructional strategies (lecture, discussion, lab, individual presentations, group projects, one-on-one consultation, etc. or a combination), and selecting appropriate materials (texts, handouts, films, videotapes, etc.) to achieve those aims.
Good organization is important to all phases of instruction, from curriculum development to determining presentation format. Organizing a course does not mean throwing together a conglomeration of lectures, discussions, and handouts. From the syllabus to the final examination, every aspect of the course should focus on defined educational goals, the most important of which is the level of learning you expect students to achieve.
Links
The following links will take you to additional information about Indiana University.
- IU Fact Book: An index to the IU Fact Books from 1996 to the present. The Fact Books include information on the univeristy, academic programs & degrees, alumni, enrollment, fees, personnel, physical facilities, and finances.
- Where's that Class?: This list of Academic Building Codes connects to the online campus map.
- IU Bulletins: The online versions of IU Bulletins from 2001 to the present.
- IU Course Descriptions: Brief descriptions organized by semester.
- IU Enrollment Statistics: Enrollment Reporting, Retrieval and Access from the Office of the Registrar. It includes course & section enrollments back to 1997 and Campus Grade Distribution Reports.
- IU Classrooms: Includes a searchable database of all IU classrooms and links to the IUB Classroom Committee. You can access photos of most of the classrooms through the page on IUB General Purpose Classrooms by Building.
- Official IU Reports: The official reporting site from the University Budget Office, with reports on enrollment, graduation rates, retention, and financial aid.
- Institutional Engagement, 2001: A PDF formatted report on student engagement at IU from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). A more detailed explanation of this survey is available through the Office of Academic Affairs & Dean of Faculties.
- Retention in Indiana: A Statewide Action Research Program designed to develop an integrated data resource and analytical capacity that would, each year over a 4-year period generate benchmark data, customized action research, and state level analyses targeted at improving retention and graduation rates.
- Indiana High School Grade Report: These reports show how recent graduates from particular Indiana high schools perform at each Indiana college and university. Each report compares the average college grades of recent graduates from a single high school to the average college grades of all recent Indiana high school graduates in Mathematics, English, Social Science, and Science. To access these reports, you must first ask the principal or superintendent of the school to give you their particular password (the password is the "FICE" number on the title page of any previous printed Grade Report of the high school ).
Identifying Objectives
The first step in organizing a lecture, discussion, lab, or course should be to establish the level of performance you expect from your students and their current level of performance. You may need to administer a diagnostic test or a survey to determine what students already know and what they need to learn.
Begin by asking yourself: What do I want my students to be able to do? How will they be different as a result of this lecture, discussion, lab, or course? The answers to these questions are your objectives. Bloom (1956) has proposed a taxonomy of learning objectives which move from lesser to greater levels of abstraction and complexity in the thinking process. Instruction can be organized around one or more of these objectives:
- knowledge—recall of previously learned material
- comprehension—understanding of material and ability to explain it
- application—ability to use what has been learned in other situations
- analysis—separating the content into its component parts to understand the relationships between them
- synthesis—combining parts to form a new whole
- evaluation—making judgments on the value of material for specific purposes
A college course should aim at teaching more than the simple task of recalling facts. By sharing information about these levels of thinking about subject matter content with your students, you can help them to become more reflective learners.
Lectures facilitate learning at the lower end of the taxonomy—knowledge, comprehension, and application, while discussions, problem-solving, writing, and other more interactive teaching strategies tend to facilitate higher-order objectives—analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Your choice of teaching strategies should reflect the levels of thinking and learning in which you want students to be engaged.
After determining your objectives, your next step in the planning process is to decide how to evaluate the extent to which students have mastered each objective. If your objectives are clearly defined, it is easy to evaluate them. For example, if one of your objectives is to have students learn to apply subject area principles to new situations, then the evaluation process could present an unfamiliar case or collection of new data. Students would be asked to identify how the learned principle can be applied, and what the product or outcome of the application would look like. If another objective is for students to evaluate the relative validity of multiple interpretations of an event, you can test their mastery by providing several contrasting interpretations and ask students to apply the criteria they have learned for assessing relative validity.
It is important to be aware of the fact that some of the objectives you identify for your course will deal with course content. You will need to determine how much material students can realistically cover in a 15-week semester. Students learn more and have better retention of information and skills when the instructor limits the scope of material covered. A well-focused course that provides a sound intellectual challenge will be more successful and lead to greater student achievement than a course whose main goal is to “expose” students to lots of material. Make sure that all materials selected help students master a specific course objective. Content that does not have an explicit purpose within the framework of your objectives should not be included in the syllabus. If, after further thought and reflection, you decide the material is important and should be included, you will need to revise your objectives to reflect this change.
Selecting Instructional Strategies That Fit Objectives
Adapted with permission from Farris, 1985
The teaching strategies you select will depend directly on your course objectives. If you need to cover 50 years of research in ten weeks, and your primary goal is that students be able to recall the facts, you will probably use the “lecture and test” approach. If you want your students to be capable of applying course material, you will not only have to present factual material through readings and lectures, but also show them how to develop generalizations from the background knowledge (discussion, study problems, assignments). In addition, you will need to provide them with multiple opportunities to apply newly learned principles in novel situations (laboratory experiments, papers, case studies, small group projects, and examinations). For students to learn and remember a concept, they must see an example (and possibly even multiple examples), gain knowledge of the generalization, and apply the concept through an application activity that is as close to the real world as possible.
Matching instructional strategies to course objectives is an important part of the planning stage. To help you select teaching strategies compatible with your objectives, ask yourself some of the following questions:
- When should I tell students something and when should I let them discover for themselves?
- When should I lecture and when should I hold a discussion or other activity?
- When should I show students how to do something and when should I encourage them to try it themselves?
- When should I ask students to do something alone and when should I ask them to work together (collaborative learning)?
- When should I respond to students’ questions (give information) and when should I encourage other students to respond (give opportunity for students to practice skills)?
- If I see someone make a mistake in a lab, when should I correct the mistake and when should I let the student discover her/his own mistake?
- When should I review concepts orally and when should I use handouts?
- If I need to show students a lot of formulas or graphs, should I derive or draw them during class or prepare handouts/overhead transparencies before class?
- When should I rely on my own expertis and when should I seek outside sources (films, slide/tape programs, guest speakers, etc.)?
By considering such questions, you can begin to formulate strategies and techniques that match the objectives you set for the course (adapted with permission from Ronkowski, 1986).
In summary, the planning stage of instruction consists of four steps:
- select course objectives and determine the level of mastery you expect students to attain;
- decide how to assess student learning;
- choose an appropriate sequence in which to present your objectives; and
- select materials and instructional strategies that will help your students reach the level of mastery you set for them.
Links
The following links will take you to additional readings associated with this general section.
- How do You Define Good Teaching?
- Why is Active Learning Important?
- Frequently Asked Questions about Service Learning
- Publications on Teaching and Learning
- Best Practices of IU Faculty
Your Instructional Style
Having established objectives and assessment techniques, determined an appropriate sequence, and chosen suitable instructional materials to help students meet your expectation, you now have the opportunity to implement these plans in a variety of ways. Remember, “the instructional strategies and techniques that you adopt as a teacher bespeak your attitudes about yourself and your students and your respective roles in the teaching process” (adapted with permission from Crow, 1980).
It is important to remember that everyone tends to teach in the style in which they learn best. An instructor who has studied with a great lecturer may feel lecturing is the only way to teach. However, this might not be the best instructional style for all of your students. Be aware that individuals vary greatly in their learning styles, and your goal is to take them from wherever they are to the next level of development. Learn to teach the students you have rather than the students you want to have. All students can succeed when their learning needs are addressed. The following differences represent a continua along which different people have learning preferences. Some people:
- think symbolically, in words and numbers, while others are spatial, thinking in pictures and images
- are analytic, preferring to focus on details, while others are synthetic, preferring the “big picture”
- are intra-personal, preferring to work alone while others are interpersonal, preferring to collaborate
- are reflective, preferring to think about new information, while others are active, preferring to do something
There is no one “best way” to learn, no one right or wrong preference on the continua. Try to include activities that allow students to learn in a variety of modes. The more active involvement students have in the learning process (through discussions, question and answer sessions, group projects, problem sets, presentations, etc.), the more information they will retain and the more enjoyable they will find their learning experience in your course. Using an interactive teaching style may result in the following benefits for students:
- students become active rather than passive participants in the learning process
- students retain information longer
- interactive techniques are democratic processes and thereby give students experience in collaborating and cooperating with others
- problem-solving and critical-thinking skills are enhanced in discussion settings
- some students may learn better in a group situation
- self-esteem is enhanced by class participation
- students are given the opportunity to clarify their beliefs and values
- student motivation for future learning is increased
In general, considerable evidence indicates that teaching techniques that maximize interaction between students and teachers (and among students themselves) tend to emphasize cognitive tasks at the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy of learning objectives (X-ref; see page 2). In selecting an instructional style for your lecture, discussion, lab, or course, keep in mind what it is you think is most important for your students to learn. The ways in which your objectives are carried out will either facilitate or hinder what you are trying to accomplish with students. This is why it is important to “fit” your teaching style to both your course objectives and to your students’ varied learning styles.
The following are some interactive teaching techniques to help do this (adapted from Povlacs, 1986):
- have students write a question on a 3 X 5 card and turn it in for you to answer in a “press conference” format
- put students into pairs or “learning cells” to quiz each other about the subject matter
- have students apply subject matter by solving real problems
- give students red, yellow, and green cards (made of poster board) and periodically call for a vote on an issue by asking for a simultaneous showing of cards
- roam the aisles of large classrooms and carry on running conversations with students as they work on problems (a portable microphone helps in a large hall)
- ask a question directed to one student and wait for an answer
- place a suggestion box in the rear of the room and encourage students to make written comments every time the class meets
- do oral, show-of-hands, multiple-choice tests for summary, review, and instant feedback
- use task groups to accomplish specific objectives
- grade quizzes and exercises in class as a learning tool
- give students plenty of opportunity for practice before a major test
- give a test early in the semester, grade it, and return it at the next class meeting
- have students write questions, collect them, and answer them at the beginning of the next class period or via e-mail
- make collaborative assignments for several students to work on together
- assign written paraphrases and summaries of difficult reading
- have students write something
- have students keep three-week, three-times-a-week journals in which they comment, ask questions about or respond to course topics
- invite students to critique each other’s essays or short answers on tests for readability and content
- give students a take-home problem relating to the day’s lecture
The First Day of Class
Adapted with permission from Northeastern University, 1986
The first day of class can be an anxious experience for your students. Students enter the first day of class with at least four questions (Ericksen, 1984):
- Is the class going to meet my needs?
- Is the teacher competent?
- Is the teacher fair?
- Will the teacher care about me?
To this list we should add:
- Will I be able to succeed?
- What does the teacher expect from me?
- What will I need to do to get a good grade?
- Will I be able to juggle the workload for this course with the workload in my other courses?
Keep in mind that the first day of class sets the tone for the whole course. This is the best opportunity you have to establish your expectations for student achievement and behavior. Take advantage of the fact that most students will be looking for signs to indicate what the course holds for them, and will therefore be highly attentive. Therefore, be careful to communicate to students not only your high expectations for them, but also your commitment to and support for their learning.
Avoid bold de-motivating statements such as, “Half of you might not finish the course,” or “Only one student made an A in this course last semester.” Even if there is truth in these statements, they tend to discourage those students who, though highly capable, lack the confidence necessary to persevere past the negative rhetoric. Instead, use language that encourages students: “This course will challenge you, but I know you are capable of doing it.”
It is essential to go over the syllabus carefully with the students. The syllabus represents the thought and planning that went into your course. It therefore conveys to students much about who you are, how well you are organized, and what kind of teacher you will be. Presenting and discussing the syllabus will give students a chance to ask questions, to clarify policies, and to reflect upon the demands of the course. This is a good time to talk with your students about academic honesty and the ethical standards you have set. Make clear your estimate of how much out-of-class study and preparation time the course will require.
Treat the first day as a substantive meeting, not merely an administrative house keeping day. Give students a sampling of what they will be doing in your course. This conveys your seriousness as an instructor, and communicates to students that class time will be spent productively. If you expect students to participate in discussion during the semester, set up a discussion on the first day to establish early that this is what your classroom will be like. If you want students to be active listeners and questioners in class, design an activity that will allow you to model how this process works in your classroom. If writing is an important part of your course, give students a brief, in-class writing exercise related to their first assignment.
One excellent exercise on the first day is to administer a “pre-test” or “knowledge survey” on topics you will be covering during the semester. The purpose of this activity is two-fold. First, it allows you to see what knowledge or understanding students do or do not bring into the classroom; second, it gives students a chance to reflect upon what they need to know to succeed in the course.
First Class Survival Tips
Adapted with permission from Unruh, 1986
The first class sets the semester in motion, so consider carefully what you want to do in that first meeting. The culture of a course is fixed very early in the term; the first thing students learn in any class are the “rules of the game.” If you want your students to do writing or group work or to ask questions late in the semester, get them to do these things from the beginning. Once their expectations for the class are formed, it is difficult to get them to change. The following is an agenda that may help you structure the meeting and allay some of your anxiety.
If you want to achieve an informal style, arrive early and begin to know your students. This will help you relax and help your students get to know you. If you prefer a more formal style, wait until the appointed hour and then enter the classroom. Allow a little extra time for “lost” students.
Once you begin speaking, try to speak slowly. Remember to slow the rate of speech and focus your attention on what you want to get across instead of how you are saying it or how you appear. If you are afraid of speaking in front of a group, you are not alone. Public speaking beats out sharks and flying as the number one fear in the United States. It does get easier.
Begin by introducing yourself and write your name on the board. You might go around the room and ask for names, majors, city of origin, and the like. Remember, the students are at least as nervous as you are. Locate each name on the roster and make a point of learning student names.
Let your students know that you are organized. Give them a syllabus that includes the following information: your name, office hours, times and locations of other class meetings, the professor’s name and office hours, your office telephone number, the required text and readings, the number and dates of examinations, information about lab or homework assignments, guidelines for term papers or class projects, a breakdown of how the course grades will be determined, the time and date of the final exam, whether class notes are available, and other information of interest. For complete syllabus contents, see “The Syllabus” section below.
Prepare for predictable enrollment problems and procedures. Tell students who wish to add your course or section to call the Registrar’s Office Automated Course Exchange at 855-1000; students can check for waitlist statistics by referring to the Registrar’s Office web page at http://www.indiana.edu/~registra. If the course or section is full and students ask to be added on an overload basis, consult with your department about its policy.
Briefly sketch the kind of material presented in your class and the kinds of activities required of them throughout the semester to give students an idea of what to expect from your course. Be enthusiastic! Enthusiasm comes from confidence, excitement about the subject, and pleasure in teaching. Your facial expressions and smiles, attentiveness to students, movement away from the podium or chalkboard, and eye contact that is long enough to observe students’ expressions will all demonstrate your enthusiasm. Other ways to express enthusiasm include using vocal inflections to emphasize and de-emphasize material, and being willing to listen to students and to express interest in their contributions (adapted with permission from University of Nevada, Reno).
Finally, ask if there are any questions regarding the course, its requirements, or your role within it. Be sure to pause long enough for the students to reflect and formulate questions.
Skills of a Good Teacher
Adapted with permission from University of Illinois, 1980
N. L. Gage (1976), director of research and development in teaching at Stanford University, formulated six characteristics of effective presentations. He found that successful college instructors:
- state objectives at the beginning of a lesson
- outline the lesson content
- signal transitions between parts of a lesson
- point out important points in a lesson
- summarize the parts of the lesson as the lesson proceeds
- review main ideas and facts covered in a lesson at the end of a lesson and at the beginning of the next lesson—give these cues in your writing; give them in class, too.
At the Teaching Resources Center, we have indeed found the above points to be important. We often find a course can be significantly improved simply by implementing these. Be aware that not all lessons proceed as planned, and allow some class time for various unexpected happenings. Instructional skill takes time to develop, as does any valuable talent. Work on one, or at the most, two skills each week.
The Syllabus
Your course syllabus can do much to calm student anxiety on the first day of class. The ideal syllabus (either one you design or one provided by a lead instructor or by the department) should serve as a basic reference document for both you and your students, and as such should include the following items:
- your name, title, office number, office telephone, office hours, e-mail address, and where to leave messages
- course number, section, title, meeting days and times, room and building
- pre-requisite(s) of the course
- description of the course (topics, themes, ideas)
- course goals or objectives (student skills and mastery to be achieved)
- required purchases: texts and supplies
- expectations and policies regarding attendance, tardiness, and late assignments
- space for names and telephone numbers of at least two classmates
- grading standards and criteria
- policies regarding pass/fail, incomplete, and withdrawal marks
- policies regarding academic dishonesty
- a table listing topics to be covered in sequence with dates
- reading assignments and dates due
- due dates for major assignments and place, date, and time of final exam
Class Rolls & Grade Books
You will receive a class roster at the beginning of the semester. A revised roster, which reflects the class enrollment once students have dropped and added the course, will arrive later in the semester. You may want to photocopy the roster for keeping attendance records in your sections or labs, or to record grades throughout the semester. It is always advisable to have at least one duplicate copy of your recorded grades in the event that your roster is misplaced. Class rosters, including student e-mail addresses, are also available from the Registrar’s Office, by phoning 855-0121, or e-mailing registrar@indiana.edu. If you are listed as the instructor of record with the Registrar’s Office, you may access your own electronic roster directly via Oncourse or OneStart at http://www.indiana.edu/~registra/classrosters.shtml. This roster distribution site is “user friendly” and will tell you how to proceed step-by-step.
Computer grade book programs or spreadsheets offer an efficient way of keeping track of student grades, attendance, and general background information (telephone, address, class schedule, etc.). Public domain or shareware grade book programs are available for free or very inexpensively. These are generally easy to use. You can also use a general-purpose spreadsheet like Excel to calculate your grades and store your records (download an example here ). For more information, contact Campus Instructional Consulting, Franklin Hall 004, 855-9023, teaching@indiana.edu, or the Teaching & Learning Technologies Lab, Ballantine Hall 307, 855-7829.
Information about the campus calendar, including last day to drop and final exam schedules, is published in the Schedule of Classes each term.
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.
Classrooms
Adapted with permission from University of Tennessee, 1986
Before your first class meeting, you should check the rooms where you will be teaching. Look at the way the rooms are organized. Seating is a prime consideration, and it can do a great deal to either facilitate or hinder what goes on in your classroom. The traditional rule of thumb is to make sure that students are clearly within the instructor’s range of vision.
Remember that you may be able to manipulate seating to foster any number of effects from closeness to conflict. There are any number of ways to arrange seating. You’ll want to experiment and solicit suggestions from students. For example, if you want to encourage discussion, place desks or chairs in a circle or horseshoe. This arrangement facilitates the give-and-take of conversation, as students can see one another when they talk. Students are also much more likely to get to know one another in a face-to-face seating arrangement and are more apt to stay attentive throughout the hour, as it is more difficult to withdraw or “space out” from a circle without being noticed. If you plan to lecture, arrange the furniture so that all students can easily see you without straining. Ask your students to comment upon present arrangements and on what would be useful for them.
Good environments are frequently flexible ones. Feel free to have students move their chairs several times during a class. For example, you might have them move into a circle for discussion, into small groups for in-depth exploration of a topic, and back to rows for your lecture. Experiment with different room arrangements to find those that work best for you (adapted with permission from Ronkowski, 1986).
If you plan to have students work in groups but your assigned room has fixed chairs, you may have to be especially creative in grouping students. Asking students in a given row to stand, face students in the row behind, and pair off, is one way to manage the situation. Allowing students to gather in corners of the room, or even to go outside to meet (with a deadline for returning) can also be a successful way of dealing with the limitation.
In some newer and remodeled buildings, classrooms have dry marker boards instead of the more traditional chalk. Check with your department or the building manager to see where you can get the right kind of erasable markers.
If there is a problem, the room might be changed. Follow your department’s policy for obtaining a room change. Ordinarily the office to contact is Classroom Scheduling, 855-2489. Your departmental scheduling officer may also be helpful if you need to change your classroom.
Office Hours
Adapted with permission from Unruh, 1986
Office hours are an important extension of the classroom. This is one of the few times when the protective shield of impersonality at the university can be broken.
Some students are reluctant to come to office hours. Freshmen have just come from a high school environment where “going to the office” meant being punished. One instructor we know started calling it “Study Table” instead of “Office Hours” and found that many more students wanted to study with a group of fellow students than had ever wanted to “come to the office.”
Another strategy to encourage student-instructor interaction is to require all students to sign up for an office conference with you at a key point in the semester (before a major exam, before a major paper). Shy students will thus have a compelling reason to speak with you face-to-face, something they might never volunteer to do. This also gives you an opportunity to have a conversation with each student about his/her performance, and to offer encouragement on an individual level. Development of a more informal, personal relationship with students can improve the atmosphere of the classroom.
Getting students to come to your office hours is not always a problem; you may find that many students will come in, and for many different reasons. You may find yourself helping a student with the material for your course, with the logistics of a course that contains unfamiliar material, or with a personal problem. You should be aware of ways to facilitate a helpful tutorial or counseling session:
- Try to be as approachable as possible. The best thing to do when a student comes in during your office hours is to make him or her feel welcome.
- Listen to your students when they come to your office. Give them your undivided attention. The best way to show that you are listening is to ask questions—it also shows students that you find their concerns important.
- Refer students to campus services. There may be situations in which a student needs help (e.g. financial or emotional counseling) that you are not the most qualified person to provide. If you feel that the student needs advice or assistance that you are unable to give, you may be able to suggest someone who can provide it. Making referrals is an appropriate and important responsibility.
Links
The following links will take you to additional readings associated with this general section.
