Mechanics for prepping a new course

[toothpaste]

I'm in the process of creating a couple of new courses. I'm curious about what mechanics other instructors use to build classes from scratch, especially if you are learning the material as you go. Do you just keep notes as if it was a research project, or do you start drafting lectures and presentations and the syllabus as you encounter content that you might want to include?

Right now I'm drafting the syllabus with lots of annotations to myself about things I might want to do, and I also just started a PPT slide with some thoughts on how to organize one particular lecture. But for a course with a lot of lectures--and when I don't even know exactly what the lecture topics are yet--I'm not sure the best way to proceed.

So, suggestions?

[spork]

I use backwards design: 1) what is essential for students to learn? 2) what will best help them to learn it? Everything else is extraneous.

[craftyprof]

What spork said.

Are these courses new to the world or new to your institution?  Seeing how someone else has organized a textbook or syllabus on this topic or a similar topic can help me organize my thoughts for the broad strokes.

[Golazo]

In addition to these, I ask: is there a lens/lenses or principles that can serve as a key way of helping students think about the course goal.

[Aster]

I'm in the process of creating a couple of new courses. I'm curious about what mechanics other instructors use to build classes from scratch, especially if you are learning the material as you go. Do you just keep notes as if it was a research project, or do you start drafting lectures and presentations and the syllabus as you encounter content that you might want to include?

Right now I'm drafting the syllabus with lots of annotations to myself about things I might want to do, and I also just started a PPT slide with some thoughts on how to organize one particular lecture. But for a course with a lot of lectures--and when I don't even know exactly what the lecture topics are yet--I'm not sure the best way to proceed.

So, suggestions?

I use the notes section on powerpoint slides to cram all sorts of personal reference information. Before I teach class each week, I do a dry-run for each class in my office, and I read through all the personal notes and append where needed. This makes my teaching much better.

When I'm starting a new course from scratch, the notes section gets filled with lots of temporary placeholders. Like, "add picture of a taco here!". Or, "need a case study example!".

I'll sometimes even leave whole slides blank or with temp text placeholders, and then just skip past them during class time. It doesn't really affect the students to see some empty white pages or see pages with "under construction" inserted in here or there.

[Parasaurolophus]

I'm in the process of creating a couple of new courses. I'm curious about what mechanics other instructors use to build classes from scratch, especially if you are learning the material as you go. Do you just keep notes as if it was a research project, or do you start drafting lectures and presentations and the syllabus as you encounter content that you might want to include?

Right now I'm drafting the syllabus with lots of annotations to myself about things I might want to do, and I also just started a PPT slide with some thoughts on how to organize one particular lecture. But for a course with a lot of lectures--and when I don't even know exactly what the lecture topics are yet--I'm not sure the best way to proceed.

So, suggestions?

First, I do some research and look for papers and book chapters that are of interest. I read the abstracts, and if they seem good, I stuff them into a folder. I also search for and cannibalize other people's syllabi. Then I figure out my topic distribution (usually by reference to other syllabi), and which articles/chapters fit under which topics, and once that's done, I divide it all up according to the semester's schedule.

Once the syllabus is done, I start actually reading the articles/chapters, and I take notes as I do so. Once I'm done with an article, I PowerPoint it up. I try to stay a week or two ahead of the class, but if it's a totally new class, I accept that I'll probably only ever be a week(end) ahead.

[HigherEd7]

Good points! How many hours a week do you spend preparing for a lecture?

[Parasaurolophus]

Good points! How many hours a week do you spend preparing for a lecture?

If it's new material, then it's usually about one and a half to two hours per article (one to read it, and 30 mins. to an hour to PowerPoint it).

If it's not new material, then 0-10 minutes (tinkering with slides).

[marshwiggle]

I use backwards design: 1) what is essential for students to learn? 2) what will best help them to learn it? Everything else is extraneous.

Picking up on this, since my courses have labs, I ask what I want them to do in the labs. Thinking of what practical application they should have for the knowledge is a big help to me.

[HigherEd7]

When developing your PowerPoint for an article or chapter are you just picking out points that you are familiar with or are you trying to cover everything?

Good points! How many hours a week do you spend preparing for a lecture?

If it's new material, then it's usually about one and a half to two hours per article (one to read it, and 30 mins. to an hour to PowerPoint it).

If it's not new material, then 0-10 minutes (tinkering with slides).

[Parasaurolophus]

When developing your PowerPoint for an article or chapter are you just picking out points that you are familiar with or are you trying to cover everything?

I cover what I think is most important for them to learn, and mix in different activities aimed at fostering and reinforcing that learning.

The article already covers everything in the article. The only way to cover the entire thing in class would be to read it out loud, which isn't especially productive. My classes are aimed at supplementing the reading they do, at giving them a road map through it. They still have to do the reading for themselves.

[Caracal]

I can't say I really have some clear system. For courses in my area of expertise, I could put together a syllabus and have a pretty decent sense of what many of the lectures would look like without doing a lot of supplementary reading. From there it was mostly about figuring out which lectures I needed to do extra reading for and which ones I could put together pretty quickly.

For courses where I'm further out of my wheelhouse, it is a bit harder. I've started those by finding a few books on the topic I like and using those to guide a lot of the structure and content. Regardless, whenever I've taught a course for the first time, I've found that my ideas about major themes develop through the process of actually teaching the course. Sometimes that can be fun, and I've had courses I've taught for the first time that went really well, but its always a bit messy.

The point is, I wouldn't worry too much about getting everything perfect. Various things that seemed like a good idea won't work anyway and you need to be ok with that and figure out how to adjust as you go.

[KiUlv]

This year, I've worked on 4 new-to-me courses thus far. For all 4, I had the syllabus from previous years. For 2 of them, I also had access to some materials from Canvas. It was almost more work when I had some materials to wade through (but it was also helpful). Last year, I had just one new prep. I do a lot of searching and finding materials that are out there about these topics to help me conceptualize what it is I want students to know and ways to get that across.

I'm trying to be good at writing notes to myself about what is working and what I need to change. Luckily, I'll be teaching two of these courses again, and I have some firm ideas (written down) about what I want to change.

For all 5 of these classes, I've gotten my syllabus and basic plan created prior to the start of class, and then I've worked on each class a week at a time. It's so helpful to have a good framework and a good text that can give me a basis. Then I can develop from there. I teach graduate courses, so my classes are typically involving more experiences and extension rather than covering the material. I expect them to get the material from the readings I assign and then we reinforce and explore those concepts through our class time.

It's been a lot of fun in some ways (and very stressful in others- who has that kind of time?). I actually really do like teaching, and I came from a teaching (K-12) background. I love teaching best when I can learn at the same time. New preps have that in spades!

[Aster]

Good points! How many hours a week do you spend preparing for a lecture?

For an existing prep, I try to set aside at least 30 minutes of review/updating before each class session. I've found that 30 minutes is a pretty reliable minimum prep time if I want to update references, replace graphics, change notes, etc... But sometimes I get maybe just 10 minutes before each class meets, which only allows me a hasty review and no time for any updating.

But this is not typical behavior at my institution. The majority of my colleagues do not consistently review preps or perform regular updates to their instruction or assessments. So I would guess that there's a great deal of flexibility in how much time is needed per week on course preps.

[mamselle]

I check the dates the semester starts and ends.

I get a calendar out and look up school breaks and holidays.

I figure out when the class day I'm going to be teaching (if I know it) will be hit by the above.

I plan the number of weeks left, and type those dates in order down the left side of a page.

I put in a final exam where warranted (some schools set those up in advance, as we saw in an earlier thread; if not, I leave time for it in my last week....if that's freed up it becomes a review class.

I put in a midterm and (if I'm teaching a lanugage class, time to do aural/oral examlets.

If I'm teaching a class that has to hand off to another class, I find out where in the textbook that instructor wants us to land.

I split it up among the weeks that I have, and map out the first class for introductions, class structure discussions, CMS orientation, etc..

That usually leaves 10 classes out of a 13-week schedule. I parse all the textbook chapters into that structure.

Then i add in all the fun stuff i can think of (dances, visual art and poetry discussions, museum visits, short local nearby tours, and a library talk).

I create an Excel program for grades and observations once I receive the email with the class list, or get it from the CMS.

Done.

M.