Course Design and Curriculum Reform

The weather in Atlanta has been gorgeous and the sessions inside the Hilton have been sizzling, too, at the POD Conference.  It is always so invigorating to be amongst those who spend every day at their respective campus working with faculty to be better teachers.

As always there is a session that really has a wow factor and presents a new idea on something I thought I knew very well, which in this case is curriculum.  I attended a session entitled, "Course Design and Curriculum Reform" presented by Edmund Hansen from Northeastern Illinois University.  For once, the session was better than the description as I gained new insights into designing a curriculum that enhances and ensures student learning.  As the presenter said, the session was about how to teach the curriculum and know whether your students have learned it -- based on factual evidence.  He walked us through a matrix that had the following column headings from left to right: Big Ideas, Enduring Understandings (on the part of the student), Learning Outcomes, Common Misconceptions & Barriers (to student learning), Essential Questions, Guiding Concepts, Authentic Performance Tasks, Performance Criteria, and Required Competencies.

It would be next to impossible to explain the content of the workshop so going to recommend the book that I bought from the author at his book signing today for just under $18, entitled, Idea-Based Learning: A Course Design Process to Promote Conceptual Understanding.  It has just hit the market and not even on Amazon yet.  You can get it in paperback and published by Styllus, ISBN 978-1-57922-614-5.  Get yourself a copy, you will not regret it and it will give fresh insights on how to formulate an effective curriculum or revise your current one. If interested in speaking to author, his e-mail is E-Hansen@neiu.edu

Heading to POD!

I am so excited.  I leave on Wednesday for the POD Network Conference in Atlanta.  I am also staying at the same hotel that hosted the eastern ACF regional conference which was near the restaurant that sold me the best seared Ahi Tuna ever, Ray's.  POD supports a network of nearly 1,800 members, who are faculty and teaching assistant developers, faculty, administrators, consultants, and others who perform roles that value teaching and learning in higher education.  I have been a member for over 8 years and have learned so much about teaching and learning by hanging out on the listserv and attending / presenting at the annual conference. 

The majority of those who are members of POD know the teaching and learning literature inside and out and have been an invaluable resource to me as I find ways to be a better teacher.  They know best practices on teaching and learning.  They know the movers and shakers in the field of education and many will be in attendance or invited to speak as keynotes.

I learn so much from those I have come to know over the years at social functions, keynote addresses, publications, and conference sessions.  I will blog the highlights of the conference while in Atlanta.

In the meantime, check out what POD is all about at: http://www.podnetwork.org/index.htm  You can even check out some of my publications in the publications link under Essays on Teaching Excellence.

Take 20 Minutes!

Business Week is still one of my favorite periodicals to read each time it hits my mailbox. There is always cutting edge information on our industry and our profession of “learning.” There was a section in a recent issue on “most viewed talks.” One of the most viewed talks was by Ken Robinson on how schools kill creativity. As stated in the promo for the talk “Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.”

After viewing the video he indeed gives one pause for thought as to whether at the OK Plateau (I talked about in a previous post) or doing things in class or lab that let enable student’s to apply their creativity in an educational setting.

Here is an application of the talk. In last Wednesday’s lab I returned to see how clean up was going. The students informed me that they had been working with the TA to experiment with espresso machine and created a coffee drink they called “The Turtle.” I asked what “The Turtle” was and they told me the recipe and believed it to be one great tasting coffee drink. I said “I believe you” so let us put it on the menu. There was jubilation all around while I reminded them that in the orientation for the class they were to think of the restaurant lab class as their own business and glad to hear they are taking ownership six weeks into the semester. I then told them I expect Turtle sales be stellar during their next lab because they believed in it.

That is teaching to me! I hope it is the same to you. So stop in our lab on Wednesday and grab a Turtle, or favorite beverage, then kick back and enjoy it while watching a thought-provoking heavily viewed video by Ken Robinson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Rate Your Syllabus!

The syllabus may be one of the most important documents we can prepare as educators.  It is the primary method that students know what the course is about, how it will be taught, how they will be assessed, important policies, and so forth.  I must confess that I have seen plenty of syllabi from other faculty and amazed at how poorly they are written and no wonder the students struggle in the class -- they have no clue as to the instructor's expecations, what they are to learn, and so forth.  Indeed, many syllabi I have reviewed spend the vast majority on how students are to behave in the class when it comes to dress, attitude, attendance, punctuality, cell phone or laptop use in class, cheating, and precisous little on LEARNING.  It is more like Hammurabi's Code of Laws than a syllabus.

So for those who want to see how their syllabus stacks up to a rubric designed to assess one, first visit the following URL. Then go through your syllabus and score it.  Naturally, where a criterion has a ranking of 1, or perhaps  2, then make necessary corrections.  The rubric has such criteria as syllabus heading, learning outcomes, instructional strategies, and more.  As my friends in the UK would say, "give it a go!"  Your students will appreciate it for sure and be far less confused as to what it is they are to learn from your teaching. 
The URL with the rubric is found at:
http://www.fsc.edu/extended/documents/Rubric-evaluatingsyllabi1-5-06final.doc