Becoming a New Instructor guides new instructors through the planning, preparation, and execution of their first class, whether it is in person or online. Like any good mentor, this book provides clear, simple instructions and makes best-practice recommendations. Becoming a New Instructor provides a step-by-step guide to writing a syllabus, a simple explanation for how to calculate grades, and many additional suggestions from an experienced teacher about how to run a class. Chronologically arranged from conceptualizing the class through putting together the syllabus, planning in-class time, running the class, and assigning grades, this book will answer any new instructors' questions. Adjuncts and graduate students charged with teaching a college course will find this succinct guide invaluable.
Special Features Include:
An entire chapter on teaching online, plus "Concerns Specific to Online Instructors" throughout that connect chapter content to online teaching and CMS platforms
Examples of best practice, checklists, sample assignments, syllabi, and rubrics that guide readers in creating materials for their own courses
Guidance specific to the needs of adjuncts and graduate students teaching a course for the first time.
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The first step in developing and teaching a course is to consider broadly the contents, select the topics you will cover, and decide on the reading you will assign. One common mistake new instructors make at this point is that they plan to cover too much. As you begin to conceptualize your class, remember it is better to cover fewer things well than many things poorly.
FIND OUT ABOUT THE CURRICULUM AND THE STUDENTS
Begin developing your course by finding out what kind of students you will have, where the course fits in the curriculum, and what the department's expectations are for courses. Getting a copy of the syllabi for similar classes offered by the department may help you formulate in which direction to take your class. Avoid overlap with other courses and make sure you cover topics that may be required knowledge in more advanced courses. If there are specific objectives or goals that your course must meet, you will want to know that at the start. It is time for the first meeting or phone call with your administrator. You may want to ask the following questions before you get started:
How old are the students?
Do they work full time?
Do they work in the field?
Do most major in the subject?
Are they mostly undergraduates or graduates?
What similar courses does the department offer?
Are there prerequisites for my course?
Is it a required course or an elective?
Are there certain goals and objectives that the students must meet during the course?
How many pages of reading per week do instructors in this department typically assign?
How many hours of homework per week do instructors in this department typically assign?
How many times does my class meet?
How long is each class session?
What are the dates for the semester?
Are there any holidays on which class does not meet?
How do I get access to the library and university databases?
Who can train me on how to find and use the university's databases?
Once you have this information you can begin conceptualizing your class. The next few sections will guide you through the first planning stages.
BEGIN WITH THE TITLE
Many teachers will be given a course title and asked to develop the content. A few teachers will have the opportunity to name their courses. A good course begins with a good title. The most important criterion is that the title concisely fits the content. Students will judge the course in part on its ability to deliver the content the title promises. Over the years, I have had a surprising number of students mention in the student evaluations, “This course should not be called X. It should be called Y.”
Good titles are also concise. Resist the temptation to use long phrases for titles. The registrar of your school likely has a limited number of characters that will fit on the transcript for the title of your course. If you go over that number, the registrar will abbreviate the title, often incomprehensibly. Here are some examples of good titles: “Analyzing Military Policy,” “Hydrology and Water Resources,” or “Economics of Health Care.”
WRITE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Many departments will require that you include course goals or objectives in your syllabus, but even if your department does not, it is a good practice to help you plan your course. Write your course goals and objectives before you do any other course planning because it is hard to know what to put into the course if you do not know what the outcome of the course should be. Once you have your goals, you can design the rest of the course to assure students meet your objectives. You may write your goals or objectives in the form of bullets or in a paragraph, and they should be a list of what your students will be able to do or understand at the end of the course.
Many new instructors begin writing these objectives with the formula, “The course will cover . . .” However, the objectives are different from the course description. The objectives should be in the format of, “At the end of the course the students will be able to . . .” The objectives are like a promise to the student: if you take this course, these are the skills and this is the knowledge you will come away with.
In thinking about your objectives, consider not only what a student should know by the end of the course, but also what a student should be able to do. Students frequently request course work that will help them find a job and/or do better in a job. They want more than just understanding – they want skills. Think about the skills you look for in the people you hire and consider incorporating those skills into course objectives. You may also want to consider active verbs that go beyond understanding. For example, by the end of the course, the students should be able to . . .
incorporate . . .
design . . .
propose . . .
analyze . . .
develop . . .
compute . . .
describe . . .
identify . . .
write . . .
In many ways, writing the course objectives is the most important part of the process of developing a syllabus. That is because the course goals will drive the rest of the design of the course. The process of starting with goals and then working backward to design the rest of the course is called reverse design. The syllabus begins with the outcomes and then you build the reading, assignments, and assessments around the course goals or outcomes. If a student needs to know how to write a press release at the end of the course, we know the instructor will need to find some reading about how to write a press release, and we know the instructor will need to prepare a lecture on good press release writing. Most importantly, it means the instructor will want to plan an in-class activity on writing a press release, will want to assign writing a press release for homework, and will want some kind of evaluation at the end of the semester that enables the instructor to see if the student did in fact learn how to write a press release.
Write your goals and objectives first. Plan to revisit your goals and objectives multiple times as you are developing the class. In fact, we will return to the objectives as we add each component to the syllabus (reading, assignments, and assessments). When they are complete, you will put them in your syllabus.
EXAMPLE 1 The Goals
The course is designed to give you a basic understanding of and familiarity with empirical studies about persuasion. After completing this course, you will be able to:
