Professors - Design an Effective Course Syllabus - The Readings

Regardless of whether you are teaching a course in a semester, a quarter, a summer session or any other configuration, you need to strategically plan the various readings that you will be having the students do. Some thoughts to consider as you're doing this planning include the following:

Textbooks, course packets, on-line readings, etc.

As you think about upcoming courses you'll be teaching and so you are ready when you start to prepare your syllabus, dedicate a shelf, file drawer or milk crate to resources for each course. Once you have this dedicated space, you can drop in the texts you are considering adopting for the course, journals with flagged pertinent articles, a note pad with ideas to include, handbooks, software, etc. Then, as you proceed with your detailed course planning and your individual class sessions, you can use this resource to finalize your planning. Note: It also makes sense to set up a folder in your computer for pertinent materials and websites that you have identified for potential use.

Many colleges or universities expect professors to choose or "adopt" textbooks for their own particular sections of a course, while other institutions embrace a universal adoption for all sections of the same course. However, if you must make a decision about what textbook to use, then go through the process below to help you make a selection.

1. Contact the textbook representatives to tell them the topic of the course for which you need to select a book. Request that examination copies be sent.

2. Once the review copies have arrived, begin to compare and contrast them. In most cases, only the most current books should be considered because of the rapidly expanding knowledge base in most fields.
3. Determine whether the books are in their first edition, or if they are in subsequent editions. Just because a book is in its first edition does not make it less desirable than one that is in its 7^th edition, but it is worth taking this into account as you make your decision. Sometimes the new book from the new author is the most fresh and appropriate for your course; other times, the tried and true book is the superior one for your purposes.
4. Now, begin looking at the various books' tables of contents. How well do the topics seem to match up with what you plan to be teaching? The order doesn't have to be the same, but there needs to be a reasonable correspondence between your topics and the topics in the book.
5. Next, choose one or two particularly difficult concepts that you teach and find the explanations of those concepts in the textbooks you are still considering. Keep going through this process until you are satisfied that the book you are choosing does an excellent job of elucidating key concepts for your students.
6. Depending on your discipline, the textbook you are choosing may also have certain other features that must be evaluated. Remember that you are choosing the book for student use - so appraise all aspects of the book from a student's point of view.
7. Once you have reached a decision, work through the ideas below, which also apply when the book has been pre-chosen for you.

• Review the textbook as thoroughly as possible. Decide which of the chapters or sections you want to use. If you ask students to purchase a particular textbook, plan to use a significant portion of it. In this day of $100+ textbooks, students expect to get their money's worth from their purchases. If they buy a book, then find that the professor is using only a small portion of it, they feel rightfully "gypped." Also, telling students to "just read along in the text for background," without having any specific assignments or expectations related to that reading, is interpreted by students to mean that reading the book is not vital. Your presentation of the book and your expectations tied to it should be clarified at your first class meeting, and is more thoroughly addressed in other articles.
• After determining the parts of the book that you plan to use, begin to match the reading selection with the particular week you will be addressing the content. Decide whether or not you want students to have read the material before they come to class, or whether you want them to read the material after you have introduced the material in class first. Begin adding this information to your syllabus.
• At this point, formulate a strategy for how students will be held accountable for the reading. Myriad possibilities are shared in other articles, but at this juncture start to think about whether a chapter lends itself well to a quiz, to a structured discussion, to a linked activity, etc.

In recent years, many professors have created "course packs," a collection of instructor-developed materials and/or articles from journals and other sources that are more current than the material that is included in the typical textbook. Creating course packs that use materials from a variety of sources involves making selections and securing permission to reproduce the items for students. This can be relatively time consuming, and there are a number of companies who can simplify the process. While course packs might be more expensive or limit the range of choices, they have benefits as well. Whether you have an extensive course pack of readings and learning activities for your students or not, it is highly likely you will have some supplementary materials that you want to use. Begin developing a file of these materials. In the section of your syllabus labeled "Readings," be sure to give all the information that students might need to locate and/or purchase the materials. If you reserve readings in the library (also known as a knowledge center on many campuses), critical information about its policies and procedures should probably be noted. When additional readings are assigned, provide students with a brief rationale, e.g. currency of information, for their inclusion.

Supporting and increasing student learning by carefully, strategically choosing the reading materials is a key decision process for the professor. Use the ideas in this article (and others) to help you make the best choices, regardless of whether you're having students read from textbooks, articles, on-line resources, manuals, newspapers, or any other possible resource.

Many articles about how to support (and check for) reading are available from Meggin. In addition, you can learn much more about teaching and reaching the many different types of students who are in today's college classroom by reading the book *Teaching College in an Age of Accountability* (Allyn & Bacon). The book was written by Richard Lyons & Meggin McIntosh (the author of this article).

To learn more ideas that you can use as a faculty member, be sure to check out http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com and http://www.meggin.com

(c) 2008 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., "The Ph.D. of Productivity"(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!

Professors - Students With Special Needs

One of the most drastic changes on college and university campuses in recent years has been the influx of those with physical, mental or psychological limitations who are looking to equip themselves for a more significant role in our society. In the last several years, a steadily increasing number of students with a wide array of challenges are pursuing a college education. As have other "minority groups," students with disabilities (and their families) have become quite politically active and assertive in recent years, expecting the educational community to more fully address their specific needs. Faculty members know that they would do well to accommodate such reasonable requests. (Note: Generally, there is an office of support for students with disabilities on campus. It is wise to see counsel and suggestions from the staff of these offices).

While it is important that we identify and impose high standards for all students in our classes, it is also critical that we seek to understand the backgrounds of each of our students and adopt a degree of flexibility in our interactions with them. The willingness to first understand the special conditions that influence students enables us to treat each as an individual.

Recent state and federal legislation require post secondary institutions to adapt policies that will guarantee full access to educational resources by persons with disabilities. Since these provisions have the backing of the courts, it is imperative that you know if any students in your classes have special needs and what accommodations must be made for them.

There are several ways to determine what special needs students might have. At one of our institutions, all course syllabi must contain some version of the following statement:

Each student who qualifies with a disability is to provide the instructor with a letter from the Disability Resource Center on campus stating the appropriate accommodations for this course. If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss how these academic accommodations will be implemented for this course, please contact the instructor as soon as possible.

If you have not already been notified of the requirement to use such a statement in your course syllabi, it would be prudent to check to find out if there is a required wording for such a statement. Even if there is not a requirement, however, you will want to include such a statement and then to make reasonable accommodations for the students who need them.

Asking the students to talk to you about their challenges during their initial office visit will help you organize learning materials to accommodate their needs. For example, in one of my classes, there were two students with special needs. Lydia was legally blind, with only one eye that allowed her to read magnified text. Although she was quite adept at using the computer, she frequently needed more time to complete assignments (particularly in class examinations) than her classmates because it took her longer to proofread her responses. Lydia used "readers" to help her get through the massive amounts of required reading for the class. Several accommodations were made for Lydia, including:

• Reproducing print materials in 16-point font, which were sent to her as e-mail attachments. Thus, she could enlarge them further if necessary, and was not subject to scrutiny from her peers.
• An extra copy (full size) of all PowerPoint slides used in class was provided to her so that she could review them at home.
• All examinations were produced in 16-point font, and Lydia was allowed to use her laptop with accompanied magnifier to answer the questions. Following consultation with the professor, she was given additional time to complete examinations.
• When Lydia lost one of her readers and could not locate another, Lydia gave me permission to announce her situation to the class. There were several students who volunteered to help.

Natasha was another special needs student. Natasha had a neurological problem that affected her muscles. She could not sit in one position for longer than 15-20 minutes. Her hands would get sore if she tried to take notes for too long. At times, she had massive muscular spasms and she needed to lie down to relieve the pain. Accommodations for Natasha were relatively simple.

• She brought a lounge chair to class that was set up in the back of the room, away from the main traffic flow. She took a seat on an aisle in the class, but after 15-20 minutes, would move to the lounge chair and stretch out. During the 3 hour class sessions, she would rotate between a regular seat, the lounge chair, and standing.
• She brought a tape recorder to class to record the lecture, and other classroom activities, and supplemented these recordings with notes she could take. Other students shared their notes with her.
• Because of her inability to sit for extended periods, Natasha was given additional time to complete in-class examinations. Although she never asked for more time for out of class assignments, it was rather common knowledge that she required longer to complete assignments than did other students, except perhaps for Lydia.

Accommodating these students was not difficult. Fellow students understood the accommodations and volunteered to help any way they could. They were particularly helpful when group presentations were done, and ensured that these two young women had roles that they could accomplish without undue hardship. Both of these students were excellent with verbal communications, and often were central to the presentations with other students providing visual aids and other resources that fostered the learning of all. While some might see the accommodation of these students' needs a hardship for the professor, the paradoxical truth was that it was a rich learning opportunity for the "majority" students.

You are a facilitator of learning--no matter what your discipline is and no matter whether you 'teach' in a lecture hall, lab, seminar room, or classroom. In the vast majority of cases, students with disabilities will work with you to help themselves learn.

You can learn much more about teaching all the different kinds of students who are in today's college classroom by reading the book *Teaching College in an Age of Accountability* (Allyn & Bacon). The book was written by Richard Lyons & Meggin McIntosh (the author of this article).

To learn more ideas that you can use as a faculty member, be sure to check out http://TopTenProductivityTips and access the free resources at http://meggin.com

(c) 2008 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., "The Ph.D. of Productivity"(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!