FASTNotes

Preparing Your Course--Establishing Goals

Writing down goals for what you want your students to do or produce as a result of taking your course is helpful for several reasons:

1) the process forces you to clarify what you want your students to accomplish;
2) your goals will help you to select appropriate teaching methods, materials and assignments;
3) you can use your goals to write effective learning objectives for your students, which communicates to them what you expect from them in the course;
4) your goals will be helpful to colleagues who teach courses that rely on yours as a prerequisite;
5) clearly defined goals help you to evaluate and assess student progress, and help students determine whether they are meeting course expectations.

Questions:

What do I expect from my students? How will the students demonstrate that they have mastered the goals?

Preparing Your Course--Writing Learning Objectives

Learning objectives are the foundation of effective instruction. They focus the instructor and the learner on the achievement of specific results.

Hints for Writing Learning Objectives:
Write objectives from the learner’s point of view, for example, “By the end of this course, you will be able to…”

Write learning objectives that come as close as possible to the actual behaviors students will be expected to perform. In general, action words that describe relevant behaviors that are attainable and measurable are preferable to words that describe behaviors less easy to directly observe. For example, “By the end of Chapter 4 of the course text, you will be able to [identify, interpret, calculate, solve, formulate etc.]” may be more appropriate than “By the end of Chapter 4 you will know, learn, understand, appreciate, etc.”].

Preparing Your Course--Creating an Effective Syllabus

A syllabus helps you present an organized, coherent, and academically responsible course. Presented on the first day of class, it gives students an immediate sense of what the course will cover, what work is expected of them, and how their performance will be evaluated in a sense it is a contract between you and your students about what you will all accomplish.

Besides the minimum information to be included in a syllabus
(see: www.provost.uiuc.edu/departments/gened/syllabi.html), other useful information to include is:

Introduction to the course
Learning goals/Course objectives
Course/Instructor philosophy
Pre-requisites

Additional helps:
· Look at syllabi of those who have previously taught the course (or a similar course).
· Be as specific as possible, but remember to allow for flexibility.
· Have a colleague review your syllabus to avoid misunderstandings later.
· Review the syllabus interactively with students on the first and second days of class.