- Use video podcasts. You could even substitute a whole week of lecturing with a series of 15-minute podcasts.
- Minimize testing. One mid-term and one final should do the trick. Other assessments could be done online (but avoid spending too much time setting those up unless they can be used year after year).
- Don't change assigned readings too often for the same classes. Introducing a new reading or two each semester's okay but don't get too over-zealous. Go with what works and stick with it. Saves prep time.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
A Scholars' Dirty Little Secret
A trusted senpai shared this with me. It's the teaching scholars' dirty little secret: Run effective classes and provide satisfying learning experiences while minimizing the time and effort put into teaching. As much as I'd like to disagree, it's pretty much necessary. Failing this makes research almost impossible, especially if you have a family. So the question is how to pull it off. I have some ideas, in no particular order:
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2 comments:
Well, any sort of recorded material can be a life saver (also i’ve found I’m much more likely to listen to old lectures after the semester than re-read old notes).
Perhaps not quite what you were asking for, but these are my thoughts on assessments within the Arts faculty.
I’ve found that having three or four assessments placed evenly throughout the semester takes a lot of the pressure off.
For one Art History course this semester all assessments fell between weeks 12 and 13, meaning that the course was very easy to forget about until then. While there’s nothing wrong with a weighty major essay, anything above 40% is a little steep (in one history course at the end of this semester, the essay being worth 50% was the greatest complaint among students).
If I could make any change to the Asian Studies faculty, it would be to eliminate their penchant for end-of-semester exams worth 40% (in my opinion no in-class exam should be worth more than 20-30% - a few hours of bad luck should not make the difference between a Pass or High Distinction. They’re also the most stressful sort of examination, and I often find myself unable to sleep the night before one, very much effecting my performance).
In your units, the short in-class quizzes were fine, though often a little too un-challenging (in these cases, I’d be hoping that people who hadn’t come to lectures would suffer a bit more). My only real complaint was one speech weighted 40%, far too much for that kind of task. Dealing with a group task was also a bit of a challenge, in my case most of the group were extremely uncommunicative, only showed their work within a day of the due date, and much of it was blatantly plagiarized.
Of course all of these opinions are coming from someone wanting to make the semester as easy as possible for himself.
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