Course content
How do you feel about adding outside resources not included with the syllabus?
I am all for it. Especially if the out side source will bring enrichment to the class. Sometimes we need to bring the outside in to help the student get a visual point of focus.
Brian,
It is always a challenge in selecting the instructional delivery format and supporting materials. Get feedback from your students throughout the course and they will help guide you through the selection process.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I agree totally. I am just starting as a new instructor.I am looking over what I have to present to the students and I'm thinking I need to add more to this. I want to add diagrams and such so I can have the students label the parts.You just have to be careful adding new material when using the test questions at the end of the chapeters.You dont want to be teaching them one thing and testing on another.
Brad,
I agree with the provision of external learning opportunities and resources. Even if some students don't use them they know you have extended the effort to find and share them. This reflects on your professional approach to being student centered.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I teach in a cutting edge program in a highly specific field--so I am usually responsible for writing the course content and in some cases, developing and designing the course.
For me, there are few established texts upon which I can rely for structured course content and must utilize external resources as often as possible.
Usually, these external resources are projects that I have worked on professionally, which illustrate points of discussion or are demonstrative in some fashion.
The school that I'm at runs 10-week terms, so I find adding outside resources and supplemental material to be vital. Of course it is never part of the main grading, but I will give students suggested films to watch, events to attend, or networking opportunities that I will sometime give extra credit for.
All in all, I personally believe that the extra resources are what can really give a student an edge on the content, if they decide to put forward the effort to use them.
If you have the flexibility within your college to do so, you would be crazy not to. Textbooks only bring the student part of the story. In my field of Medical Billing and Coding, supplimentals are essential to our course work. Healthcare changes so rapidly, that a textbook can be almost obsolete by the time we are ready to address a specific point.
I always love to add supplemental reading materials to my syllabi. For example, when I teach Human Anatomy&Physiology, there are always topics in pathophysiology, so I like to add some books that I've read over the years that incorporate the patient perspective along with some information about the diseases. Students appreciate this, from my experience:)
I know as an undergrad, I always read the supplemental books my professors suggested, and I really enjoyed them.
Danielle R
Sometimes it is important to add an outside resource not included with the syllabus such as a related field trip.
Robert,
I add them in all the time because I want to make sure my students have the latest information related to our study as is possible. Also, the students appreciate the effort I go to to find these resources and make them available to them.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
