Your handout is your souvenir
Students tend to save the handouts that are informative and creative . They will use it over and over.
Handouts are great study tools and let the students see the material in a different light what I have done is encourage the students to create their own handouts and study guides. Anytime I can in a lesson I have the students form study groups every group takes a topic from the lesson .They create a one page study guide for the topic at the end of the class I collect all the study guides review them for any mistakes. Put them all together in to a booklet form and give them out to the students. .Now the student has that material to study and keep to take with them as they go from class to class. This activity accomplishes two goals 1- the students review ,discuss and digest the material in groups 2- the students are learning how to create a study tool for this class and other classes. One of the most important things an instructor can teach a student is how to learn. This helps to accomplish that goal.
Hi Michelle,
You are asking questions about an issue that is the center of a higher education fire storm. How can faculty protect their own material/ideas? You can copyright your material/handouts by contacting the United States Copyright Office. They will give you the necessary forms and information to do such.
There are a number of lawsuits revolving around this very issue currently working their way through the courts. An interesting article for you to read on this issues is Intellectual Property Rights at Stake in Fla.
Written By: William Beutler
Published In: Info Tech & Telecom News
Publication Date: June 1, 2008
Publisher: The Heartland Institute
UniversityReaders.com is a excellent website to visit and a good company to work with on the development of course resource packets. They will help you walk through all of the issues of creating a course packet both from a composition perspective as well as copyright compliance.
Over the years I have written a number of books and developed many course packets so if I can answer any specific questions about your materials or how to format them please let me know.
Gary
This posting has been so helpful! It is so true how my handouts from my own education have served as my souvenirs again and again. In the classroom however, I use articles, notes, videos, etc. but rarely my own self made handouts. You've definitely changed my mind! How do we safeguard the content of our handouts so others do not create them exactly as we have? The mini handbook publication? What are the steps to do this (copyrights, etc.)
i still keep my usable handouts from way back, i want my students to have theirs as usable as the one i had.
I try to make my handouts usable in the world outside of school. The students keep them and sometimes mark them for quick reference.
