Unit One: Building a Pathfinder
Author: Carmita Sanchez-Fong
Go to: ETAP 623 Spring 2012
Go to portfolio page: A Pathfinder as a Coordination and Teaching Tool
Go to the mini-course: The Pathfinder Building Blocks
Target Objective
To develop the structure for a Pathfinder Template that will define the means and methods of gathering, analyzing, and organizing the resources being constructed and shared by faculty teaching multi-section courses.
Unit Objectives
- Generate a Course Description and Course Coordination Map
- Generate an organization strategy and Table of Contents
- Understand Communities of Practice
Let's Get Started
Watch this video:TED in Half-Ken Robinson-Creativity in Education 
Ken Robinson was Professor of Education at Warwick University in the U.K. He is an expert in the field of creativity and innovation, and is the author of several best selling books including "The Arts in Schools: Principles, Practice and Provision". On this video he wants us to re-think our views on intelligence and human capacities, he says:
- "I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology one in which we start to reconstruct our conception of the richness of human capacity ... we have to re-think the fundamental principles on which we are educating our children."
The evolving field of education in which we are engaged, demands that our resources be central and organized. The resources in the pathfinder will be dynamic and ever changing as contributors adapt to the constant new variables that affect our teaching environments.
Course Description and Coordination Map
The pathfinder starts with the course description.
Use your institution's catalog to provide the initial course description. Add to it as necessary to include goals and objectives. Include the weekly schedule and course coordination map.
The course coordination map is critical for everyone's understanding of what the course's pre-requisites and co-requisites are. It should include the catalog description of each.
- The following sample course coordination map, from unit six, shows the course pre-requisites underneath the dashed line.
- Media:ID243COURSECOORDINATIONMAP.pdf
The pre-requisites are the skills that must be assessed at the onset of the course so that the necessary scaffolding activities may be developed.These are the courses that student's took in previous semesters for which you need to understand their level of competence. Assessing the essential common body of knowledge needed for your course is vital. The result of ignoring this step has the potential of surfacing at any point in the semester in the form of frustration and/or poor performance for both, faculty and students alike. The impact to students will be through how grades affect their GPA and/or ability to compete for scholarship opportunities. For faculty, perception and/or performance, will be seen through the lens of student evaluations.
The co-requisites reveal the consequences, beyond the classroom, of the teaching and learning taking place in the course. These are the "other" courses students may or may not be taking concurrently but which you need to understand for how they affect, directly or indirectly, your delivery. The benefit of understanding the effect of co-requisites is clear when students can hold a discussion in class and bring knowledge and information from the "other" classes into yours. Knowledge then will become social, interactive, complex, and authentic. Everyone will enjoy it.
Understanding how your course "fits" within the curriculum to support and/or be supported is critical. The aim is that through coordination you will be able to achieve a degree of consistency that will help departments, coordinators, faculty and students alike. In cases where faculty must miss a class, someone else will be able to step in making the coordination for the department easier. In the same way, if students miss a class, they will be able to attend any other section because the coverage of material will be consistent across all sections of the course.
The Pathfinder Structure
A good way to start structuring the pathfinder is for the group to study the course syllabus, for their course and the co-requisite courses. Reflect on the processes involved in the teaching and learning of your subject and its "real-world relevance" to the students.
Consider how the weekly schedule of your course "relates" to the co-requisites. Understanding this relationship should be top priority at your coordination meetings. Authenticity will surface in the student's learning as they see and feel the interdisciplinary relevance between the classes.
In some classes structuring the pathfinder around the weekly schedule might be necessary. A well-coordinated weekly schedule will avoid overwhelmed students because they have several assessment activities in the same week.
Consider the following abstract on "Student perceptions and motivation in the classroom: exploring relatedness and value." by Annette Kaufman and Tonya Dodge:
Communities of Practice
The table of contents is the framework for the pathfinder and should answer to the needs of your group. Keep it flexible and ask for suggestions. Their input is vital for your success in building a community of practice. The pathfinder template provided in unit six is only an example and it includes institutional resources based on the needs of the group.
- Read "Communities of Practice and virtual learning communities: benefits, barriers and success factors." (2007) by Pat Gannon-Leary and Elsa Fontainha.
- A good article about the effective use of technology in virtual Communities of Practice (CoP.)
Vetting resources - Ask participants to vet their resources by providing a written "trailer" as an introduction. It should serve as as "preview" of what the material is about.
Comments - Encourage participants to share their thoughts about the resources they find in the pathfinder as well as its structure and navigation.
Build Your Research
- Visit the University of Idaho's Information Literacy site:
- Each Module provides a wealth of knowledge and information on how to analyze and evaluate your resources.
Reflect
Given your syllabus and weekly schedule, think of the best way of giving participants the opportunity to share, evaluate, use and comment on these resources.
Next, think of the most efficient form of collaboration. Consider the use of the Course Management System (CMS) at your institution via the Learning Object Repository (LOR), using "Google docs", or using "drop box" among many. For this mini course I will be using this wiki space.
Write down your thoughts. See how they compare to the sample shown in unit six.
References and Resources
Gannon-Leary, Pat and Fontainha Elsa. "Communities of Practice and virtual learning communities: benefits, barriers and
- success factors." elearningeuropa.info. eLearning Papers:5. Sept. 2007. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.
Dettori, L. and Settle A. "Course Mentoring: Toward Achieving Consistency in the Curriculum" Proc ISECON. Vol. 21 (Nov.
- 2004). Web. 24 Feb. 2012.
Gibaldi, J. Ed. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th Ed. New York: The Modern Language Association of
- America, 2009. Print.
Kaufman, Annette and Dodge, Tonya. "Student perceptions and motivation in the classroom: exploring relatedness and
- value." Social Psychology of Education. 2009. Web. 12 Apr. 2012.
Shambaugh, R. Neal and Magliaro, Susan G. Mastering the Possibilities: A Process Approach to Instructional Design.
- Needham Heights, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon, 1997. Print.
Stone, Mark and Dismore, Harriet. "Supporting Diverse communities of Practice Across an HE and FE Network."
- Workshop at the University of Plymouth. 2010. Web. 16 Mar. 2012.
"Information Literacy Portal UI Core Curriculum." University of Idaho. Web. 14 Feb. 2012.
Go to Unit One: Building a Pathfinder
Go to Unit Two: Course Coordination and Educational Quality
Go to Unit Three: Formal Curriculum vs. Enacted Curriculum
Go to Unit Four: Quality, Quantity, and Relatedness in the curriculum