Unit One: Course Coordination and Educational Quality
Go to ETAP 623 Spring 2012
Go to Carmita's Portfolio Page
Go to Building a Pathfinder as a Course Coordination and Teaching Tool
Target Objective
To invite learners to re-envision course coordination through the lenses of a pathfinder that will hold the shared resources of a team of faculty teaching several sections of the same course.
Unit Objectives
- How to achieve consistency in the curriculum
- Structuring faculty mentoring
Let's Get Started
Write down ways in which course coordination at your institution could have made a difference in your teaching experience? Save your list and see how it compares to the best practices at other institutions. What are some of the things that we could take away that will make us better?
Do Some Research
- Read "Course Mentoring: Toward Achieving Consistency in the Curriculum" (2004) by Lucia Dettori and Amber Settle.
- <http://proc.isecon.org/2004/2435/ISECON.2004.Dettori.pdf>
- Our faculty mix, their diverse backgrounds and experiences, the changing teaching environments at our institutions, and the diverse student body we serve, all contribute to the challenge of providing consistency in the curriculum in classes with multiple sections.
- This article discusses the different issues preventing consistency in the curriculum, the importance of communication regarding teaching methodologies, assessment, and outcomes and the serious consequences for course coordination.
- While the course mentoring project discussed is for an introductory computer science course the fundamental issues are the same and the value of the arguments remains.
- Read "Exemplary Junior Faculty Mentorin Programs" (2005) by Rahel Thomas.
- The Women Faculty Forum at Yale has conducted initial research on mentoring programs and policies. Seventeen institutions of higher education were included in the program.
- <http://www.yale.edu/wff/pdf/ExemplaryJuniory%20Faculty%20MentoringPrograms.pdf>
- This article provides a detailed description of the Mentoring Programs at the seventeen institutions, including the "Tips for Mentors" and "Tips for Proteges" and the role of each in the coordination process. An excellent source of thought-provoking
- Read "Toward Thoughtful Curriculum: Fostering Discipline-Based Conversation" (1994) by Arthur N. Applebeee
- Arthur N. Applebee explores recent developments that affect educational quality and the need to teach students how to participate in the ongoing curricular conversation.
Reflect
Think about how course coordination happens at your institution, how it affects the quality of the education we deliver, and how we might achieve consistency in the curriculum.
Go to A Pathfinder as a Course Coordination and Teaching Tool
Go to Carmita's Portfolio Page
Go to ETAP 623 Spring 2012