Unit Two: Course Coordination and Educational Quality

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 invite learners to re-envision course coordination and educational quality through the lens of a pathfinder that will hold the shared resources of a team of faculty teaching several sections of the same course.

Unit Objectives

Achieving consistency in the curriculum
Structuring faculty mentoring
Achieving organizational sustainability

Let's Get Started

Read "Application of the Baldrige Model for Innovation in Higher Education (2007) by Julie A. Furst-Bowe and Roy A. Bauer. Provided here and available from the Wiley Online Library:

Media:Balrige_Model_for_HE.pdf

<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/he.242/abstract>

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?

Build Your Research

Read "Course Mentoring: Toward Achieving Consistency in the Curriculum." by Lucia Dettori and Amber Settle. (2004.

<http://proc.isecon.org/2004/2435/ISECON.2004.Dettori.pdf>

This abstract discusses mentoring, delivery and coordination from its origins to current implementation through the use of a password protected site. It also discusses the responsibilities of mentors, a role often assumed by course coordinators.

Read "Exemplary Junior Faculty Mentoring Programs" (2005) by Rachel Thomas.

<http://www.yale.edu/wff/pdf/ExemplaryJuniory%20Faculty%20MentoringPrograms.pdf>

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.

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

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. Understanding how your institution's Course Management System (CMS) might be used for his purpose is very important.