Defining and Limiting Course Content

Excerpted from Beard and Hartkey, 1984. "After you have "packed" all your topics into a preliminary list, toss out the excess baggage. Designing a course is somewhat like planning a transcontinental trip. First, list everything that you feel might be important for students to know, just as you might stuff several large suitcases with everything that you think you might need on a trip. Then severely pare down the topics you have listed, just as you might limit yourself to one or two pieces of luggage. Research shows that too much detail and too many topics work against students' learning the material."

Excerpted from Svinicki, 1990-1991. "Distinguish between essential and optional material. Divide the concepts or topics you want to cover into three groups: basic material should be mastered by every student, recommended material should be mastered by every student seeking a good knowledge of the subject, and optional material should be mastered by those students with special interests and aptitudes."/p>

Excerpted from Svinicki, 1990-1991. "Lectures and exams should focus on the basic elements of the course. Recommended and optional topics, labeled as such for students, can be included in lectures, supplementary materials, and readings."

Excerpted from Svinicki, 1990-1991. "Emphasize the core concepts. For example, in engineering, as one professor points out, there are thousands of formulas, but all of these are variations on a very limited number of basic ideas or theories. In a single course, students might encounter a thousand equations. Rote memorization is futile because no one can remember that many equations. Instead, the instructor repeatedly emphasizes the fundamentals by showing students how the thousand equations are embedded in a dozen basic ones."

Excerpted from Svinicki, 1990-1991. "Stress the classic issues, or the most enduring values or truths. Often the most interesting issues and themes for undergraduates turn out to be those that originally attracted you to the discipline."

Excerpted from Svinicki, 1990-1991. "Cut to the chase. Go for the most critical skills or ideas and drop the rest. For example, in solving mathematical problems, the most important task is setting up the problem—the rest is the mechanics. Not every problem needs to be worked through to completion."

Excerpted from http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/
FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/prepcors.htm. "Give students a conceptual framework on which to hang major ideas and factual information. To the uninitiated, your field may look like an unruly mass of facts devoid of logic or unifying principles. To understand the relationship among concepts rather than simply memorize dozens of discrete points, students need a framework—a basic theory, a theme, a typology, or a controversial issue. Make this framework apparent to the students through repeated references to it."