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Thriving in Academe
Issues To Consider

Where They’re Coming From

Understanding students helps improve course design.

Student Snapshot
Figuring out your students will take more than just remembering our own college years. When designing a course, consider a fairly traditional audience analysis based on institutional data and personal experience.

• What are the student demographics—age, ethnicity, educational background, geographic background?
• What foundational content and skills should students have? How will you determine whether or not they have that foundation?
• What has previous schooling taught students to expect in your class in terms of classroom dynamics? What classroom habits will you build on or will you need to provide retraining for?
• Where are your students headed? What do they think is important to that future?
• What do your students care about? How can you connect their current concerns with your course content? How can you intrigue them?
• How will students with varied learning styles find support in your class? How will you provide materials and opportunities in a variety of ways to meet their learning strengths and help them to build competence in styles that aren’t their preferred methods of learning?

Semester Pacing
Consider the stresses and the constraints of the semester, the ebbs and flows of energy and intensity.

• What professional and personal commitments are already showing on your own calendar? Conferences? - Your nephew’s wedding? Committee obligations?
• Are there times in the semester when yocan predict student absences or waning attention?
• Are there major events that might involve a majority of your students, such as sporting or social activities?
• Are there predictable points in the semester when most courses are likely to have tests?
• What seasonal changes might have an impact in your class? Is the classroom sufficiently climate controlled?
• Are there predictable “crunch times” when the course will be most intense?

Goal Setting
While setting broad goals, consider articulating your expectations in smaller chunks when designing a course. What do you expect students to gain each week or each month? We can’t adjust for every student characteristic or distraction in the semester, but we can accommodate some and avoid being blindsided by others.

Depending on your understanding of your students, your analysis of the semester rhythms, and your content expertise, identifying and sharing sequential goals can help you build across the semester so that students develop skills and content knowledge in small increments.

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