Instruction at FSU:
A Guide to Teaching & Learning Practices
This handbook has been designed to help those instructional
faculty and graduate teaching assistants who are interested in being
more effective teachers. It offers strategies used by experienced
instructors and presents instructional methods and techniques following
four components of Instructional Design: Course Planning, Lesson
Delivery, Student Testing and Grading, and Course Revision and
Evaluation.
Access
The following documents are in Adobe Acrobat Format and you will need
the Acobat Reader to view them (a free download from http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html).
To access a particular chapter, select the
chapter title. At the end of each chapter, you have the choice of going
on to the next chapter or returning to the Table of Contents. Of
course, you may return at any time by simply clicking the "Back" button
of your Web browser.
Table of Contents
( Table
of Contents)
Messages from Dr. Lawrence Abele, Provost, and Dr. Walt
Wager, Coordinator of Instructional
Development Services (215K)
I. Course Planning -- Content
Chapter
1 -- Designing an Effective Course (243K)
Instructional Design starts with course planning, continues with lesson
design and delivery, moves through student assessment and grading to
conclude with course evaluation and revision. The process is continuous
and can start at any stage. In this chapter we introduce the tasks in
designing effective courses.
Chapter
2 -- Determining Learning Objectives (284K)
In this chapter we help you identify the goals and objectives you want
students to reach by the end of the course, and provide guidelines for
using your objectives when designing your course.
Chapter
3 -- Creating a Syllabus (416K)
Florida State University requires all courses to have an accompanying
syllabus that is distributed at the beginning of the semester. In this
chapter, we outline the many uses of a syllabus, which serves as a
window into your course plan; provide suggestions for constructing an
organized and complete syllabus; and give checklists and examples for
writing your syllabus, including University policy and rule statements.
II. Course Planning -- Management
Chapter
4 -- Knowing Your Students (274k)
Race, religion, disability, sexual preference, academic entry level,
aptitude, socio-economic status, age, and marital status are all
factors that impact how a student learns. Your expectations, goals, and
teaching style are based on your experiences, which might be quite
different from those of your students. Understanding the differences
between you and your students and among your students can help you plan
your course to take advantage of the diverse population at FSU rather
than letting it be an obstacle to student learning.
Chapter
5 -- Managing Students and the Classroom Climate (240K)
How you manage your students -- and at times, yourself -- can determine
your success or failure in the classroom. This chapter helps you
survive in the classroom -- through behavioral suggestions, preparation
guidelines, and solutions to common problems most instructors have
encountered.
Chapter
6 -- Especially for TAs (264K)
This chapter discusses the unique roles and responsibilities of both
Graduate Teaching Assistants and Graduate Students and offers advice on
improving professionalism and managing workloads. Also covered are the
various components of the Program for Instructional Excellence (PIE),
which supports teaching enhancement for TAs.
III. Lesson Delivery
Chapter
7 -- Lecturing Effectively (329K)
Lectures are comprised of two components: content and delivery. Both
components are essential for creating an interesting lecture. First, we
cover the rules of content; later in the chapter, we discuss the
elements of delivery.
Chapter
8 -- Using Active Learning in the Classroom (467K)
Active learning shifts the focus from the teacher and her delivery of
course content to the student and his active engagement with the
material. Through active learning techniques and modeling by the
teacher, students shed the traditional role as passive receptors and
learn and practice how to apprehend knowledge and skills and use them
meaningfully.
Chapter
9 -- Instructional Media: Chalkboards to Video (309K)
Different types of educational experiences exist -- from hands-on
apprenticeships to role-playing, from demonstrations to reading printed
text. Some educators believe that different experiences are more or
less effective for achieving different types of instructional outcomes.
Instructors who are considering the use of media should ask themselves,
“How do I expect the media or type of learning activity to make
learning more effective?”
Chapter
10 -- Using Course Websites as Instructional Tools (651K)
Using its long history of developing and offering face-to-face
instruction and its large investment in technology, Florida State
University has developed online instructional tools for use in the
traditional classroom, the web-enhanced class, and in fully online
courses. In this chapter we discuss every aspect of creating and
maintaining an online course.
Chapter
11 -- Teaching Contexts (288K)
Elsewhere in this Handbook we have covered the usual lecture teaching
situations. In this chapter we present other contexts -- the discussion
class, the laboratory, and large classes. While the dynamics of the
student-instructor relationship and the criteria used for improving it
remain essentially the same as in traditional situations, additional
points should be considered.
IV. Student Assessment
Chapter
12 -- Testing and Assessment Issues (530K)
Constructing tests is a serious concern of instructors and an important
part of most courses. In this chapter we present the types of tests
that are typically used in university settings. We provide general tips
about testing, including how to plan a test and how to write test
items. In the final section, ways of dealing with cheating are
discussed.
Chapter
13 -- Grading (479K)
Grades reflect personal philosophy and human psychology, as well as
efforts to measure intellectual progress with standardized objective
criteria. This chapter discusses grading philosophies, presents
suggestions that will help to maintain fairness and consistency in your
grading, and discusses issues that should be addressed in course
planning.
V. Course Evaluation and Revision
Chapter
14 -- Improving Your Teaching with Feedback (262K)
This chapter covers the different ways to get feedback about your
teaching. The more information you gather about your teaching, the more
informed you will be about organization, planning, implementation, and
assessment that will be beneficial both to your students and to you.
VI. Campus and Community Resources
Chapter
15 -- Support and Resources (354K)
The University resources available to support instructors and their
students are many and varied. Here, we list programs and services that
can help you with your research and teaching responsibilities, as well
as those that support students. Also listed are online locations of
University policies.
 content
questions to: cstratton@oddl.fsu.edu
 current from: January 27,
2004
|
contact
us
WebStars