Meeting Student Needs

This page includes:

What should I know about the intended student audience?
At what level do I teach the material?
Creating a schema and learning objectives
How should I present the actual course content?

What should I know about the intended student audience?

A good instructor will be knowledgeable about the general career objectives of the students in the class. This will help you to create relevant applications or examples of the material to greatly increase student motivation for learning. The more closely related the examples are to student career objectives, the more easily they will see its relevance to their own lives. This helps to eliminate the proverbial student question: "Do I really need to know this stuff?"

Student interests can be determined in several ways:

See University enrollment data
Ask colleagues that teach these same students or have taught the class before what types of students are typically enrolled
Do an informal survey on the first day of class asking students about their career choices and / or majors (show of hands, on-line discussion or short paper survey, student response systems).
In a class of fewer than 40 students, take a few minutes of class time on the first day to have students introduce themselves and state their delcared major, career objective, why they are taking this course and what they hope to learn.
For specific techniques to solicit student input, see the module on Presentation Strategies

After determining student interests and studying course offerings, you will now have a detailed idea of how your course fits into the curriculum and / or the students' career goals.

At what level do I teach the material?

Determining the depth or 'level' of a course is one of the most common issues faced by instructors and may seem daunting at first. Faced with tenure and promotion decisions, many faculty are also apprehensive about teaching a course at a level which is either too low or too high. Faculty and students often have different opinions about course level. The best approach is to do your 'research' on course offerings in the department, talk to other faculty, and learn more about your students.

Use the following checklist to help guide you in determining course depth.

Sit in on a few classes taught at the same level (i.e. upper division majors course, lower division general education course, etc.)
Speak to your chairperson and others about the expectations of faculty with regards to level of course difficulty and faculty interpretation of student evaluations.
Look at the university website or college handbooks to find out the admissions requirements at your university (minimum GPA or standardized test scores).
Visit the college bookstore or ask colleagues for text titles from courses taught to a similar student audience.
Plan in advance the type of tests or assignments that match the level of difficulty with the material presented.
Decide whether your tests will emphasize memorization of the details and vocabulary presented in your course and tell the students what you expect. Put this information in the syllabus whenever possible. Sometimes students confuse depth with the total amount of content being presented.
Allow very brief periods of time within every lecture for a simple 'review' of basic information that will help refresh the students' collective memory of prerequisite course material that is essential to their understanding of your course content. To avoid feeling 'rushed,' tell the students your intentions as you move quickly through this foundation material so that you can achieve the appropriate depth.
Decide whether you will emphasize conceptual information or particular skills in your course. Some students find conceptual information difficult, while others have difficulty memorizing lots of facts.

Creating a schema and learning objectives

You are now ready to design a schema of your basic course content. Complete this form by typing inside each box. The form will also help you develop your learning objectives. For more information on learning objectives, visit the Learning Objectives Module.

Collecting feedback from students

If you are teaching a brand new or extensively revised course, it is important to gather information from students, even throughout its initial offering. Here are some suggestions for getting / giving feedback from students in your new course: Tell students at the beginning that this course is 'experimental' or 'under development' and you appreciate their willingness to provide you with regular and honest feedback that will affect future offerings. You might tell the students that you will do your best to implement at least one or two of their suggestions during the course itself as well. Don't forget to keep your promise and to make them aware of the changes you have made. Specific techniques can be found in the Assessing Instruction Effectiveness module.

Some of the following ideas are especially helpful when teaching a brand new course in your department:

Use informal student surveys announced in advance (or on the syllabus) to maximize the number of students that will respond
Use in-class time for students to fill out written evaluations, because it is equally important to the time spent on course content
Use a singe mid-course evaluation that consists of specific questions you would like students to answer about course materials and teaching techniques, and be sure to add an open 'comments' section inviting any sort of suggestions or comments to improve the course. It is a good idea to present mid-course evaluation data to the whole class after compiling the data, which validates your choice to use class time for evaluation, and helps students see that you value their feedback in an effort to improve.

How should I present the actual course content?

Lecturing is the most common method of imparting course content to students. Student activities and group work are also effective (see the Presentation Strategies and Large Lectures modules). Written or electronic materials require significant preparation, and may evolve as the course is taught on a regular basis. Most instructors like to have fewer courses and teach them repeatedly early in their career, until they can establish good materials and lecture notes.