Up In Consulting

Elevate your writing and move up in your career

Up In Consulting
  • About
  • Elevate
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • FAQs

Effectively Manage Your Course Prep

  • By Jane
  • September 5, 2017
  • Uncategorized
  • 0 Comments
Effectively Manage Your Course Prep

I taught at a liberal arts college and prepped many courses. I spent hours on course prep. I’d review the reading, read supplementary material, develop handouts, and more. Sometimes this felt very rewarding, but sometimes it didn’t.

Over time, I found that there was a very weak correlation between the amount of time I spent prepping a lecture and the quality of the classroom experience.

What I mean is that sometimes the best sessions were the result of very little preparation. I have a few ideas why:

  • I was overthinking it when I prepped too much.

  • I provided too much technical information, especially in introductory courses.

  • I covered so much ground in class that students didn’t feel like they could ask questions, and had little time to process the information.

My courses improved (and my students were much happier) when I developed a few new strategies to use in the classroom and during my preparation time:

  • Be clear about expectations: Tell students the hours during which you check email, the amount of time you take to answer an email, whether you give extensions, etc. Clarifying all this, in the beginning, saves you a lot of time in the long run.

  • Use a grading rubric: this encourages consistent grading but also gives you a point of reference for evaluating papers so you’re not reinventing the wheel with each paper. It also saves a LOT of time if students dispute their grade – you have a written justification of the grade at your fingertips.

  • Set office hours but also encourage students to make appointments within the office hours. This is so you can work on other projects during office hours, rather than sitting idly, hoping a student might drop by.

  • Grade with a timer. The goal here isn’t to grade as fast as you can, but to learn how long it takes you to grade a paper so that you can accurately predict the time you’ll spend grading the next assignment.

  • Structure activities that are rewarding for you and students, but don’t take a lot of prep.

Regarding this last tip: yes, instructors feel guilty about showing movies. It’s still OK to screen them. I don’t care to lecture anyone on pedagogy, BUT: people are consuming more and more video content. Teaching your students how to consume and critically analyze that content is not “laziness.”

None of this advice is a magic bullet for cutting your course prep time in half, nor is that the intention. Instead, I hope to remind you of a few things. First, that quantity is not equivalent to quality when it comes to prep time. Also, you don’t have unlimited prep time, therefore, you should always track the time you’re using. Finally, you’re not cheating if you show movies or structure discussions where you’re not the leader. Structuring your course prep so that it’s predictable and manageable helps you and your students.

Share

Related Posts

The Differences Between Academic Articles and Book Chapters

May 5, 2021

The Difference Between Dissertations And Books

April 14, 2021

How to Make Time for Your Scholarship

September 10, 2020

Effective Writing Plans for Books

February 27, 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Social

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Archives

  • October 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • January 2021
  • September 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014

Categories

  • Academic Writing
  • Asking For Help
  • Book Reviews
  • Book Writing
  • Editing
  • From Course Paper To Article
  • general-testimonial
  • Goal setting
  • Impostor Syndrome
  • Journal Articles
  • Monday Motivation
  • Overcoming Barriers
  • Planning
  • Productivity
  • productivity-testimonial
  • Quick Tips
  • Revising
  • Saying No
  • Services
  • Stress
  • Uncategorized
  • Writing Tips

Meta

  • Entries RSS
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Uncategorized
  • Effectively Manage Your Course Prep

Let’s get writing.

Subscribe to get the latest writing and productivity tips. Like happy mail for your planner.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

© 2023 Up In Consulting

  • Home
  • About
  • Elevate
  • Testimonials
  • Blog