October 20, 2008

Hello Developers,

With the 100% completion date 2 weeks away I would like to spend this blog reviewing a few reminders to make sure you double check before the peer advisers go in to take a look at your course:

• You will want to make sure your course includes student to student interaction, engages the students, motivates the students, uses student centered techniques, and is free of errors (typos/spelling, etc.).
• It is important that students use their critical thinking skills in every course. They should have an opportunity to tell others their opinions and then discuss them, rather than always just stating facts and figures.
• Assignments should be creative - they shouldn't always be question and answer from the book. Encourage students to do activities and report back on what they learned. These types of assignments will help them learn more than simply learning everything from a book.
• Double check to make sure the total points in your course calendar matches the total points in the grade book.
• Add in some additional learning tools such as Books 24 X 7 or online journals. If you are not sure what online journals are available for your course topic please don't hesitate to contact Elaine, the online librarian. If you need her contact information just let me know!
• Remember that students should work in the course approximately 1 hour/credit/week as well as work outside of the course approximately 1 - 3 hours/credit/week. Also, as the course increases in number (100 level vs. 400 level) you should expect that students taking the higher level course have become more proficient in the material offered due to an increase in the amount of pre-requisite courses that are required. Therefore, upper division courses should contain readings, assignments, discussions, and exams that require a deeper evaluation of the course material.
• Make sure every unit has a reading assignment, discussion board, external link, and assignment at a minimum.

Thank you for all of your hard work this quarter! Only 2 more weeks left and one more blog for this development cycle. Please make sure to let me know if you have any questions or concerns at all!!

Amy