When I started this blog I intended it to supplement my introductory sociology course. It would be a place to expand on topics covered in class, to introduce recent events relevant to our discussions, and to cover things we didn't have time for in class. I hoped it would also give students a better sense of what their professor does in the other hours of her life, those outside the lecture hall. Some of that has to do with me as a person, as a researcher, but also I wanted to talk about the "invisible work" of teaching.
One of those invisible tasks is the construction of the course syllabus. There are books written on how to make a good syllabus, what should be included, what messages you send students through the syllabus. I worry more about the substance--what topics do I want to cover and in what order? what do I want students to read? what assignments will be useful and when should they occur? Even after I have taught a course many times I still find things I want to change. New videos or readings, new topics, new ideas. But adding something means something else must go. What to delete? What didn't work last time or didn't capture student interest? What is essential to the course and what is fluff?
For the fall I'm teaching two courses. Both are very similar in terms of the topics--research design and data analysis. I'm working on the ordering of topics, the assignments, the timing. Check back and see what happens.
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