Course objectives & Course description
An important thought I had in mind as I worked through my course goals and description is to make it as clear and simple as possible to allow students to completely understand what they are signing up for. I wanted to incorporate less jargon since the students can’t be expected to know course related terms before the start of the course. The idea came from having conversations with my faculty mentor and from thinking about how I would want my course goals to be as a student. I think when I reflect back to my other artifacts the need for simplicity developed over the last two quarters as I am traveling through RET. I used to have the idea that the course objectives had to have fancy terms to appeal to the seriousness of the course and seriousness of me as an instructor. But, talking to the mentors and peers at RET and looking at the examples in seminar sessions have made me realize that using fancy terms is not an effective way to communicate the seriousness of the course, but rather the structure of the course will speak for itself. Using these terms could only further scare the students into believing that the course is not for them or that the course will be too difficult for them. Furthermore, I think the course goals/description needs to explain the purpose of the course as thoroughly as possible so the students are aware of what they are signing up for. Setting up the course goals effectively can help students understand other aspects of the syllabus like assessment plans and schedule too. It is sort of like informed consent, that is the students are provided all the information necessary and are informed before consenting to participate or take the course. (A little research methods themed analogy haha :))