Backstage: Planning

The first presentation in my courses is called Welcome and includes one slide where all course activities are scheduled. The work plan proposed to the class on day 1 should not only identify the main topics under consideration every week, but also the type of learning activities and work mode (online or on-campus), as shown in the examples presented below.

Fig. 15: Course plan for the 2018/19 edition of ES-SHC4300 (master course). All assignment delivery deadlines were indicated, and likewise the main topics being considered every week.

Fig. 16: Course plan for the 2019/20 edition of DFDS3200 course (bachelor course). The corresponding Canvas Modules view showing the detailed content for each week is included at the end as appendix #4.

Providing a detailed course plan from the first day of classes is important and is greatly appreciated by the students, who occasionally praise it on student surveys: “The amount of information was excellent. We always knew what to do each week and what needed to be delivered” (from the DFDS3101 2015/16 student survey results that will be presented later in this document).

Rules and guidelines used to create and deliver content are largely perennial. Content is far less perennial, and is revised when it becomes necessary to keep pace with the state of the art. Planning is ephemeral, and has to be renewed for each new course edition. Somewhere in-between lies the technical backstage, where we have seen significant advancements over recent years in technologies that greatly facilitate the teaching and learning work.