Course Design
The Big Five Principles

 Core Principle #1: Most short courses need to define themselves as teaching three main things. What three main things will your course teach?  

Core Principle #2: Students come with many different levels of prior experience. You must do a quick "needs and experience" assessment before you begin your lecture to see if your lesson plan is on the mark. This can take the form of a verbal questionnaire, a case study followed by a quick quiz, a "rank from most important to least important" written survey, or some other instrument. What do you plan to do in the first 10 minutes of class to perform this assessment?  

Core Principle #3: Most teachers of adults make the mistake of starting with very elementary background information and working toward the "good stuff." This often bores many students who already have experience in the field. How can you "start in the middle" with some terrific material and then backfill the introductory stuff?  

Core Principle #4: The CFU catalog course description is an "implied contract" between teacher and student concerning what the course will teach, how it will be taught, and what the student will leave with in the way of class projects. The best course descriptions are specific about what, when, and how the skills will be taught. To the best of your ability list in 15 minute segments your whats, and hows in the order that they will occur in a typical class session. (Look at some descriptions of very successful classes to guide you.)  

Core Principle #5: Materials fees are sometimes needed to provide essential supplies for class projects or pay for admission tickets for class outings, etc. Yet CFU seeks to keep these fees as low as possible. Rarely do we want books to be a mandatory student expense unless they are workbooks for class participation. We need an accurate statement of what your fees will cover--what supplies in what quantities. Please itemize your materials fees request and prepare to have them inspected and approved.