>1. What do you consider to be a useful number of handouts per
session (lecturer)?
It depends upon the subject and content of the handouts? Do they have
'notes' on, or are they just diagrams, graphs, tables etc.?
>2. How do you judge the quality of your handouts?
Student feedback at the end of the unit
>3. Does your department have a policy on the number of handouts
>given to students?
Yes, most definitely. At one time, we were producing so many handouts that
our p/copy bill was astronomical. The concept of a 'learning pack' was
decided upon. We used these for lecture notes, graphs etc., but also
tutorial notes, practical instructions, notes on referencing, unit
descriptors etc etc. The policy was that these were compulsory at levels 1
and 2, and optional at 3. Extra sheets could be added as long as they did
not exceed a small number (10 I think). We expected students to buy these
packs.
>4.Do you think that putting handouts in electronic format, i.e. on
>the web or intranet, is helpful?
We now have a move to put all this information on intranet (with some,
limited, success). I think this is much better for staff (they can add and
edit material more easily), students (they print out what ONLY what the
want or need), and the institution (it's cheaper!). These sites are also
used as 'news points' to inform students of this weeks sessions,
cancellations, new links and developments, points where the can quickly
feedback to the lecturer etc.
>5. ant other comments you may have regarding this topic.
The learning pack idea was pretty flawed, in my opinion. The packs became
so huge that they were weighing in at a tenner a time. Students often had
to fork out 60 quid or more a year, before they did any computer printing
or photocopying. I thought this was vastly unfair. Secondly, I found that
many students used these supposedly comprehensive documents as a crutch.
This manifested itself both in poor attendance and concentration, but also
poor record keeping skills in level three, when learning packs were not
written.
There is also a copyrighting problem here, which, if you deal with it
honestly (!), can cause an awful lot more work.
I have found that my intranet sites were very well used. Students can
access all my overheads and diagrams, as well as a springboard to other
sites (they are already logged on, so you have sort of ensnared them
already!!). I also put up 'website of the week', which is a general site
for interest (usually science orientated, as it's a marine biology and
chemistry course, but not always!). As I say, they start surfing at a
'News' page, which maps out this weeks work. It is also a quick way to
check book availability etc. by linking through to catalogue entries on the
library site. Much of the template work was developed by our academic
development dept., but the staff maintain the sites with the appropriate
software. It is easy to use, and requires little training.
A note of caution however. I think these sites only really work if you
constantly update them, and keep them looking good.....principles of web
design do apply here! There are many sites here, that I have seen, that
have been tinkered with and left. This frustrates the students (the
material is not current), and turns them off exploring further. I fear
there has been a bit of a 'kids at Christmas' approach (a new toy that gets
played with for the first week, then forgotten about!). Secondly, they can
still be used as a crutch. I think by good design and encouragement you can
get the students used to using these resources just as a starter, and then
get them to take responsibility for going on from there. I often do this by
introducing the website in the very first session, and demonstrating how we
can beyond the information already given, and then running a later subject
based tutorial starting from some of the information that I have used for
their directed learning.
Cheers
Paul.
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