HELPING STUDENTS AVOID CONFUSION ABOUT YOUR CLASS

I have taught now for more than five decades.  I know how I want my class to operate.  In contrast, the students are brand new to my class, and what seems crystal clear to me is often terribly confusing to them.  I don’t like confusion.  It rarely helps education.

If you have read this blog for long, you know how much I stress communications with my students.  My motto, “Just because it is clear to me doesn’t mean it is clear to you,” never leaves my mind. 

Two weeks ago, I sent out the course outline to my students to give them a chance in advance to see how the coming class will be structured.  My bet is that 10 percent of the students will look at it rather seriously and the others will adopt a “need to know” approach. 

That is a recipe for confusion.  Should I just accept this or can I help them clear up some of that confusion?

On our first-class day (next Monday), I want to use as little time as possible to introduce the course while also making sure that the structure is clear to 100 percent of the students.  So, today, with six days until our first class, I sent them a “scavenger hunt” – 31 questions about the structure of the class based on the course outline and other material that I had sent to them.

Who doesn’t love a scavenger hunt?  Heck, it is fun.

I wanted to create some curiosity, but most of all, I wanted them to start thinking about how a “Joe Hoyle” course operates.  To them, education seems somewhat random.  From my perspective, it seems very specific.

I don’t expect them to know the answers to any of these questions.  That is not my point.  I just want them to think about the questions and why those questions might be important.  Then, on Monday, I will go through the 31 questions with them and, hopefully, after 15-20 minutes, they will have a pretty good understanding of how a “Joe Hoyle” course operates. 

I am 74 years old and I have never tried this before.  I might never try it again.  However, at least once, I want to see if this will reduce the amount of confusion that students can have about a college-level class.

Here is what I sent my students this morning.

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ACCOUNTING 302 – FALL SEMESTER 2022       I think it is very important for each student to understand the essential parts of the Course Outline (and some of the information that I have distributed to you in other forms).   In the first 15-20 minutes of our first class on Monday, we will go through the course outline.  Here are a whole bunch of questions that I want you to be able to answer after we have finished.  You can get many of these simply by a close reading of the course outline.  No matter how you get them, 15-20 minutes into our first class, I want YOU to be able to answer each of these questions.  I think that is a reasonable goal.

  1.  I will pass around a seating chart at the beginning of the first class.  Wherever you sit on that first day is where you will sit (at least for a while).  How long should you anticipate having that seat in my class?

  2.  By what name do I prefer to be called?

  3.  How will you know if you are late for class?

  4.  How many times can you be late for class before you need to explain to me why you seem to have trouble arriving on time?

  5.  Where is my office?

  6.  How do I describe my office?

  7.  Our class is scheduled on MWF from 1:30 – 2:20.  How long will our class sessions actually be?  How do I make up for that?

  8.  What are my office hours?   Do you need an appointment to see me during my office hours?  When should you first come to my office?  In my classes, there are two traditional times for students to come to my office – what are they?

  9.  How often should you check your email for messages from me?

  10.  How many hourly tests will be given this semester?  

  11.  When are those hourly tests? 

  12.  What should you do if you are entitled to extra time on an examination? 

  13.  How much time will you be given on each of the three “hourly” exams?  On the final exam?

  14.  What is the class grading scale?  Typically, how many students make an A or a B in this class?

  15.  Do I curve our tests?

  16.  Your final grade is determined based on a weighted system.  How many points is each of the hourly tests worth?  How many points is the final exam worth?  How many points are the three writing assignments worth?

  17.  When is the first writing assignment due?   What is the key to the writing assignment?

  18.  On the Internet and lots of other places, you can probably find/buy copies of my old exams.  Are you allowed to do that?  If you break that rule, what happens?

  19.  What is my rule about phones in class?

  20.  What is my rule about computers in class?

  21.  What is my rule about talking in class?

  22.  What is my rule about getting up and walking out of class during class? 

  23.  There are two ways to get extra credit in this class.  What are they?

  24.  I try to post everything we do on Blackboard (our learning management system).  Can you find this course on Blackboard?

  25.   We will start the semester with Chapter 13 and spend about 3 weeks on it.  How is our coverage of Chapter 13 different from all the rest of the semester?

  26.  We will eventually use a lot of “practice problems.”  What are they and how do they work?

  27.  I sent you a document with quotes from past students about How to Make an A in my class.  What did you learn from that document?  What do I expect you to do with that document?

  28.  What is my number one piece of advice about how to do well in this class? 

  29.  What is my number two piece of advice about how to do well in this class?

  30.  What is my number three piece of advice about how to do well in this class? 

  31.  What is the overall goal of this class?