Best Practices for Effective Course Linkings

Preparing the classes—plan at least a quarter in advance

• During planning for the next year's courses, check with your college Dean and the FYE Co-ordinator about the linking possibility to make sure the classes are not at the same time and the link will work.   Make sure that the person in charge of scheduling in your department notes the link in the schedule so that the registrar will make certain that the course which enrolls the lowest number of students is the one that is labled "must be concurrentlly enrolled in BLANK (the other course)."
• Collaborating faculty review together course syllabi and assignments and create and coordinate linkings
• On the syllabi, make clear that concurrent enrollment is mandatory
• Share one or more assignments for credit in each course, or develop different assignments from shared readings
• Agree on whether and how texts and/or readings will be shared
• Identify shared outcomes and objectives
• Expect success—with scaffolding, all students can meet high expectations
• Make all requirements specific—don’t expect students to understand generally held assumptions about academic work
• Construct assignments and activities that let students know their voices, experiences, and perspectives are valued
• Review how both faculty members will relate these courses to multiple learning styles and cultural differences
• To engage first-year students, plan to employ active rather than passive learning
• Make the value of active learning explicit in the syllabus to help students understand what may otherwise be perceived as an abdication of necessary classroom authority
• Plan to link students to important support services on campus and assist them in negotiating the physical and social geography of EOU
• Make processes and assignments explicit so that first-year students will understand what is expected of them and how they’ll be evaluated, as well as understand why we do what we do at the college level
• Create curriculum that helps students understand that each discipline offers a different way of knowing and employs different academic languages
• Be prepared and willing (and ready for students) to feel uncomfortable—developing new ways to think is painful
• Provide and discuss models for students showing the features of successful work (consider posting models on the course website)
• Allow enough time for multiple-draft assignments or other activities requiring coordination
• Allow enough lead-time for assignments so that students can seek tutor assistance or other support (e.g. a week for a rough draft)
• Share items on evaluation rubrics and/or make differences in evaluation rubrics clear (see sample rubrics)
• Share small-group guidelines (see sample guidelines)
• Share attendance policies
• Look ahead to the potential to share themes, a field trip, films and film-viewing guidelines, and other cultural or learning experiences
• Establish weekly “making connections” activities
• Discuss with the FYE Co-ordinator what assessment data to collect (see sample survey items)
• If funding is available, attend one another’s courses prior to the term link is planned

During the course

• Meet regularly to discuss student progress (ideally weekly and especially early on to provide time for intervention)
• Share student attendance data and collect other data as arranged
• Communicate any changes in texts, assignments, etc.
• Visit and/or present in one another’s courses (at least once)
• Make certain all assignments are available, either in hard copy or from an electronic (e.g., web) source
• Send all assignment descriptions, hand-outs, and other course communications to the other faculty member