Suggestion 118. Provide self-instructional materials

IF YOU WANT TO:

• Give personal help to students having difficulty in the course

• Help students early in the course

• Help develop "prerequisite" skills in students who do not have them

Providing self-instructional materials or "modules" which include basic principles and skills needed to succeed in your course.

A faculty member in biochemistry hired a graduate student to develop computer-assisted instructional units for review and drill by students whose backgrounds in science and math were weak. "I give a short diagnostic test at the beginning of the course to help identify students who will need this kind of review in order to keep up with the course," he explains.

A physics professor also gives students a review module covering basic algebra during the first week of class. "Students who are unable to pass a quiz after reviewing this unit are not allowed to continue in the course," he says, "because there is no way they could succeed without an understanding of the fundamentals of algebra." Such students are then advised to make use of the Student Learning Center or to take an algebra review course before enrolling in introductory physics.

Limitations on Use of Suggestion

  Discipline:  Sciences primarily
Course Level:  Undergraduate
 Course Size:  None
        Mode:  None

Copyright 1983 by the Regents of the University of California

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