Standard 6
Instructional Materials
Though simple on the face of it, ensuring that instructional materials help students master their learning outcomes involves removing extraneous material, intentionally observing for areas where students struggle and could use supplements, and ensuring that materials are appropriate to the course level within your program.
Checklist Items
6A - Instructional materials are aligned to course goals and student learning outcomes.
Focusing course materials on achieving the goals for the course helps make sure that the course design is focused on successfully achieving the goals while at the same time reduces distractions and confusion for students.
Resources
- Quality Matters 4.1 – “The instructional materials contribute to the achievement of the stated learning objectives or competencies.”
- Quality Matters 4.2 – “The relationship between the use of instructional materials in the course and completing learning activities is clearly explained.”
- CETLOE Resources – Alignment
- CETLOE Resources – Backward Design
6B - Instructional materials are up-to-date.
Old materials run the risk of being couched in outdated context as well as being incorrect with current understandings. More importantly, as course outcomes expose areas with which students struggle, materials should be updated to address these issues ensuring all students are helped by your materials.
Resources
- Quality Matters 4.4 – “The instructional materials represent up-to-date theory and practice in the discipline.”
6C - Instructional materials are appropriate at the course level.
Mastery of most concepts does not happen upon first encounter with the concept. As such, materials should serve an introductory, reinforcing, or mastery level function appropriate to the course across a program. Working with fellow program faculty can help to ensure this is the case.
6D - Source citations, copyright information, and sharing permissions are included for instructional materials, when applicable.
Where stock photography or youtube videos or even magazine articles shared in class may not need to follow APA guidelines for giving appropriate citation, we all model the best behavior in regards to academic integrity by including citation intentionally on all of our course materials.
Resources
- OSCQR #33 – “Course materials and resources include copyright and licensing status, clearly stating permission to share where applicable.”
- Quality Matters 4.3 – “The course models the academic integrity expected of learners by providing both source references and permissions for use of instructional materials.”
- GSU Library – Distributing Course Materials Online
- USG Copyright Policy and Fair Use Guidelines
6E - Instructional materials explicitly address common or especially problematic misconceptions.
Instructional materials explicitly address common or especially problematic misconceptions and provide analogies, examples, and non-examples to help students draw accurate connections and correctly apply new information.
Every subject matter has areas that are hard for students to grasp. But not grasping these concepts may prevent future progress in the subject. For these areas, intentional course design should address the problems with all tools possible to ensure student success.
recommendations
R - 6.1
No-cost or low-cost instructional materials are used in the course, when high-quality options are available.
Data suggests that most students not only do not purchase textbooks, but also are unable to afford the high costs that come along with modern textbooks. This problem widens existing social disparities as well as shining a light on how much emphasis is placed on third-party providers of educational material. Lowering the cost of instructional materials through curating no-cost materials in conjunction with the use of Open Educational Resources can ensure access to materials, increasing exposure to content and the ability to practice on a consistent basis.
Resources
- OSCQR #32 – “Where available, Open Educational Resources, free, or low cost materials are used.”
R - 6.2
A variety of instructional materials are created or selected, especially for key concepts, allowing for differentiation and interaction via multiple modalities.
We know that rehearsal is required to master a concept, but this normally requires rehearsal in a way that introduces some form of novelty to generalize the learning as well as stop the boredom that can come with repetition. Creating or selecting materials of a variety of modalities will help to ensure that students increase their rehearsal in a more effective way.
Resources
- Quality Matters 4.5 – “A variety of instructional materials is used in the course.”
R - 6.3
A clear and simple narrative guides the design, selection, organization, and presentation of course content.
We respond to simple narrative structures across our lives. From our wake-up routines to how we consistently tell stories about our lives to our loved ones and colleagues, we maintain these structures because they help us to anticipate what has happened and what we can expect to be next. This helps encourage metacognitive processes that make us better learners. Harnessing this same power in our course design likewise helps our students to better anticipate what is coming next and to more easily recall what they learned earlier in the course.
Resources
- CETLOE Resources – Course Narratives
- CETLOE Resources – Threading a Narrative through a Course
Examples
- http://sites.gsu.edu/cetloe/2021/03/04/whats-your-story/
R - 6.4
Multimedia are aligned with pedagogical aims.
We all know that a good story can enliven an otherwise stagnant concept within a course, provided that the material aligns with the subject in a straight-forward way. All too often media choices can take our students into pathways that do not align with our desired student outcomes.
Resources
- Quality Matters 4.1 – “The instructional materials contribute to the achievement of the stated learning objectives or competencies.”
R - 6.5
Multimedia contribute to the simplicity and elegance of content delivery and the course experience.
Students love videos. However, not all videos will create an effective learning experience. For information dense materials, the simple act of locating a specific piece of information is hindered through the use of video. As such, it is recommended to use the best media approach to different types of content – timelines for chronological information, flashcards for definitions, annotated process flows for change, and video for interpretive, affective, and personal stories.
R - 6.6
Points of view, characters, and subjects are representative of GSU’s rich diversity, including but not limited to race, gender, culture, age, campus, etc.
The importance of the many people, perspectives, and backgrounds that contribute to our pool of knowledge cannot be overstated. As such, we should make all efforts to increase the representation in our course materials of the ways that our diversity is an asset, not a liability or something to be left out of the main discourses of our subject. This asset-based approach lends itself to growth mindset increases in normally marginalized communities,and also allows us to collectively confront areas in our subject that do not fully reflect our cultural diversity.
Resources
R - 6.7
The diversity of thought and background among individuals who have contributed to the field is recognized.
One way to increase the diversity of course materials is to include the diversity that was involved in the creation and development of the field. Including the history of a field in the process of learning it helps to remind students that our future depends on more work, and also reminds students that our past is as flawed as the people who strived for improvements. This personalization of knowledge can increase engagement and help students see that they can contribute as well.
Resources
R - 6.8
Where relevant, the emergence of dominant paradigms or norms is explained, especially as such formation relates to power asymmetries among different groups.
We would like to believe that the power struggles within our fields are resolved with the best solution, not because of the politics at play. However, this clearly cannot always be the case, and addressing these moments in our field’s development is an important part of reminding students of the many factors that go into establishing a school of thought in any discipline. Recognizing the power structures inherent in any cultural enterprise helps students understand that our disciplines are reflective in ways where they are open to critique and subject to change not just at the content level, but also the structural level. This self-reflection lets students know that there is a place in our disciplines for all faces, not just the dominant faces of the past.
