Planning Your Course

Short Term 2024 is April 29 – May 22!

We are excited to welcome you back to campus to teach for Short Term! We know you are working hard to build a rich, valuable class for your students, and they will be so lucky to have the opportunity to learn from you and build life-long skills and knowledge about work and career. They have applied for permission to take your course, so they realize they are about to step into a very special learning experience. Thank you for leading them on this journey.

Support and Resources for Practitioners

Just like coming to campus for the first time as a student (just a few years ago), or showing up the first day for any job or role, we know there are some nerves or uncertainty about how things work, what will be expected, will the “kids” like you and sit with you in the cafeteria (okay, maybe some of us have outgrown that uncertainty?) Rest assured that Marianne and the Center for Purposeful Work team, partners in the Dean of Faculty’s office, and many others on campus are here to support you.

Bates Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning

We are thrilled, and SO fortunate, to have the Bates Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning on campus. The Center supports faculty and staff educators through ongoing professional development and is very excited to support YOU, Practitioners-in-Residence, make the most of your time with Bates students to create a successful course, high impact hands-on experience for your students, not to mention fun and fulfillment for you in this extraordinary role as a Short Term teacher! There are many resources on their website, as well as contact information for the pedagogical experts at the Center. They are happy to help in your formation and planning, and we can connect you with them for an orientation chat if you wish before the term begins. In addition, they will be on hand during Short Term as well, meeting with us at our (optional) group lunches, as well as being available to personal consult whenever helpful.

Syllabus Planning

I know you are all in the process of finalizing your course schedule, or syllabus. Your syllabus is your students’ roadmap for the course. It should provide them a picture of what to expect in the course, from learning goals to class activities, norms and values, to your expectations for their performance. There’s no shortage of tips to read on this topic. Here are some excellent resources from the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning about syllabus development: 

Syllabus component checklist

Do reach out if you’ve got questions. Your team of partners here on campus – in the Center for Purposeful Work, the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning, and the Office of the Dean of Faculty – are very interested and willing to help with syllabus and course development.

Please send a draft of your syllabus to Marianne by April 15. It doesn’t have to be done; just a draft.

Field Trips/Transportation

Field trips are a good way for students to experience the field you are teaching: the work environment, expert speakers, multiple job functions in a business (career petting zoo). If you have contacts in a ME/NH/MA company that would be interesting for the students to see, consider an outing to meet your contacts and expand the students’ network in the field. We can order a coach or bus for your class if you want to go on field trips. You can also encourage the students to travel to a nearby location on their own, depending on what you want them to get out of the experience. Students can be asked to carpool, and this has had mixed results, though virtually all positive, in past PTCs. Students can be reimbursed for mileage if they drive a group of classmates to a class activity (this turns out to be a lot of pizza money!). Some classes have walked to locations in Lewiston. We will accommodate for any students with mobility difficulties.

If you are planning a field trip, consider how long to be away from campus. Students will want to be back on campus for late afternoon/evening activities during Short Term, and some may be required to be back for sports practice starting at 4:00. You can feel comfortable requiring students to leave early in the morning for a field trip.

If you are away all day, consider how students will get food. Bates Dining can pack bag lunches for you and the students, or your class budget may be able to cover lunch expenses, depending on how many activities you are planning with extra costs. You should not plan for students to buy themselves lunch without reimbursing them. You might also consider having a caterer deliver lunch to your field trip or meeting site, for something a bit more convenient and special than the Bates bag lunches.

Guest Speakers

Guests are another nice addition to your course, to expose students to a greater variety of professionals in your field, and to increase the students’ contacts for future networking. Bates classrooms have the technology built in to Skype or Zoom conference in a speaker or panel, and if yours is not ideal, Marianne can find a classroom or meeting room to schedule for you when you need. Of course, many people will be happy to come to campus as a guest in your class, especially if they are alumni with fond Short Term memories.

We can certainly offer a stipend to your guest speaker – that’s part of what your class budget is for, and the amount is up to you. You know your speakers and industry best, and we have found that this varies widely depending on your relationship to them, or theirs to Bates (alumni or parents typically speak for free), and norms for the industry. Government employees typically can’t accept a stipend, but we can sometimes offer a thank-you gift (Bates bookstore purchase, perhaps).

If you would like to offer a stipend:

• ask your guest speaker to complete a W-9 (and submit it online)
• let Marianne know the stipend amount

The Center for Purposeful Work team will submit a PTC PaymentRequestForm.

Depending on the speaker and their schedule, there may be additional activities they could do on campus while they’re here, such as meeting with other classes, faculty or students, or leading a round table. Marianne can help coordinate this type of visit plan.

To invite guest speakers to campus, Purposeful Work can arrange travel through our local travel agency if that’s their preference, though often it’s more convenient for them to control their own travel schedule and make the reservations, and then get reimbursed. Accommodations: We have a nice guest house on campus with 5 guest rooms, which I prefer to use if there’s availability. If that’s full, there is a handful of convenient hotels in town. The Center for Purposeful Work can make those reservations and take care of the bill directly. (Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Residence Inn)

If transportation is needed from a train, bus, or plane:
Airport: it’s often cheaper and more convenient to rent a car at the airport if they drive. We have an account with Enterprise and can make those arrangements.
Bus/Train: There are bus stations in Lewiston and Auburn from Boston and Portland. The train comes in to Portland Transportation Center (as do some of the buses).
Local: There is Uber in Lewiston/Auburn – only a few cars – but it’s possible to get around. We have found that early morning trips to the airport are best done via taxi, however, as the few Uber drivers aren’t always available early morning.

Required Readings, Scanning, Copying

Marianne’s office can help upload any articles, chapters, videos, or other course materials to your Lyceum page for easy access by your students. Please let Marianne know by April 20 where to find those sources and she will add them to your Lyceum page. Your assigned librarian to help you with researching sources for readings, or for guiding your students about finding resources.

How much reading and homework do I assign?

The goal of the Short Term is that students take a deep dive into the one academic course they are taking these 3.5 weeks. We want them to work hard enough to get an idea of the professional world. Past PTC students have considered the work load more intense than a typical Short Term, but have been eager and happy to do that increased work for these practicum courses. Your course proposal will include a list of possible readings, but you do not specify actual assignments until you create the course syllabus. Take a look at the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning’s Course Workload Estimator and as always, let Marianne know if you have questions.

Grading and Assessing Students

Your course proposal will include measures by which you will assess your students, including attendance, participation, and achievement of learning goals, for example. Grading is on the Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory (S/U) scale. You will devise a final project and other assignments, and we are happy to help with the design of those assignments if desired. In your syllabus, you should include some guidelines of what you expect for attendance, participation, and projects or end-product. If a student is at risk of receiving a “U” grade, it is a good idea to let them know and be in conversation with them. Marianne will share with you some suggested language about attendance and participation for your consideration to insert into your syllabus.

Office Hours

Some of your students will want time to talk with you outside of class, whether to ask course-related questions or seek other advice. How you do this is completely up to you. You may find it easiest to be available before or after class on a given day(s) each week or you can schedule a regular hour – at the Den, in the library, or in your office* – whatever suits you. Students can also “take you to lunch/breakfast” in Commons at no charge, so that’s another good alternative.  You can even have virtual office hours if you’d prefer.

*If you do wish to have a physical office on campus during Short Term, we may be able to accommodate. Be sure to let Marianne know if you’re interested.

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Class Atmosphere

Attendance

Strongly encourage your students to be present for class. This is an experiential course, and it can’t be experienced by reading and going over someone else’s class notes. It’s okay to be strict about your attendance policy.

Take attendance each class meeting. You can vary the way you do this: read names, have students say their names and one thing about themselves (or the reading, their goals, etc.), pass around a sign-in sheet, pass around a sheet for drawing a doodle and signing, etc. If a student misses class, send them a note to make sure everything is okay. Ask to meet with them. They should expect to be in touch with you about their attendance and about making up the work, and you should introduce this norm on the first day – verbally in class as well as in print on your syllabus. Let Marianne know as soon 

Sample language for your syllabus:

Attendance policy: Short Term is Short.  If you miss a class it’s like missing a week.  We’ll be covering lots of exciting material, sometimes off site.  Not attending is perilous to the progress of the class and your final project. A single missed class, while not advised, is permissible. Two missed classes require an explanation, a quick meeting with me, and possibly a formal dean’s excuse. Three missed classes will result in an unsatisfactory grade.

The First Day: Setting the tone

The Practitioner-Taught Course program is an intense academic and professional experience, by design. It’s a program for which more students apply than we have seats for in your classes, and you should expect your students to commit to working hard to maximize their time with you. Consider having a conversation on the first day of classes about your goals for them and their experience, and how part of what they should take away from the course is an idea of what a “day in the life” of this career is. They should feel the fast pace, need to deliver, and responsibility to others in their class/on their team, just as they will in the professional world. Students in past Practitioner-Taught Courses have reflected that the experience was more intense than other Short Term Courses, but that level of intensity was “just right” – so know that they are ready to perform for you, and they should be expected to do so. As with any experience, they will get out of it what they put in, and this course is a one-time opportunity for them!

On the first day of class, have a conversation about classroom policies, atmosphere, learning goals, etc. Here is some good first-day advice from Carnegie Mellon.

On Monday and Tuesday of the first week of classes, if you’d like to join Marianne and colleagues for dinner in Commons following class to debrief, get feedback, brainstorm, or just to be social, we will be there! And we can schedule additional dinners in Commons with you all if anyone is interested. Having a sounding board for teaching best practices as you go through the term is helpful.

Active Learning Environment

One of the special aspects of the Purposeful Work practitioner-taught courses is their practical, hands-on approach to experiencing the curriculum of the course. Students today are much more receptive to interaction during class periods than they are to listening to lectures. Lectures are arguably an efficient way to relay fundamental information, but try to break up the delivery into 20 minute chunks, interspersed with activity. To avoid losing your students in too long a period of passively listening to lecture, you can include a wide variety of Active Learning techniques, many of which are highlighted in this article, to help them absorb and respond to what they hear. Think of your ideal teaching approach not as “sage on the stage” but rather “guide on the side.”

In addition, because you are teaching a class during Short Term, your class periods will be longer than a typical 55- or 80-minute class session. Remember to build breaks into your lesson plan, for yourself and your students!

Resources

Lyceum: Your (optional*) Course Website

Lyceum is Bates’ online course management system. Found at lyceum.bates.edu, it provides you and your students a centralized and secure web page for collaboration. The default structure of your course page is weekly sections, so you can add assignments, readings, videos, to the appropriate week if desired. Some of the many features of Lyceum are: Content distribution, Discussion Board, Online Quizzes and Grade tracking, Chat Rooms, Syllabus & Class Information, Custom Web, Resources & Information, Class Calendar, and Assignment Drop Box. It’s likely you won’t use most of these features of Lyceum, but students are accustomed to using Lyceum with their classes, so you can feel free to use as much or as little as makes sense for your course. *In fact, some past practitioners have decided to use a different  platform for their courses, such as Google Groups, either so students would have access to their work after they graduated, or because using a different platform was good training for their particular practicum topic and/or career field.

See these Lyceum tutorials on the library website to help you acclimate yourself. Marianne or the Classroom Technology staff can help you navigate the system as well. The features you will most likely use are uploading files for reading assignments, inserting text onto the class page to instruct or inform your students about a class activity, and retrieving assignments if you have your students submit them electronically through Lyceum. Some past practitioners have also found journal submission and forums to be useful, but what you choose to use will depend on your own course. Rest assured we can help you tailor your page as much or as little as you wish.

Technology in the Classroom

Bates classrooms are equipped with technology to project a computer, hook up your laptop, access the internet, and teleconference. Each classroom has a podium control panel on which you can ask for help (most important button!), control the projector, screen, sound, internet, and input. Before your first class begins, you will get instruction and orientation for the classroom controls.