Page 265 - Making Instruction Work

chap 21 3/11/97 5:18 PM Page 251

21

Course Improvement

Situation: You want to locate opportunities for improv-
ing your existing instruction and to discover which
changes will give the most benefit for the least effort.

A course is effective to the degree that it accomplishes what it
sets out to accomplish. It is efficient to the degree it accom-
plishes its purpose with the least motion (time, effort, money).
Since nothing is perfect, everything can be improved, including
instruction. But just because instruction can be improved is
not enough reason to go to expensive lengths to do so. If the
instruction is doing what it is supposed to do, if it is doing so
without undue cost, and if it is sending students away with
more rather than less interest in the subject, it should be
considered successful. Although you should make improve-
ments when the need or opportunity arises, and you should
make efforts to detect opportunities for improvement, a
constant (and usually expensive) hunt for perfection is not a
cost-effective use of your time.
Having said that, let’s consider course improvement. This is
something you do all the time. You do it when you refine your