Resources and Materials

Course materials, resources, and learning objectives align in a clear and direct way. The course materials and resources provide a reasonable base to achieve the stated learning objectives. As a reviewer, consider both the course and module/unit learning objectives in your assessment of this standard. (Note: At some institutions, Learning Objectives may be called Learning Outcomes.)

Decisions on this standard may be particularly difficult for individual reviewers whose expertise is not in the course discipline. Reviewers should consult with the SME (subject matter expert) and use common sense to determine if the content is appropriate enough to support the learning objectives.

The distribution of textbooks to reviewers is typically not done due to cost and logistical limitations. Many publishers provide web links to their textbooks reviewers may wish to consult these links.

Special situations: In some cases (check the Instructor Worksheet), the course objectives are institutionally mandated and the individual instructor does not have the authority to change them. For such cases, consider instead the module/unit-level objectives to assess and score Standard IV.1.

Alignment: This standard is included in Alignment. (Critical course components work together to ensure that students achieve the desired learning outcomes.

Breadth: The course materials are robust and create a rich learning environment for students. Instructors should provide meaningful content in a variety of ways, including the textbook, PowerPoint presentations, websites, lecture notes, outlines, and multimedia.

Depth: The level of detail in supporting materials is appropriate for the level of the course, and provides sufficient depth for students to achieve the learning objectives. For example, an upper-level capstone course should include significantly deeper materials than those required for an introductory general education course.

Currency: The materials represent up-to-date thinking and practice in the discipline. Some examples: an introductory computer course should include recent trends such as podcasting; an English writing course should discuss the purpose of Internet research; a chemistry course should include computerized models to demonstrate chemical structures and reactions.

Decisions on this standard may be particularly difficult for individual reviewers whose expertise is not in the course discipline. Reviewers should consult with the SME (subject matter expert) and use common sense to determine if the content is robust enough to support the course.

The distribution of textbooks to reviewers is typically not done due to cost and logistical limitations. Many publishers provide web links to their textbooks reviewers may wish to consult these links.

Students can easily determine the purpose of all content, materials, resources, technologies and instructional methods used in the course, and how each will help them achieve the stated learning objectives. It is clearly stated which materials are required and which are recommended resources.

For example, a course may be richly garnished with external links to Internet resources, but it is not clear whether those resources are for background information, additional personal enrichment, or required for an assignment.

Diverse instructional materials (books, manuals, videos, CD ROMs, computer software, etc.) are logically sequenced and related to one another. Reviewers should determine if such diversely formatted course materials are integrated well enough to be useful to the uninitiated student. The integration of these materials may be considered both physically and contextually. Students should easily understand how the materials relate to each other.

For example, a course requires students to use the following materials: a textbook divided into chapters, video segments ordered by topics, a website organized around specific skills, and a tutorial CD-ROM that has an opening menu consisting of practice quizzes, images, and audio examples. Consider whether it would be clear to students the order in which they should approach these varied materials, how each is related to the core content and learning objectives, and how they are related to one another.

Decisions on this standard may be particularly difficult for individual reviewers whose expertise is not in the course discipline. Reviewers should consult with the SME (subject matter expert) and use common sense to determine if the materials are appropriate to this course.

Materials created by the instructor and those borrowed from other sources are distinctly identified. Text, images, graphic materials, tables, videos, audios, websites, and other forms of multimedia are appropriately referenced according to the institutions copyright and intellectual property policy.

Courses that use an e-pack or course cartridge may provide a blanket statement acknowledging that a significant portion of the course materials came from the publisher rather than include individual citations for each instance of publisher materials.