Changes in Course Content: My teaching has been affected by developments in the field. When I taught databases for the first time over twenty years ago, I started by teaching how to use a network database management system. After a reasonable implementation of the relational model became available, I switched to using a relational database management system. Today, my only mention of the network data model is in the context of issues concerning data in legacy systems.
The database management course has continued to evolve. Originally, I taught database support for online transaction processing. Over the years, I added material on supporting online analytical processing and data warehouses. More recently, I added knowledge management to the course. Sometimes older material is deleted and sometimes I search for more efficient ways to cover it in less time.
I have made similar changes in every course I teach to keep the content up to date.
Changes in Course Delivery: I also practice continuous improvement in my teaching. Every semester I think about what has gone well in the previous year and what ought to go better. I try new things. When they work, I keep them. When they fail, I sometimes drop them and sometimes try them in a new way. For example, when I first used cases, students didn't prepare. In a subsequent semester, part of the grade was based upon class participation and students prepared for class. Another example is seven years ago when I assigned term papers in an undergraduate class. Students did all of their research using web search engines, and many of their sources were less than authoritative. The next time I taught the class, I asked our business reference librarian to come to class to explain how to use LEXIS/NEXIS, the ACM Digital Library, and ABI/INFORM. The students used better sources. Finally, in any course where hands-on computer skills are part of the course objectives, I have found that requiring and grading numerous out of class assignments significantly improves student learning as measured by exam performance. I have also found that I have to force myself to grade carefully by giving myself a checklist of specific items to grade in a student assignment. Click here to see an example of such a checklist. The checklist forces me to be consistent among students and provides students with a specific feedback. Although I use the web extensively in publishing course material to students, I print these grading guidelines and hand them back to students at the beginning of class.
Back to Roger Pick's Teaching Portfolio
Contact me at pick@acm.org; or Bloch Business School, University of Missouri - Kansas City, 5110 Cherry Street, Kansas City, MO, 64110-2499 US; or (816) 235-2336.Last Updated: 11 July 2007