Getting Started

To plan your course, think about what objectives you want your course to have and what kind of course culture or atmosphere you want to create in the classroom. Use that vision to guide what your course structure will look like. However, doing this is easier said than done.

Using a 15-week schedule, plan out how to deliver content and assess progress. We recommend outlining sample quizzes, homeworks, assignments, or assessments that will either help deliver knowledge or assess progress. Also, importantly, keep all content to 15 weeks—keeping finals week for other courses will keep these courses more fun, engaging, and effective.

The Key Question: What do I want students who take my course to leave with? (e.g. a specific skill/ability, a broader perspective, a deeper understanding)

• Ask yourself this as you being to plan your course. Throughout every aspect of the course, your answer should help guide you. From what assignments you'll give to how you'll assess progress, these should all be intentionally chosen because of what you want students to leave your course with.

Keep in mind:

• Know your audience. Define who you are targeting your course towards and plan your course around that audience. Be sure to include whether you think there should be any prior knowledge or prerequisites for taking the course.
• This is a one credit course. The unique thing about your student-led course is that it gives students an opportunity they seldom have while at Penn State: take a class they actually want to and learn about something they care about. Be sure that your course load is equal to a one credit course, not three.
• This will be a very small class size, but for good reason. The incredible advantage that you'll have over many instructors is a small class size. This means it'll be much easier to get to know your students, interact with them on a personal level, and do activities or projects that can't be completed in large lecture-based classes. Use this to your advantage during every class.

Some inspiration:

• What I wish I knew before teaching product design by Nathalyn Nunoo (Taught student-led product design course at Univ. of Maryland)
• **This fall, you can take an English class on Frank Ocean** by Berkeley News (Article featuring a student-led course about Frank Ocean's music at UC Berkeley)
• **How we used Design Thinking in a Student-led Classroom** by Ishaan Parikh (Launched student-led courses at Univ. of Maryland, gives great framework for thinking about course design) ← we'll be going through this process if your course idea gets approved, but it's good to think about now too :)

→ Next Step: Create Your Syllabus