Task 4: Author Course Front
Matter
Getting to Work
- Study the front matter from the two examples IT
Basics and Practicum
in Enterprise Security to decide which is most appropriate
for your audience.
- Edit the appropriate one (or a combination of the
two) to adapt it to your purposes.
- Note that the front matter of IT Basics is much
simpler but by the same token less comprehensive; the front matter
of Practicum
in Enterprise
Security may overwhelm the students.
If you chose IT Basics, consider making the following
changes:
- Spend a little more time in Welcome explaining the
learn-by-doing pedagogy of the course.
- Rename Orientation something more straightforward,
such as “How
to use this website.”
- Combine About Your Job and About the Company.
You may also want to adopt some material from Practicum
in Enterprise Security such as Succeeding in this Course, Getting Help,
and
Learning Resources insofar as they are appropriate for your
targeted students.
You may also want to include a course calendar.
If you chose Practicum in Enterprise Security, consider
making the following changes:
- Abridge the material of your particular audience
to make it, in total, a little less overwhelming as an initial
introduction.
- If you are not planning to make use of online collaborative
tools (e.g., a chat room, a shared document repository),
delete that
document from the front matter.
- After front matter has been edited to adapt it to
your student audience, review it in a group.
- Again, group members should play the role of students,
trying to react to the material as they believe
actual students might,
and
commenting on its comprehensibility and completeness.
- The author(s) should not provide explanations
to the group that the student will not receive.
(Note,
of course,
that
a compulsion to provide
an explanation suggests that it should be provided
to the student as well.)
- After receiving comments from the group, the
course author(s) will make final edits and
might consider
a final review
by one or more
trusted readers.
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Updated:
June 6, 2005
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