Student Assisted Course Design

Designing a new course is an important but time-consuming task for instructors. Traditionally, the instructor researches and develops the course, launches it as a pilot class, and receives student feedback upon completion of the course. Here I suggest student participation in the initial design and development of a new course. I initiated a course design class with a few motivated, upper division students to plan an advanced neuroscience course. The students assisted me in the new course preparation and offered valuable organizational and intellectual input prior to launching the new course. The students benefited by receiving a deeper study of the course topics, developing critical analysis skills, learning about course design, and by viewing the course from the instructor's perspective. Thus, I propose that including students in the design of new courses can assist instructors in course development and can provide a unique, in depth learning experience for students.