Thoughts on Teaching – Class-Testing a New Book – 6/4/2014

I am teaching this summer.  The summer sessions are always interesting at a community college, as we get a completely different crop of students.  While there are certainly a number of continuing students from the semesters, we also get a significant population of students who are attending a four-year university who take a class or two from us over the summer.  Thus, in many cases, we get students who would not normally be in a community college here over the summer.  I am not saying they are better students, although some certainly are, but they are definitely a completely different group of students.

This summer, I have decided to class test a new textbook.  So often, the textbook choice time catches all of us completely off guard.  We choose a new textbook every three years, and, so often, we start making that choice essentially at the last minute, relying on a quick glance at the book, a demo of the online material, and a visit from a rep.  Sometimes that is enough to get a sense of a book and to choose a good one, but it has also led to some duds over the years.  When approached this year about a new textbook from a different company than the one we are currently using, I decided to take it for a test drive to see how it might compare.  I will leave the names of the companies out of this, but they are all major publishing companies for college history textbooks.

I am not trying out the new textbook and company because I think that what they offer is superior, I am trying it out because I do not have any idea if they are superior.  We have used two different publisher’s books so far since I have been in my current teaching position, and I strongly disliked one and generally like the other.  When this third company approached me, I couldn’t help but be interested because I want to see what is out there.  I certainly have the time to go out and explore on my own, but if nothing is forcing me to, I probably won’t.  So, a class test forces me to delve into a different book and online system in more detail.  It also allows me to see how it actually works in practice.

I have launched on this with full openness to my students that this is a class test.  They have to know it anyway, as only this class has a different textbook than the others, as we use a common department textbook.  However, I also wanted to let them know, as I want their feedback as well.  It is just as important to me that the textbook and online system be manageable and accessible to them as it is that it be something that works for me.  It could be the best book in the world, but if they can’t deal with it, it is a failure.

The summer session started this week, and I have kept the students completely informed about the changes and expectations.  In my course outline, this is how I explained it to them:

Over the course of the summer session, we will cover the first 15 chapters of the textbook, which is what is included in Volume 1. This section is what I am class-testing this summer. Thus, all of the assignments in this section are new to me, just as they are new to you. I will be working through them along with you, and I will be evaluating them from my own historical perspective as well as looking at your own responses and performance in this section. We class-test material such as this both to ensure that we are using the best possible material for our classes at Weatherford College and to evaluate new content that we have not seen before.

What that means for you is that the material is presented to you in a way that explores all of the different options available from XX [censored to not show what book I am using]. What I have seen appears to be a manageable amount of material, but I will be evaluating as I go along in case what is here is too much. I am very happy to change if necessary, as this is all about testing out the material, both in quantity and quality. I also will be looking at how the material is assigned and accessed. It appears to be fairly obvious what material is due when, and it appears to be clear what assignments you need to do. If there is a problem, I will work with the material to try to figure out what is going on. As of right now, the material is organized by chapter, with the exception of the introductory assignments at the top.

Again, I want to be as open with them, so that I can evaluate the book and they can evaluate the book.  That way, when our choice comes up next spring, I can talk about not only the book we are currently using but another one as well.  We can all make an informed choice at that point and come up with the best possible outcome for our department and our students.