I've just finished a massive syllabus rewrite. Trust me, it's just as much fun as it sounds. Parts of it are great fun; others, not so much. The whole process has been dominated by a single question: Do I revise this, reboot this, or recreate this?
These are three different approaches for me.
- Revision is simply changing a few things to make them flow better with the overall course, which stays the same. Revision isn't very deep.
- Rebooting is going back to a much simpler course structure and reworking a few things from scratch. It means ditching a part of the course (several major assignments, or the schedule). This is a step deeper, and often results in a course with significant differences.
- Recreating is a much larger process, starting from a clean slate and beginning anew (core concepts, objectives, texts...the works.) The resulting course will likely look nothing like the original.
This is a perennial question for me. I always have a list of things I liked for the course, stuff I would tweak, and things I want to change dramatically. Sometimes the question is simple. Sometimes a majority of the stuff is good and there are a few things I would like to tweak. Other times the course is such a disaster that I want to start all over again.
Most of the time, however, this is not so simple. When do tweaks and revisions pile up enough a reboot is in order? When is rebooting simply pushing the inevitable failure of the course structure back another semester?
Part of what has driven this question to preoccupy me is the nature of the material. Specifically the Perspectives text (I don’t' have the full title here with me...it's somewhere on this blog, I'm sure.)
for our Family Life Ministry course . Should the local church revise, beboot, or recreate the current approach to ministry in the family?
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