Proper planning prevents poor performance - Jen Neville

One of the hallmarks of a successful educator is placing importance on planning the curriculum, classes, assessments, feedback and much more.

Jen focuses on such clarity with all her classes and what follows is her well established strategy. 

Students are provided with a 12 or 18 week plan (dependent on the needs of the home team) of what will be covered each week in class and when assessments will take place. All learners are encouraged to make personal notes each week (noting tasks to do/questions to ask/areas to work on, etc.) If they are absent, they can check what is covered on that date and access the corresponding week's folder on Moodle. 

Jen uses her own Moodle page that students are given a specific enrolment key for (so that their sections are restricted to their class only). There is generic material at the top of the course that all students can access and works well for both lecturer and learner. 

Jen also uses her own version of the weekly planner to reflect on tasks, make notes and such like. This all augments the preparation strategy in an efficient manner. 

Students are encouraged to duplicate/edit as they see fit to include tasks/assessments that relate to other classes (helping them to notice assessments/tasks that are close in date and to plan/manage workload).

This strategy is incredibly relevant, as Jen recognises that it helps students to take responsibility for their learning and use it at the beginning of most classes to recap on what's covered and to signpost learning.

Below is a screenshot of how this works in practice. Please click on the image to see the schedule and the clear coding strategy adopted. 

Another great example of active learning, where the student is at the centre.