An instructor manual provides guidance to instructor users that includes descriptions of what is in the shared curriculum, how and why it is designed in a particular way, and where instructors need to design, develop, and insert themselves into the course. Good instructor manuals develop over time. Think of this as a living document that will grow and change as you learn from instructor users who will be teaching the courses you design. To start, develop a manual that includes the three foundational components:
- Introduction with philosophy of shared materials
- An explanation of the course map
- Instructor presence and personalisation.
Component 1: Introduction with Philosophy of Shared Materials
Introducing the shared materials allows you to share your reasoning and experience in designing and delivering the shared curriculum. It’s useful to include the “why” behind the shared curriculum:
- What problem does this shared curriculum solve?
- What are the guiding principles or pedagogical commitments?
- What is the balance between standardisation and flexibility (how much can they change)?
- What do you want instructors to keep consistent and why it is important to do so?
How to use the shared curriculum:
- Is the shared curriculum meant to be a template, a framework, or a complete course?
- What level of adaptation is expected vs. optional?
- How much time should they expect to spend customizing (this might be a range and is dependent on the questions you’ve answered so far)?
Your relationship to the instructor users:
- Who are you? Are you a colleague sharing materials? An expert providing best practices? Something else?
- Signal respect for the adopting instructor’s autonomy and expertise.
- Invite feedback and participation in iterative revision.
Component 2: Explain the Course Map
Part two of an instructor manual should be dedicated to explaining the course map. Include a schedule listing the pre-built content, readings, and activities along with a brief description of the instructional purpose for the work. Over time incorporate explicit connections to course and module level outcomes, common sticking points, as well as explanations of pedagogical choices. See Activity 1 for the construction of the course map.
Component 3: Instructor Presence and Personalisation
This will be your opportunity to articulate spaces within a course where an instructor is required, or desired to insert themselves. Identify places where the course can’t function without instructor input. For example, you may have included activity or assignment options for instructors. Example of Required Insertion Points (Non-Negotiable) might include:
- Location: specific module/section/assignment
- What’s Needed: clear description of what they need to decide, add, create
- Why They Must Do It: brief explanation of your reasoning
- Guidance: tips, examples, resources
- Time Estimate: a range of how long this might take the instructor to complete
| Example: First-Year Writing Course |
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| Location: Beginning of Module 2, Annotated Bibliography Assignment What’s Needed: You need to decide whether you will explicitly assign (i.e., offer students the opportunity) activities with Gen AI applications, or not. Based on your decision, you need to select one of the major assignment prompts and its associated rubric, as well as making choices between a few activity pairings throughout the module (i.e., ones that prompt Gen AI use or ones that don’t). Why They Must Do It: Since the incorporation of Gen AI applications into writing instruction is still relatively new and definitely contentious, we want to be sure instructors have a choice and can move forward with the course in a way that is philosophically aligned with their own beliefs. Guidance: First select the major assignment prompt you’ll be using. It is critical that you take a moment to reflect upon your decision and understand why you made it so that you can share thinking with your students (probably in the introduction to the module). You will need to make choices between specific activities found on: Due Date #1, Due Date #2, and Due Date #3. If you are an experienced instructor: you might decide to run the course with both options and let each individual student decide. Time Estimate: This will be the work you need to do to set up the entire module. We suggest you put aside 2-3 hours so that you can make your choices, skim all the activities, polish the module, and develop one or two introductory statements. |
Desired Insertion Points (Optional Opportunities):
List locations where the instructor may want to insert themselves based on their own teaching style, interests, etc. For example, instructors might provide a favorite reading assignment or share their own experience in learning or applying a course concept. These are opportunities for instructors to make choices to personalize. Here’s a format you might use:
- Location: specific module/section/assignment
- The Opportunity: clear description of what could be customized
- Why They Might Want To: what this allows instructors to do
- Time Estimate: a range of how long this should take
| Example: Introduction to Film Course |
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| Location: First homework assignment and class period for introducing major film elements: Week 3: Narrative Structure Week 6: Mise-en-Scene Week 9: Shot Composition Week 11: Editing Week 13: Sound The Opportunity: You are teaching this course because you have expertise and experience in film analysis. It is always helpful for students to have multiple examples to help learn these concepts. For each, prepare one to two alternative examples (i.e., not ones presented in the textbook or from films assigned in the course). You might write up an example, including screen shots or brief clips, as a reading or announcement in the course LMS. You might prepare an example to share as a brief lecture during a class period. Why They Might Want To: Although it takes additional time, students not only appreciate alternative examples, they will also feel your enthusiasm and expertise helping to engage them. Time Estimate: Depending on whether you have to make your own screenshots or film clips, preparing each example will likely take 30-60 minutes. If this is the first time you teach the course, you might not have the time and resources to develop examples for everything; however, once you’ve developed them you can continue to use them in future courses. |
Discussions
What's your experience with instructor manual? Do you think this approach could be helpful for your course?
Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.