ABSTRACT
Welcome to a conversation about creating a new course. This conversation, although admittedly singular, invites your engagement and participation through reading, reflecting, and experimenting with the ideas posed. Our conversation takes us to a variety of locations. We start with considering how courses might be “new,” and the context and people for the course. We will wrestle with explaining our roles, strengths, and expectations as teachers; teacher and student goals for a course; researching course material; designing a course; and creating a course syllabus. Designing a new course might seem like an incredibly large task that is too often constrained by limited preparation time (Svinicki, 1990–1991). It is also a creative task! The ideas and examples offered in this conversation are designed to help make the development of a new course a manageable, energizing, and even enjoyable task.
