My Unit Outline

So it's that time again, my semester is starting up and there is such an influx of paperwork, forms and handbooks for each and every unit that it's getting hard to keep my head about the paper pile.

One document that's towards the top of this pile is the unit outline. This document is 30+ pages of information solely on the unit you are taking and what the unit will entail; from study schedules to set readings. My university's policy is that every lecturer  must compile this document for their unit and include the following sections:

• Policies

• Resources

• Student support
• Attendance
• Unit description
• Learning outcomes
• Graduate attributes

• Student feedback

• Referencing
• Texts and resources

One of the most important sections included in the  unit outline is the assessment section. This section details our assignments for the semester, whether we have exams and what is expected of us for each assessment. This section also has detailed rubrics, grade weightings for each assignment, due dates and what attributes and outcomes are being assessed. 

This section of the document is literally the student's bible.  I have never done an assignment  without looking at this part of the outline. When discussing the task in class, I have the relevant  page open. If I ever have questions, I straight away turn to this section, and am happy to tell other classmates to do the same.

I also love that I have this information from the beginning of the semester. It means that from day 1, everybody is on the same page, everybody has the same level of access to information and what you do with this information is up to you.

With the frequency that I was using this document in semester 1 and considering that I was taking it to and from university, having the printed pages stapled together was just not working for me. It was hard to keep it open at a specific page, it was hard to keep the pages in order and it was incredibly difficult to keep the pages neat and prevent them becoming creased.

So, in an effort to combat these problems I was having, I took my unit outlines and a self-made title and tabs pages down to my local Officeworks.

Easily one of the best decisions I made all semester.

This solution fixed every problem I had had in the past. The binding kept it neat and together in the right order plus the nature of the binding allowed me to keep it open at any page without any fuss. Added bonus that the coloured tabs made it easy to separate each unit outline.

To date, I haven't seen anyone else in my course set up their unit outlines this way but I am curious to see how other people set up and use such an important document.

Did you have a document similar to my unit outline?

Did you have any problems with your document?

What was your solution?

Let me know and leave a comment below. Don't forget to follow the LMST blog!

Miss Tracy xx