The college could provide a document which has all the styles embedded in a style guide so it's relatively simple to update all existing files.
It would need to include
- a header with 'Moore College' and the subject name on two lines justified to the left, and the lecturer's name and year on the top right on two lines in size 10 font.
- The footer would contain a single number centred.
- Set reading would be contained in a box at the beginning of the document. Any 'Further Reading' would be in smaller italisised font at the end of the lecture notes.
- Each lecture needs to be clearly numbered. Bigger sections would be marked by a centred larger font, possibly in bold. Sub-headings could be aligned to the left but clearly marked.
- All paragraphs and sections would need a single line between them.
- A font would be specified for all English writing but preferably would have the option to work with Hebrew and Greek. However, Hebrew and Greek should be up to the discretion of the lecturer, as not all of the markings of a language are easily displayed with a font.
- All Hebrew and Greek (and Aramaic for those playing at home) would need to be in Unicode (I think that's the fancy word for where you can copy and paste it in another document and it will keep the correct characters).
- The document type would be required for all lecture notes, both in .pdf and .docx (though I still prefer .doc I recognise times have changed.)
- Furthermore, just as students can only upload assignments with a specified file name, all lecture notes can only be uploaded with the filename '01_Title' and all supplementary files must similarly be attached to the particular lecture with which they come including '01-1_Title'
'Date, Lecture title, Lecturer, Set Readings.'
Any suggestions on the best font for lecture notes? Gentium, perhaps?
I concur!
ReplyDeleteI've ended up using my own in order to minimise my frustration :-/
Amen and Amen. The filename issue especially. It's such a pain having to sort through files from various lecturers, renaming them so that they are in order, and match the style used by other lecturers.
ReplyDeleteWe should sign a petition.
Do you think they should leave writing space for those rare few who print out the sheets and hand write their additions?
ReplyDeleteAlso, would PDFs be banned? What about for exegetical flowcharts?
"On a similar note, all subjects would come with a simple sheet explaining in appropriate columns
ReplyDelete'Date, Lecture title, Lecturer, Set Readings.'"
I think this suggestion probably has the most potential. Getting the faculty to update all of their lecture notes to follow a new system would be a major ask. But pulling together a decent semester overview shouldn't be all that much work. And once we've got that, keeping track of the logic of the LSS files ourselves wouldn't be all that difficult.
Brett Hall's idea could work:
ReplyDelete"Farm out the revising of existing material to a student committee, it'd be worth an academic year's worth of '30min/week' commitment. Then just make sure everything new that's written conforms to the guide."
at the very least they could write the filename on the board each lecture
ReplyDeleteWhen you say 'I am not being facetious', are you being facetious?
ReplyDeleteYou could all just take notes with paper and pen. Then the style would be as uniform as you like!
@Tom
ReplyDeleteSome lecturers prefer pdf which is why I suggested both .doc and .pdf.
I think some prefer pdf because it allows them
a. to keep formatting
b. so people can't misquote what they did and didn't provide.
However, providing a style guide would certainly overcome (a) and by providing both a pdf and doc would overcome b.
I think the clear exception to this rule is the Greek 1 and 2 pdf books and the NT/OT flowcharts. They are effectively providing an eTextbook, not lecture notes as such.
@Scott
ReplyDeleteOr is it better to keep the movement underground until it breaks loose into society?
If you see Bretto's FB comment quoted above by Tom, I would be happy to organise/delegate a day in late January for updating existing files to an agreed style guide, with no content modification, which could simply be emailed back to the lecturers for their approval and uploading.
@Tom
ReplyDeleteAs for 'leaving space' a .doc file is sufficient for people to modify if they want extra room. Hitting spacebar a few times is far less arduous than re-stylising oftentimes 30+ documents per subject per semester.
@Michael
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your first question; I'm still not really sure what facetious means. However I did recognise that some people's first reaction to me suggesting lecture notes should have a style guide, might be that this is the College equivalent of 'teachers should wear uniforms if the kids have to' routine.
I'm sensing just below the surface that you think we're being a bit prissy about the whole thing. Perhaps you're right. Though I would suggest educational principles would probably favour me.
The other thing is that any arguments against standardising lecture note style could equally be applied to essay style guides. Now don't hear me argusing AGAINST strict essay style. I think they're both equally necessary.
At present, a good proportion of the student body are all spending time renaming, and attempting to organise the same study notes. I am quite serious in highlighting that a standard applied before posting on the subject forum would be a far superior time benefit.
I have to say I don't really get the difficulty. Don't you just create a folder for each subject and topic and download whatever into it? That's what I do in downloading material from the LSS and in organising material to go onto it. What a waste of time to sit there renaming everything - although I am probably not understanding what you mean.
ReplyDeleteFreedom for lecturers to format differently is assumed I think because we assume that lecturers will teach somewhat differently from one another, and that lecture notes will serve different purposes in each classroom. Student requirements for formatting etc change constantly: so, I have had delegations urging pdf, doc, docx, 'love your formatting', 'hate your formatting', 'can you put it up in ipad friendly format' etc etc. There's also lecturer incompetence at computers to factor in.
I can't help feeling that this is a response to my 'hey, use a serif font in your essays'. Are you mistaking perhaps the spirit in which that tip is offered? There is no requirement or command to use any sort of font, nor is anyone downgraded for using the wrong sort. I am just hinting that it is rather well established that fonts make a subconscious statement about the level of work - I followed this practice as a student.
No, I had no idea you'd posted on fonts until I commented late this evening. A great suggestion, might I add, and I'm almost disappointed that you have let the whole world know about a personal affection I also have for a serif font in my essays.
ReplyDeleteThe post came about because I'd finally had the courage this afternoon during some frustrating OT study to email Paul W and ask if there was a particular reason that in every document he posted this year (all pdf so no opportunity to change) had absolutely no blank lines, either before new sections or after paragraphs. It was basically a page full of text, which when single spaced I'm sure you can appreciate is difficult to read. Paul replied quickly with a 'I'm more than happy to change, it was a hangover from the "save paper" days'.
I think you've both misunderstood and yet also made my point.
I'm not sure if you read all the comments above, but I even suggested if this was something college thought could assist students in their learning then I would happily organise for a group of students to over summer update any old files to a common format.
The problem with just downloading all files into a file, is having any idea wh you're up to at any one time. Take for example term 4 of church history. This is the term 4 box as it currently appears and which was released in one go at the start of term.
For a subject which is so dependent upon
# Elizabethan Chronology Word document
# John Jewel"s Apology Word document
# 11. Mary: Roman Catholic Reaction Word document
# 1552 Holy Communion Reading Guide Word document
# 13. Elizabeth: The Settlement Word document
# 13. Elizabeth: The Settlement.pdf PDF document
# 14. Elizabeth: Roman Catholicism as threat.pdf PDF document
# 14. Elizabeth: Roman Catholicism as threat Word document
# Chronology of Elizabethan England.pdf PDF document
# Chronology of Elizabethan England Word document
# 15. Elizabeth: Puritans as Threat Word document
# 15. Elizabeth: Puritans as Threat.pdf PDF document
# 16. Elizabeth: Key Theologians Word document
# 16. Elizabeth: Key Theologians.pdf PDF document
# Elizabeth: Jewel, Apologie, Reading Guide Word document
# Elizabeth: Jewel, Apologie, Reading Guide.pdf PDF document
# The Scottish Reformation Word document
# The First Two Stuart Kings Word document
# Documents - First Two Stuart Kings Word document
# The English Civil War Word document
# Sibbes - The Bruised Reed Word document
# Richard Baxter Word document
# Katherine Zell Word document
# Puritanism - Elizabethan England Word document
# Restoration/Glorious Revolution Word document
# John Bunyan Word document
# 1. Elizabethan Settlement MPJ file
# 1. Elizabethan Settlement MPJ PDF document
# 2. Roman Catholicism under Elizabeth MPJ file
# 2. Roman Catholicism under Elizabeth MPJ PDF document
# 2. Roman Catholicism under Elizabeth MPJ PDF document
# 3. 'Puritans' under Elizabeth MPJ file
# 3. 'Puritans' under Elizabeth MPJ PDF document
# 4. Elizabethan Theologians MPJ PDF document
# 4. Elizabethan Theologians MPJ file
# Jewel questions
What lecture order is this? What are the numbers? Which week are we up to? What about the unnumbered files in the middle? Plus, half of the files open with a Wingdings font. Meanwhile, I've missed the first ten minutes of the lecture.
My experience of students is they like to study things in order, and so currently a large proportion of people are each individually sitting there doing the "waste of time" as you call it of re-numbering all their lecture notes so that they don't need to open 12 documents at a time to find the one they're looking for.
Now as for you making my point for me, I think your observation that you get lots of complaints/praise and different requests regarding handouts reflects the confusion surrounding this. There is absolutely no consistency in format, document type, etc. Wouldn't you prefer someone else to think about these things instead of you needing to hear opposing views from students?
ReplyDeleteIt is effectively the same as when you're marking essays, you don't want 120 different named files with different styles, different word spacing. Yet this is effectively what students get in the variety of lecture notes.
As for different lecturing styles, they certainly exist. However, most handouts look pretty much the same, except for the amount of content - whether full text, or simple headings. Nothing I've said above would be unadaptable to most existing lecture notes.
Yeah, so when I said I wasn't being facetious, I really am not. I have a legitimate observation that as the college markers appreciate consistency in the presentation of assignments, so students would appreciate more consistency in the way lecture notes were presented. If this process was standardised I think in the end this would benefit everyone.
The two biggest complaints I hear from students about an otherwise very positive experience of college is firstly on finding it difficult to wade through notes on the LSS to find which lecture they're up to, and secondly the lack of a simple reading plan for set texts given at the start of semester, and which lecture it corresponds to, in order that more time can be spent reading, and less time spent finding what on earth I'm meant to be reading.
Basically, the only reading I completed this year were yours for Doctrine, and NT, because in the limited time I had these were the easiest to locate, and they effectively followed my suggestion above of a separate, easy to read, detailed lecture schedule.
+1.
ReplyDeleteIzaac for head of lecture notes style committee.
I'm prepared to put in a day's work in Late Jan/early Feb to help with this. Also happy to help create a word .dot template with easily replaceable fields for general use (particularly for less computer savvy lecturers)
@Dave
ReplyDeleteI hope this happens.
@Michael
Thanks for following up on this post with me privately. Looking forward to chatting more at college.
Now on a completely different note, blogger shortened the URL of my post to be 'http://izaacta.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-think-lecturers-should-have-style.html'
ReplyDeleteIt's true. But that's another post!