Re: [Phys-l] trimester course set-up

["Folkerts, Timothy J" <FolkertsT@bartonccc.edu>]

JD wrote:

> I would strongly argue that calendar-changes should be kept separate
> from syllabus-changes.  That is, if you want to change the calendar,
> just change the calendar from semester to trimester, keeping full-
> year courses as full-year courses.  Then as a *separate* exercise,
> on a course-by-course basis, if there is good reason to compress
> this-or-that course from three semsters to two, go ahead and do
> it.  Do it for well-founded course-related reasons.  Don't use a
> calendar change as a pretext for making an ill-founded change.

There are two very distinct ways to change the calendar.  

The college I went to was on a trimester system.  Our courses ran 5 hr per week for ~10 weeks instead of 3 hr per week for ~16 weeks, so we covered a full course in less time.  Instead of a typical 5 courses per semester, we had only 3 per trimester, but the same number of courses per year.  There was no "watering down" needed to fit a full semester course into 10 weeks.  The syllabus for a 1 trimester course was the same as for a typical 1 semester course. 

It would also be possible to still meet just 3 hr per week in trimesters and cover just 2/3 as much per trimester as during a regular semester.  I this case John's concern about "compressing" would be justified.  If you tried to move 1 semester to 1 trimester, you would lose time & content; if you moved to 2 trimesters, you would gain time and content.

The first version allows you to keep the same content for a given course title.  The second allows you to keep the same content in the same week of the school year.

 
Which of these two versions is the school in question considering?


Tim F