Book Review
“On Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teaching” by James M. Lang
Review by Nicholas Von Glahn, Assistant Professor, California Polytechnic State University - Pomona

I received “On Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teaching,” by James M. Lang, during my new faculty orientation at Cal Poly Pomona last year. When I received this book I had already been teaching for three years as a graduate student and thought the book was going to be too remedial because the title explicitly states it is for the “first semester of college teaching.” But, instead, I found the book informative and insightful. Not only does this book discuss topics instructors need to think about throughout teaching a course (which is especially important for first time teachers), but it raises many pedagogical issues that will help refine the techniques of more established teachers as well. So, I do not think it is very accurate to call it a guide for your first semester teaching.

Another criticism I had with this book also stems from the fact that there is another misnomer in the title; the book is not really a week-by-week guide. Although the book does start with syllabus creation and end with teaching evaluations, a lot of the middle ground does not make sense as something that is related to a particular week in a semester. For instance, “week” (chapter) 6 discusses grading and assignments, but most will have to start thinking about grading and assignments well before that time. Thus, I would not take the “week-by-week guide” aspect very seriously, and treat the “weeks” simply as chapters. This book will probably be most useful if you read the whole book during course creation (while creating the syllabus and initial assignments) and come back to specific topics as needed throughout the course.

Beyond the title being filled with misnomers, there were two other criticisms I had for this book. First, in “week” (chapter) 8, “Students as Learners,” the research about learning and memory was left wanting. As a memory and learning researcher, I believe the book would have benefitted from contemporary research findings from that area. Also, “week” (chapter) 6, “Assignments and Grading,” presented a grading system called the “letters/weighted percentage system.” This system sounded awful to me for the very limitation he pointed out in the book – using this system, a student could score a 0 percent on a major project and feasibly receive a C for the course.

With the bad out of the way, the book was very enjoyable to read—the tone was almost conversational. This book made me evaluate several of my practices and taught me some new ways to engage students. In addition, this book focuses on techniques that could be used by teachers of almost all subject matter. For instance, the book uses research to support the fact that implementing group work can foster better learning than a purely lecture format, and then gives a great deal of advice about many ways to implement group work. In sum, I would recommend that both new teachers in higher education, as well as those who are more established, read this book to work on new techniques to advance their teaching.

Title: On Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teaching
Author: James M. Lang
Price: $26.95 (hardcover)
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Year: 2008
Pages: 336

ISBN: 0-67402-806-6