To avoid the costs of photo-duplication, simply put your notes on the 
web, or in your course management system.  If the students want to print them, 
they can do so, but I would encourage them to get used to reading digitally.  I 
too have had the reaction Michelle noted -- the students reporting that they do 
not need the text book given that they have my notes.  I still order the text 
and advise my students that even though my notes and the text cover the same 
material, it can be helpful to see the material covered from the somewhat 
different perspectives of two different teacher.


Cheers,

[cid:[email protected]]<http://core.ecu.edu/psyc/wuenschk/klw.htm>

________________________________
From: Michelle Everson [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2010 11:02 AM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: Re: [tips] question about using ones notes as a text



Hi John,

I'm not sure I can offer much advice here, but I'd be interested in hearing 
more about any responses you might get to this (both online and offline).

I teach two courses--introductory and intermediate statistics--at the 
graduate-level.  Both courses tend to attract students who do not have 
mathematical backgrounds and who are often quite anxious about even having to 
take a statistics class (and question the relevance of the course).  I have 
struggled quite a bit with finding appropriate textbooks for this crowd.   I do 
have an introductory text that I like, but students end up having to skip 
around in it a lot since we don't cover certain things in my class, and that 
has led to frustration.  I haven't found a good intermediate text that I like.

I teach these courses both online and in the classroom.  For my online 
students, I put rather detailed lecture notes together that are meant to (a) 
summarize discussions students have had, (b) explain content in the textbook 
that I think might be confusing, and (c) provide extra examples.  Originally, 
my goal was to have these notes serve as a SUPPLEMENT to the textbook.  Over 
the years, I've made these notes available to my classroom-based students as 
well.  One thing that I tend to hear from students is that the notes are much 
more helpful than the text, and some actually give up reading the text 
altogether and do fine just by reading the notes.  Of course, this could be a 
case of me enabling the students and giving away too much information in my 
notes that they should be able to get themselves by going through the textbook. 
 However, it's made me wonder if I would better serve my students my just 
giving them these detailed notes.  It troubles me to think they are spending a 
lot of money for a textbook that is not at all helpful to them.

I'm glad you asked this question because I've been wondering if other 
instructors do this, and whether or not it would be appropriate.  In terms of 
the photocopying issue, could you post these notes on a course site (i.e., 
something like Blackboard) and then make the students responsible for 
downloading them?  That would likely be much less expensive for them than 
purchasing a text.

Michelle
On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 9:22 AM, John Kulig 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Tipsters

About a month ago I posted a question about looking for a text for a lower 
level measurement text, and made no progress finding a text. If you were one of 
the people who asked me to share what I received, I am sorry to say nothing 
came in. I am now considering using just my notes for this class, typing them 
up replete with exercises, summaries, and so forth. I have enough material to 
write a small book. Questions: Has anyone every done this before? Can the 
department charge students for the extensive photocopying? Is it worth-while 
trying to copyright these notes? Any help will be appreciated, as the semester 
starts in a little over month ...

==========================
John W. Kulig, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Director, Psychology Honors
Plymouth State University
Plymouth NH 03264
==========================


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--
Michelle Everson, Ph.D.
Quantitative Methods in Education
Department of Educational Psychology
University of Minnesota
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
612-624-0691
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~delma001/CATALST/<http://www.tc.umn.edu/%7Edelma001/CATALST/>


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