What do students want from their professors?  What helps students get the most out of their classes? We decided to put these questions to our focus group of University of Connecticut (UCONN) students for the view from the back of the lecture hall and across the seminar table.  When asked what makes a class stand out as a positive experience, this group of UCONN students were specific about the big things and the little things that their best professors do to help the class take meaning from a lecture or an activity. We are relieved to report that no one mentioned “magic”.  In fact, students focussed on some rather down-to-earth practices used by their best professors.  One feature that got frequent mention from students is the professor’s use of a daily handout.

When they enter the unfamiliar and demanding environment of your classroom, students want something to hold on to.  A strong theme in the UCONN student focus group supports the use of daily handouts from professors.  Across disciplines and majors, students valued their handouts as an aid to notetaking and a guide to interconnections in their lecture subjects. Here are some of the comments made by students about their professors’ use of these time-tested organizational aids. 

About a Professor of Communications: “He had handouts for us about the topics and subtopics that he was going to talk about. The day of the class…what we were going to do each day. That personally helped me a lot.” 

About a Professor of Psychology:  “ The teacher has his own book which has all of the Power Point slides laid out in the book with lines next to them.  So when he’s doing lecture you can go through the book and write down whatever you want to.”

About a Professor of Accounting:  “He handed out a sheet before every class that said what we had to do and what we had to make sure to get done for the day, and with notes and stuff.  Actually the way he set up the class really made me decide to go into accounting.”

What is it about daily handouts like this that made such a difference in the students’ learning experience?  These UCONN students were describing the best college course they had taken, the teaching methods of their best professor.  Their responses suggest that there is something powerful about those organizational handouts.  A chemistry student describes two experiences with the same course, taught by two different professors.

“The first time, he had notes on the overhead, so we had to write them down, and he was just reading them off.  And as you would continue writing, he was already on the next page.  So you’re not even paying attention to what he is saying, you’re just writing, writing, writing, and you don’t even get it all down.”

The student eventually dropped the course, but he wasn’t finished with the subject of chemistry yet.  He signed up for chemistry again in another semester when the course was taught by a different professor.  The second professor of chemistry incorporated handouts in his teaching.  This student found chemistry to be a different experience with handouts, which he called “sheets”.

“What I like about the sheets is that you can pay more attention … instead of writing.”

Some UCONN professors might say that’s what they like about “sheets”, too.

There’s certainly no magic in a daily handout, or is there?  Students agree, they appreciate having something to hold on to.  The daily handout is a teaching strategy that you may want to hold on to as you plan your next course.