I have tried also to cut assigned readings down, but to require students to make personal evaluations of the topics in these readings. One of my latest teaching projects has involved the use of PowerPoint for my introduction to comparative politics course, PSC 123. I am using PowerPoint for the first time to project lecture outlines and special points onto a big screen, with transition and building of elements in the lecture on command. It takes only about 15-20 minutes to prepare PowerPoint slides for each week's meetings, and these presentations can be interspersed with VCR clips or viewing of historic documents or tables via the document camera. These weekly assignments are designed to give students regular writings practice, and to keep them on a regular work schedule from the very beginning of the semester.
Emphasis is placed on clear and effective writings, good editing for grammar and readability.
At the end of semester there is an essay-type final exam, which is comprehensive and allows for some choice of question. Here I am looking for recall and interpretation of substantive material, and ability to work with ideas. This is in keeping with Maxwell's traditional emphasis on inter-disciplinary education. The course is also writing-intensive, and has a large component of student participation, both in small sections and in the large plenary. Since all students at SU are now on the internet, I have encouraged them to use internet sources for their papers, with the caution that there is a lot of junk as well as good information on the net.