I taught at a liberal arts college and prepped many courses. I spent hours on course prep. I’d review the reading, read supplementary material, develop handouts, and more. Sometimes this felt very rewarding, but sometimes it didn’t.

Over time, I found that there was a very weak correlation between the amount of time I spent prepping a lecture and the quality of the classroom experience.

What I mean is that sometimes the best sessions were the result of very little preparation. I have a few ideas why:

• I was overthinking it when I prepped too much.

• I provided too much technical information, especially in introductory courses.

• I covered so much ground in class that students didn’t feel like they could ask questions, and had little time to process the information.

My courses improved (and my students were much happier) when I developed a few new strategies to use in the classroom and during my preparation time:

• Be clear about expectations: Tell students the hours during which you check email, the amount of time you take to answer an email, whether you give extensions, etc. Clarifying all this, in the beginning, saves you a lot of time in the long run.

• Use a grading rubric: this encourages consistent grading but also gives you a point of reference for evaluating papers so you’re not reinventing the wheel with each paper. It also saves a LOT of time if students dispute their grade – you have a written justification of the grade at your fingertips.

• Set office hours but also encourage students to make appointments within the office hours. This is so you can work on other projects during office hours, rather than sitting idly, hoping a student might drop by.

• Grade with a timer. The goal here isn’t to grade as fast as you can, but to learn how long it takes you to grade a paper so that you can accurately predict the time you’ll spend grading the next assignment.

• Structure activities that are rewarding for you and students, but don’t take a lot of prep.

Regarding this last tip: yes, instructors feel guilty about showing movies. It’s still OK to screen them. I don’t care to lecture anyone on pedagogy, BUT: people are consuming more and more video content. Teaching your students how to consume and critically analyze that content is not “laziness.”

None of this advice is a magic bullet for cutting your course prep time in half, nor is that the intention. Instead, I hope to remind you of a few things. First, that quantity is not equivalent to quality when it comes to prep time. Also, you don’t have unlimited prep time, therefore, you should always track the time you’re using. Finally, you’re not cheating if you show movies or structure discussions where you’re not the leader. Structuring your course prep so that it’s predictable and manageable helps you and your students.