Ditching a Textbook: An Update
The original: A Classroom Experiment: Ditching a Textbook
Conclusion?
In the future, I need to provide more guidance on evaluating and using sources (bearing in mind that the overwhelming majority of students in Political Issues are first-years). To accomplish that I may need to drop some of my own topic selections and make space for some additional workshop/consultation days, but it will be worth it.
That said, overall, the experiment was a great success. Students did indeed develop some skill in finding and using sources, and they put great effort into learning about their chosen topics. They also did a wonderful job of running class discussions focused around those topics.
Amy Cavender offers some suggestions on how to re-enact the experiment, based on what she did. I like the idea over all.