Best Practices for

Creating a Useful Personal Collection

  1. Plan ahead, rather than creating a collection as you go. It is much easier to edit your collection in a word processing document than it is in MERLOT.
  2. Choose a focused topic for your collection; often, whole courses or broad topics require too many materials to make a useful collection.
  3. Limit the number of items you include in your collection. Collections with more that six materials often become overwhelming. Two materials for each phase of the “Teaching/Learning Cycle” should be enough to cover a topic.
  4. Use materials that have been time-tested in the classroom. It will be much easier to assess the value of an item if you have implemented it in your class. Items that are not already in MERLOT can be easily added. See instructions for Submitting Materials.
  5. Be sure to include an assortment of materials. Using materials that fit all aspects of the “Teaching/Learning Cycle” help to round out a collection and make it more useful.
  6. Group materials by a common theme such as phases of the “Teaching/Learning Cycle.”
  7. Give each item a detailed description of how you used it, what the outcome was, how you would modify it, and any information users would need to effectively implement the item into their lessons.
  8. Take advantage of the “Assignment” function in MERLOT. This allows teachers to create and attach assignments to materials in MERLOT and can be helpful when creating lessons for students.
  9. Decide on the order you want the materials to appear in your collection. You cannot change the order once they are added.
  10. Give your collection an informative title and a detailed description with instructions. MERLOT also provides space to describelearning outcomes, assessment methodology, pedagogical approach, and prerequisites.

MERLOT Personal Collections: Creating a Useful Resource for Teaching Statistics

Ginger H. Rowell, Scott McDaniel, Lisa Green, Megan Hall

MiddleTennesseeStateUniversity

United States Conference on Teaching Statistics, May 17-19, 2007