What Is a Course?

Search
Site Map
No Frame

A Course using Study Technology "by the book" needs to meet a number of practical standards in terms of educational materials, course facilities and personnel.  First of all, a course needs to have a checksheet to follow. This gives the exact sequence in which the materials are studied. Each student needs a complete course pack. The materials in the pack follow the sequence laid out on the checksheet. These are the Checksheet Materials. The student just needs to turn the page to find the next theory assignment material. The student is often required to purchase his own pack, but these should be available, one way or the other, through the course. 

The Checksheet Materials are the complete materials on the checksheet. If you use the Clearbird Manuals they should exist in printed form. In addition, books of R. Hubbard, including the Red Volumes (containing technical Bulletins) and the Green Volumes (containing policies) and Technical Dictionary and Admin Dictionary should be at hand. Reference books, such as a variety of English language dictionaries, grammar books, technical reference books and an encyclopedia should all be part of the course room library. 

Materials also include clay, tables and chairs, tape players (video, audio), computers with electronic files and books, bulletin boards, routing forms, supplies of pink sheets, roll call book, student files, file cabinets and any other items that will be needed. 

All these have to be in place, easy to get to, and in good condition for a course to be called a standard Study Technology course.

If there are only some broken chairs, not enough clay, no grammar books, etc., through the above list, it does not meet the definition of a course.

A Course must have     a trained Supervisor.

Trained Supervisor
A course must have a trained Supervisor. He does not have to be a graduate or an experienced practitioner of the course he is supervising. The requirement is simply, that he is a trained Supervisor. It is however recommended that he is a trained auditor, Level zero or above.

The Supervisor is not expected to teach in the traditional sense of the word. He is expected to keep the course established and keep it going. 

His duties are to ensure the students are present once started. He does roll-calls when the course is started in the morning and after meal breaks. He makes sure check-outs are properly done. He keeps a watchful eye on his students to make sure the Study Technology is correctly applied by students and coaches. If he sees any indicators of the Study Technology not being fully applied he steps in. He spots any indicators of misunderstood words in the students and makes sure the misunderstoods are found and the materials understood. Likewise he looks for signs of Out Gradient and Lack of Mass and their manifestations.

The Supervisor does not teach the students in the traditional sense. A Supervisor, who tells the students answers, is not doing his job correctly. His job is to refer the students to the printed materials if they have any questions. A Supervisor who knows the materials well and understands the students' questions and can direct them to the correct reference is doing it correctly. Those are the signs of the pro. The student should feel free to ask questions. He should always get his technical questions answered by being shown a written reference. This way the student can always later look it up on his own and does not have to commit it to memory. Also, he knows what the correct and precise data are. When he later has to apply it on his own no 'second opinion' or interpretation is going to help him.

The Supervisor is not an instructor. He is a Supervisor. The Supervisor's special skills are being able to spot dope-off, glee, and other manifestations of misunderstood words or concepts and getting them cleaned up. He is not there to know all the data so he can tell the student or explain it all. 

Pro Supervision
A good Supervisor should however have an excellent idea of what questions he will be asked and be able to quickly clear up the students' questions by showing them the right reference. He knows that student blows follow misunderstoods. A Supervisor who is a real pro never has blows. He would catch the situation before it developed. This he does by observing the students' indicators and clear up any trouble before even the student is aware of it.

It is the Supervisor's job to run a tight course with good discipline and clear rules. This gets the students through the checksheet fully and swiftly with minimum loss of time. The successful Supervisor is tough. He is not there to conduct social chit-chat or to be a pleasant  old professor. 

He goes over each student's checksheet daily and sets a target for the student to reach that day. He is realistic in setting these targets but always seeks to stretch the student to his limit as to keep him winning and growing in competence. The Supervisor is spending Supervisor Minutes. He has just so many to spend. He is spending Student Hours. He has just so many of these to spend so he gets them spent wisely and saves any waste of time on the part of the students.

A full library of all the relevant  books has to be available for a     course to be a legitimate course    according to Study Technology.

Course Admin
A large course has a Course Administrator. The Course Administrator takes care of the library and other physical materials of the course. He or she is a librarian, a handyman and a secretary, all in one person. He makes sure reference materials are returned to their place in the library. He has copies of checksheets of all courses taught and issues them to new students.  The Course Administrator is in charge of routing lines and proper send-off and return of students. In a larger operation there may be other persons involved in delivery, such as professional a professional Word Clearer, and an Ethics department and a cramming section for handling students special needs and problems. The Course Administrator keeps track of where the students are and makes sure they don't just wander off. Usually the student needing to go somewhere, will get permission and then sign a log-book with departure time, reason for leaving, and a column for time he returned.

All courses have students.  A well-run course will     attract many new students.