Think Opportunity, Not Overhaul
by Karina Lin-Murphy
Full article linked here. Excerpts below.
1. Take the time to get to know your course again—and ask core questions
What do I want my students to take away? Specifically, what do I want them to remember 2–3 years from now?
What enduring knowledge, awareness, or way of thinking do I want them to still hold? Do my learning goals align with this?
The takeaway: Ask yourself what students should gain from your course—both immediately and in the long term. Think beyond just content or information and instead focus on the core mindset shifts you want your students to have. This will allow you to revisit and update your materials through a clearer and more grounded lens.
2. Prioritize the timeless, not just the timely
… I went through all my readings and asked myself if what students got from this reading was meaningful now, and if it’ll be meaningful in the future. If the answer was yes, I kept it. If the answer was no, I removed it. I focused on keeping the readings timeless, and using my class time, which changes every year anyway and can easily be shifted, for opportunities for the timely topics. I carved out space in my teaching plans each week to specifically address current topics I wanted to discuss with my students. By prioritizing this, I invite myself to update the course every year but also yield some of the control to students.
The takeaway: Streamline and compartmentalize the parts that need updating over time. This gives you clear boundaries when you look to revamp. Make sure the course elements that won’t be updated as often are timeless or offer flexibility for different student needs and goals. Your readings and course content should focus on foundational ideas and frameworks. Use moments in your class that change often, such as live class time, to layer in space for timely topics to emerge.
3. Reframe what still works
That moment became a guiding principle: Updating a course doesn’t always mean replacing what’s there. Sometimes it means making space for students to bring the present into conversation with the past.
The takeaway: This doesn’t mean you should never introduce new material. But there’s no need to always be chasing the newest publications, materials, or readings for the sake of relevance—there are other ways to bring in the now. Invite students to bring current contexts to long-standing questions. The invitation to look back in order to look forward is a powerful way of reframing readings and discussions.
Karina Lin-Murphy is the associate director of course design and pedagogical innovation at the C. Roland Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard Business School. She is also an instructor at Harvard Extension School in the Learning Design and Technology and Digital Media Design programs.