2008 Academic Survey Results
Soomo Publishing creates resources for college students and professors to better enable the learning process. Knowing how instructors currently use textbooks and the web helps us understand how we can make common tasks easier, and powerful new interactions possible.
In the Fall of 2008, we sent out over 3,000 invitations to a cross-section of faculty. We are grateful to the 150+ professors who took the time to respond. In the process, we confirmed a lot, learned a lot and found a few surprises.
Respondents and Results
We received a great response from more than 150 instructors in 37 states. 88% of them teach American Government; 100% teach classes related to American Government. The respondent pool divides roughly into three groups: those teaching less than 30 students per class, 30-50 students, or 50+ students. Most responders had over seven years of teaching experience.
76%always use a traditional print textbook
90%decide for themselves which text they will use
The most important functions of a textbook are to:
- provide topic overviews and background for lectures
- cover the basics so I can present more interesting or sophisticated topics in class
- serve as a reference tool for students
91%
write at least some of their course material
85%compile and distribute some material beyond the texts
53%assign newspapers or articles
51%assign primary sources
80%require online research
66%require online readings or assignments
65%show or assign video content
The websites professors assign most often fall into these categories:
- Primary Sources: House.gov, Senate.gov, campaign sites, C-SPAN
- News Sites: NYTimes, NPR, BBC, The Washington Post
- Political Sites: RealClearPolitics, FactCheck.org, Politico
- Archives: JSTOR, LexisNexis, The Livingroom Candidate
These findings help us better understand how we can help professors and students. More often than not, Americans Governing is used in conjunction with a traditional textbook. In our assignments, we seek to provide vivid background to prepare students for in-class lecture and discussion. We make it very easy to upload your own existing content, or to create new content and links for class. We have built solid, peer-reviewed assignments around primary sources, news sites, political sites and great archives. And we continue to develop new features and assignments, always guided by teaching professors and classroom feedback.
We invite you to learn more about Americans Governing or our other political science titles including Comparing Governments and Between Nations, a resource for the International Relations classroom. If you have any suggestions for us, are interested in how we might customize resources for your campus, or would like to participate in peer review of new content, please contact David Lindrum.
Thank you for your time.