There no shortage of opinions about what is the best way to teach. Teaching styles can range from a completely independent learning environment to a one-on-one relationship between teacher and student. But regardless of the approach taken by the teacher, all classes should be held to one common standard. This essay will present some practical academic guidelines which all courses taught, regardless of the subject, should follow. These standards include access to course material; increasing the percentage of the course mark allotted for assignments and limiting the amount that a single test can be worth in the course mark.
             First and foremost, students must have access to the course material. In this case, course material means a copy of all the material the students are expected to know. Course material should take either the form a textbook or typed notes prepared by the teacher. This contradicts the norm of many of the upper level classes at the university level. In these courses, the course material is presented to the student during lectures only. Students are expected to take notes as the professor speaks and/or uses visual aids (blackboard, projector, etc.). This approach by the professor excludes persons with poor handwriting or students who do not attend class regularly. Those who oppose this view argue that students who do not attend class regularly should be penalized for their absence, and that their missing lecture notes is a fitting penalty. These people must realize that if the student is given the notes, the student is still penalized when missing class: they no longer obtain the professor's insights into a given topic. Penalizing students with poor hand writing or poor attendance by depriving them of the information they are study ceases evaluation of a student's to understand a given subject; in reality, this only evaluates their ability to collect and reproduce information presented to them.
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