There has been much misinformation about the Graduate School (formerly the USDA) indexing courses disseminated over the years. Unfortunately, even people who were formerly involved in the course have perpetuated inaccurate stories about the course.
Below are the most frequently heard misunderstandings about the Graduate School (GS) courses.
- Fact or Fiction? The GS courses were created and revised by non-indexers.
- This is Fiction.
- THE FACT: The GS indexing courses were created and revised by professional indexers.
- The current inception of the Basic Indexing course was created by Nancy Mulvany.
- It has always been updated by professional indexers. The latest edition of the course was updated by a team of half a dozen indexers plus experts in instructional design for distance learning courses. All of the instructors at the time of the revision were asked for their input throughout the entire revision process. (However, not all of them chose to participate.)
- The Applied Indexing course was originally designed by Shirley Manley. The latest edition was updated by L. Pilar Wyman, in concert with experts in instructional design for distance learning courses.
- This course greatly benefits from having instructional design experts work in conjunction with professional indexers as the courses were revised. These instruction experts have a greater understanding of adult learning theories and practices than working indexers. And of course the indexers know much more about what indexing concepts are important. While the instructional design experts focus on the course structure, the indexers focus on the course content.
- Fact or Fiction? The GS courses were created to give farmers’ wives something to do to make money during the winter months.
- This is Fiction.
- THE FACT: The GS courses were created to provide training for government and non-governmental employees alike so they could widen their fields of opportunities.
- Sure, large bureaucracies often assign responsibilities in quirky ways. Even when the Graduate School was a department assigned to the USDA, its mission had nothing to do with agriculture or farming.
- The GS was established to provide training for government employees and now non-government employees, so that they could widen their fields of opportunities.
- As you will find on the GS web site, “Established in 1921 by the secretary of agriculture, the Graduate School’s mission is to improve the performance of government and to provide opportunities for individual lifelong learning through education, training and related services… Although associated with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Graduate School is self-sustaining and receives no federal funds. Our only source of income is tuition and fees.”
- Fact or Fiction? The GS indexing courses are purely paper-based.
- This is Fiction.
- THE FACT: The GS indexing courses encourage online submission of lessons.
- The latest versions of both indexing courses allow for – and encourage – online submission of lessons.
- The GS indexing course materials include hard copy course guides and the Applied Indexing course also includes electronic materials to be indexed on CDs.
