I will be describing a self-paced mastery-oriented introductory astronomy course that has been offered at the University of South Carolina since 1972. This course is a three-semester sequence with total enrollments of 800–1000 students per term. Most of the enrollment is for the first semester of the sequence. Although these particular courses are designed for non-science majors, I believe that the methods developed in these courses can be applied to courses for astronomy majors. These methods could provide a solution to the problems of teaching classes and, at the same time, traveling for research and meetings.

A mastery-oriented course involves developing a list of learning objectives that are described in terms of performance of given tasks. That is, words such as understand and appreciate should not be used. Performance objectives involve words such as recognize, calculate, measure, and describe. Any set of learning objectives must be tied to a set or readings, a textbook, and/or supplementary notes. These items are chosen or written by the instructor(s) to provide the background necessary for the students to master the objectives.