Happy Holidays! You'll likely find this December issue (on syllabi) and the 2004 January issue (on knowledge surveys) resting in your mailbox just before you prepare the initial documents for your spring course. These can help improve courses dramatically.

 

A good syllabus can surely prevent many tears and frustrations. The syllabus is the first and most important written document our students receive in a course. Like a good road map, it can align students' efforts with our intentions and set the tone that we want as a signature for the course.

 

ESSENTIAL LOGISTICAL INFORMATION is important to prevent crises that otherwise arise from the most simple omissions. Check your syllabus to be sure that you have included the following: (1) your phone, e-mail, office number and office hours; (2) textbook and/or outside materials needed along with a reminder to bring these to class if they will be used there; (3) list of required readings and deadline dates for reading these; (4) Any instructional technology requisites such as a class WebCT site or any supporting web site provided by the textbook publisher; (5) pre-requisite courses or skills needed to encounter the material; (6) Policy for absences; (7) policy for missed tests & quizzes; (8) policy for late work; (9) Policy for extra credit work; (10) Grading method and scale; (11) call to be made aware of students' special needs that might need accommodation.

 

DESCRIPTION of COURSE CONTENT should be consistent with truth-in-advertising in the Catalog. It doesn't hurt to copy the catalog description into the syllabus. If the course meets a Goal Requirement, address the goal and what it means in terms of expected learning outcomes. If the department has particular written expectations of this course in terms of learning outcomes (i.e., preparation for licensing exams, for entry into a higher level course or as a capstone course) disclose this in the syllabus. Information about content that often proves useful for students includes: (1) types of knowledge and skills to be developed; (2) the logic for sequence of content; (3) chosen major learning outcomes for the course and why you chose these as most important (4) how the course relates to the content, primary concepts and principles of the overall discipline; (5) why you are enthused about this content and (6) why students should want to master it. Actual content can be disclosed to great advantage through a Knowledge Survey (next issue - other side).

 

CONTENT DELIVERY can occur through many different pedagogical methods (i.e. lectures, discussions, collaborative work, written and/or oral projects, role play, case discussions, etc.). Many students are accustomed to lectures; but other modalities of delivery are new to them. If you use these, it is crucial to describe in a sentence or two about why these have particular advantages to their learning and how to learn through these less familiar alternatives.

 

TELL SOMETHING ABOUT YOURSELF because you will be the most important person in this course to each student. Useful things to disclose are (1) your core values about teaching and learning (which you should be able to transfer directly from your own written teaching philosophy); (2) your own experience with the content and how it has been worthwhile for you to study this particular area of scholarship; (3) the criteria you use as a basis to assess whether the course has been successful. If you have recently taught the course, look back over your last course schedule and student comments, and pay attention to areas that went well or did not go well, especially with respect to your own assessment criteria. Use this experience as a basis to improve parts of the syllabus and your plan for the course itself.

 

Finally look at the tone overall conveyed by the document. For those of us who have taught for years, transgressions by students that irk us can find their way into syllabi in ways that scold new students for the transgressions of others. That immediately gets in the way of setting the welcoming atmosphere we probably intend to convey.