From the Archives: Creating Syllabi

We’ve written quite a lot at ProfHacker about syllabus and course design. Check out 2010’s Archives post or the many posts tagged with syllabus or syllabi. This roundup of posts focuses on the basics of syllabus creation.

What Do You Need to Do?

• In a previous Archives post on Syllabi and Course Design, I said

  Keep in mind, the first rule of productivity is “don’t fix what’s already working.” If you’re satisfied with the assignments, policies, and course plans you’ve used before, then there’s no need to do a big remodel.

• But if your syllabus needs a serious overhaul, I wrote about doing an Extreme Makeover.
• The collaborative group post 11 Fast Syllabus Hacks offers great tips on including contact information, ISBNs, campus services information, and academic regulations in your syllabus.
• Jason reflects on Setting expectations in the syllabus and on the first day.

What’s Required?

Different institutions have very different requirements for syllabi, but chances are at least one or more of the following might be required:

• Learning Objectives. Jason wrote about putting learning goals into your syllabus and Billie explained why she uses a graphic display of student learning objectives.
• Technology Policies. Billie survyed some examples from several institutions in Technology Policies on Course Syllabi. Ryan explains his Digital Etiquette Policy and Ethan describes Developing an Electronic Communication Policy. Jason offers Five Tips for Dealing with Gadgets in the Classroom.
• Accessibility Statements. Mark explains why he rewrote his accessibility policy as a statement about universal learning. George explains How to Create Accessible Documents and Best Practices for Accessible Print Document Design.

Logistics

• Brian’s post on Shifting the Days of Your Syllabus offers some useful tips for when you have to switch a MWF course to TR or vice versa.
• Amy explains why she uses an online syllabus.

Design

• Jason’s posts on Creative Approaches to the Syllabus and the following years’s Creative Syllabuses provide links to several visually distinctive syllabi.

What syllabus-related topics would you like to see us cover in upcoming weeks? Let us know in the comments!

[Creative Commons licensed image by flickr user Alan Levine]