Written and designed by the staff of the Center for Teaching and Learning. Reproduce with permission only.

 

Course Planning and Teaching

 

Developing a Syllabus

The syllabus is the end-product of your course planning activity, and it is written primarily--though not exclusively--for your students. The major purpose of a syllabus is to provide a map to help students navigate the course successfully. Research has shown that students who are told what they are supposed to learn and how they are to be evaluated perform better than those who are not so instructed. The course syllabus is an excellent medium for providing this information. A professor once pointed out that there seemed to be an inverse relationship between the length of her syllabus and the length of the line at her office door--if she put more information in the syllabus, fewer students troubled her with elementary questions about the organization of the course (and she had more time to consult with students about more significant questions). Moreover, a syllabus can point out connections between various parts of the course and therefore help students understand the course as an integrated whole.

A syllabus is also a kind of contract between you and your students. It specifies the duties and responsibilities of both parties and clearly states the benefits they are to derive from the experience. Once you have decided upon the rules, procedures, and requirements for the course and articulated them in your syllabus (and reviewed them in class), you should never arbitrarily change these requirements--it is the equivalent of unilaterally changing a legal contract after it has been signed. Students will be justifiably indignant if you change the rules in the middle of the game.

The syllabus is an important document for teachers and students, since it is one of the few tangible records of the course. It provides an account of your activities and it reflects your conceptualization of the course as a whole. If you are a TA, syllabi for courses you have taught may be important for job applications. At some institutions, course syllabi become part of your personnel file.

Although every syllabus is unique to the course it represents, you should strive for a syllabus that provides a complete picture of the course. The following list will help you create that kind of picture for your students.

 

Basic Information

  1. Name of the instructor, names of teaching assistants, office location, office hours, and telephone number. Also, the specific circumstances under which students have permission to call you at home.
  2. Title of the course, course number, semester, and year.
  3. Building and room in which the class meets; days and hours of class meetings.

Course Description

  1. Statement of course goals (written in terms of what the students will gain from the course).
  2. The teaching methods and strategies you will use and their implications for students.
  3. A detailed explanation of course procedures for papers, homework assignments, other outside activities, lab work, field trips, etc.
  4. All required texts, readings, workbooks; other materials they will need for the course (e.g., dissecting kits, calculators).
  5. Grading procedures and scales. List the activities that will be graded (e.g. projects, quizzes, exams, homework, papers, lab work, class participation), how each will be graded, and the percentage of the grade each one represents. Also explain the procedures by which you will determine the final grade.
  6. An explanation of the types of questions you will use in quizzes and exams. Some teachers append examples of test questions from previous semesters. If you intend to use unannounced quizzes, you should tell students about them in this section.
  7. Policies about class absence, lateness, missed exams, late papers, cheating, and plagiarism. For example, clearly delineate the types of source materials and the extent of collaboration permitted on homework and other assignments. Try to avoid a scolding tone in this section, but be specific and firm. You will find important information about the Honor Code and the specific responsibilities of student and teacher in a subsequent chapter of this handbook.
  8. Strategies for success in the course. If you were a student in this class, how would you approach the course? What pitfalls can you warn the student against? How would you prepare for the quizzes and exams? How would you budget your time? What would your note-taking strategy be? Many undergraduates have poor study skills, and anything you can teach them about how to study and learn will improve their performance.
  9. The schedule of classes, with meeting dates, topics, and appropriate readings; deadlines for papers, projects, and assignments; school holidays; and test dates.

 

Additional Material

If duplicating charges are a problem in your department, you can make this material available for purchase at a local copy center.

  1. Guidelines for writing reports, research papers, reviews, etc. These guidelines should include the preferred format for each assignment, advice on how to research and write papers, and the criteria which will be used to grade them.
  2. Handouts and readings.
  3. Examples of test questions.
  4. Samples of written assignments.

Although you may feel that a syllabus of this length is excessive, you will discover that students appreciate the effort you make in creating a truly useful syllabus. Take time to review it on the first day of class and refer to it from time to time during the course so that students will understand its importance in the course.

Ask other teachers for copies of their syllabi. Although your syllabus should express your own teaching goals for the course, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Those who have taught the course before have had to solve many of the same problems, and their solutions can provide a rich source of ideas for your own syllabus.

The staff of the Center for Teaching and Learning is available for consultation on all aspects of course planning, from conceptualization of the course to writing the syllabus, so please call on us if you have questions.

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Last updated: January 30, 2001