Syllabus as Representative of the Planned Curriculum

 

Authored/Posted by: Erik Flinn

Building on the bare necessities of the syllabus as an administrative tool, we’re going to try to effectively and efficiently communicate the planned curriculum of the course. This way, we can help our students, other educators/administrative see more than just the topics we’re covering, but the learning activities we plan to facilitate them. The inclusion of these topics will make your syllabus a helpful artifact during evaluations and help determine course equivalency across instructors.  

 

Provide an overview of the topics listed in the last step.

• Briefly describe each of the course topics.
  • This is helpful as students get a basic overview of what will be expected of them in the coming semester.
• Reflections/Questions to Consider:
  • What are your desired learning outcomes for the topic?
  • What are the key components of each topic?
  • What questions are you expecting students to have on each topic?
    • How can you use the syllabus to address that concern?

 

Course Structure:

• Breakdown of a student’s Course Grade:
  • List of Assignments, Exams, Projects, Quizzes, etc.
    • A brief description of what each item is worth in terms of the grade.
  • A Description of how grades are represented at your institution and how your course grades relate.
• A Description of the Daily Structure of Class:
  • Whether the course is synchronous or asynchronous.
  • Whether this class is primarily lecture/discussion based.
  • If your style of course structure has a name, please name it here:
    • For example, a reversed classroom is a popular form of instruction.
  • A Description of student expectations prior to course meetings.
• Reflections/Questions to Consider:
  • How many timed assessments are you planning to give?
    • What effect does this have on students with accommodations on test time?
  • Does participation impact a student’s grade?
  • Do students have any opportunities to earn extra credit?
  • Do you feel the weight of each grade item corresponds to the expectations/responsibilities on the student to complete it?
  • Do you want to provide in-class workdays for projects or homework?
  • If you have any Teaching Assistants:
    • What is their role in/out of the classroom?
    • Do students interact with the TA? Is the TA prepared for that?
    • How often do you discuss the class with the TA?
  • If you plan to have peer-to-peer discussions:
    • What types of discussions do you want students to have?
    • Are you allocating enough time for students to explore the ideas of the discussion?
  • Do you provide any descriptions/specifications of any of the assessments? For example:
    • What material is covered on an exam?
    • How many group members are there for a particular project?
    • Timelines for homework completion
    • Etc.
  • Lastly, and this can be applied to every step above and to this process, remember to ask yourself:
    • “Why did I make this choice?”

 

University/Course Policies:

• Often institutions have any universal policies they want addressed in the course syllabus. However, you may also want to add to this list to make your stance on particular topics clear. Examples may include policies on/about:
  • Academic Honesty
  • Disability Services
  • Use of Generative AI
  • Violence and Misconduct
  • Etc.
• Reflection:
  • Discuss with your peers their thoughts and recommendations on what makes a good course policy and what types of policies they include on their own syllabi.        

 

 

With this part of the syllabus completed, you now have a detailed overview of your course. Anyone reading the syllabus should have a clear understanding of what is/was covered and the approach you used to teach the material.