Syllabus Drafting Activity #3: Course Schedule and Major Assignment Descriptions

Activity #3 is aligned with the Activities and Assessment components of this teaching resource. The guidance resources and prompts focus on developing a course schedule, drafting short activities, assignments, and assessments descriptions, and beginning to integrate course policies.

Download your own copy of this page as a Google document.

Overview

In making course design decisions about core activities for inclass, online, and/or preparing for class learning, and about naming purposes, tasks, and skills that will inform how you shape major course assignments and assessments, we link back to initial drafts of course learning aims. In syllabus development, mapping out an Aspirational Course Schedule provides opportunities for plotting and reflecting in the following ways: 

With the Aims and a student-facing course description drafted, at this stage of learning-syllabus drafting:

  • Mark where you want students to arrive in their learning (aims).  
  • Preview the course where they’ll engage, practice, and demonstrate learning to achieve those aims (description) as the semester wraps.

As strategies for further syllabus development, this Syllabus Drafting Activity #2 document sets out guidance and resources for reflection and writing so that you might:

  • Map out the overall arc of the course. Identify the “chunks” or major themes and how they progress over the semester. 
  • Outline in the Course Schedule the types of activities, assignments and assessments you plan to use. Alongside this work, draft short descriptions of the core class activities, as well as major assignments and assessments that students will complete to practice, apply, and demonstrate what they are learning.
  • With a schedule and short descriptions drafted, determine the placement and timing of major assignments and assessments. At this stage, reflect on questions related to the timing of both large and small course work. For example: 
    • What are your plans for homework, preparing for class, and in-class activities? Are the tasks and due dates clearly noted to help learners see these as authentic, necessary learning work rather than busy work? Are there opportunities to miss some of these activities or drop low scores?
    • For major assignments: When will students complete and seek feedback on stages of a major assignment? Have I allocated enough time for each of us to do the work required?
    • For major assessments, which often take the form of examinations: Will students work through a series of short quizzes or classroom activities before completing a major exam? Have you shared the learning aims and purposes of the exam and not just described the format?

Addressing these questions will help ensure that your course design is cohesive and aligned with your learning aims, providing a clear roadmap for both you and your students.

“Sample Syllabuses for Design Activity #3” gathered in a google folder are created by instructors as part of CEI-sponsored consultations, seminars, or courses.

The Context and Resources

For the purposes of syllabus drafting, you’ll work to add three new elements into your syllabus. Each point below is more fully addressed in a follow up section of this document.

  1. Create a Course Schedule to offer an overview of course themes/arc, topics, and major assignments within the timeframe of the course. 
  2. Draft Descriptions of Major Assignments and Assessments that are short yet descriptive enough to introduce students to work they will complete. When you’ve developed the full assignment description, incorporate a link to its place on your course website.
  3. Begin Incorporating Policy Statements into the overall narrative. Place policy statements in appropriate, specific sections of the syllabus narrative. For example, identify places within the Assignments section of your syllabus to include appropriate, audience-aware statements about the why and how of make-up exams, extensions, AI use, and/or academic integrity.

Create a Course Schedule

The sample syllabuses we’re sharing with this resource model a range of ways to set out a course plan or arc via naming focuses of units, topics, weeks, or conceptual growth and development. To begin framing a course schedule, you could also begin mapping out an “Overall Assessment Plan” using CEI’s webpage guide.

Schedule and assessment mapping at this stage will help you consider how - and whether - the types of assignments and assessments you have in mind will advance the course learning aims, and whether there is enough time for you and your students to meaningfully complete the required work. Additionally, engaging in this alignment and scheduling mapping will help you to curate (and often cut, or at a minimum hierarchize) course content including readings and resources you assign, students presentations and activities that peers will engage as part of a discussion or feedback plan.

For now, let the fine-tuning of what readings/resources to incorporate wait until you have a fully drafted syllabus that you are ready to draw on in setting up your course website. To keep track of initial ideas, use the Commenting function of your document software to note general and specific ideas about authors, digital and print texts, video/multimedia resources, and/or guests you are thinking of bringing into the course. With the Comments, you’ll have a reference/reminder when it’s time to make a full syllabus for the course website, or curriculum committee approvals for new courses.

Items to include as you draft a schedule:

  • Short titles and due dates for major assignments and assessment; also, if you’re incorporating regular lower-stakes learning activities (eg, Classroom Activity and Assessment Techniques, field or in-class activities, quizzes) be sure to include those as well. A further accessibility consideration, the short titles you provide here should also become the short titles within your course website.
  • Due dates for assigned readings, course prep work, drafts of major assignments.
  • Holidays or other times when a class will not meet as a group, or will meet in a different learning space, or meet in smaller groups rather than as a full group. 
  • If you’re arranging the schedule as a Table, two further points:
    • Heading on a horizontal axis to name the components of the table. Consult the “Tables” webpage in the 7 Core Skills to learn more about setting out an accessible table. Moving away from tables can enhance accessibility
    • Topic, unit, and/or week-by-week organization along the vertical axis to provide an overview of the course organization.
  • If you’re wanting to arrange your schedule as an accessible listing without the Tables format, review the google document “Example of converting table to accessible text.” This formatting option is effective for course schedules organized by units or topics that then list specific information under a unit or topic header.

Draft Descriptions of Major Assignments and Assessments

The (t)ask here is to compose narrative descriptions of short assignments, papers, projects, final exams, (and so on) that also note information such as due dates, grading weights (points or percentages), and highlight assessment processes. Some instructors and learners find it helpful to indicate why and how an assignment or assessment links to one or several course aims. 

If your course involves peer assessment and/or team-based learning, this is a place to let students know how and why this shared work is important, and that you will support them in identifying ways of working together. 

The task is to write short descriptions, rather than to write full descriptions that would be incorporated into your course website. Also, rather than incorporate fully developed assessment tools into the syllabus draft, include a sentence within the short description to let learners in on the general formats of feedback and/or evaluation, and who take on those roles. At this point, reflecting on possibilities will support next-stage decision-making, and acting on those reflections as part of the Syllabus Drafting #4 Activity. 

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Resources

Two resources will support your efforts toward drafting short major assignment and assessment descriptions:

  • The Sample Syllabuses folder can serve as a springboard for this initial reflection on what homework, preparing for and inclass activities, assignments, and assessments you might include in your course, and the short descriptions that can become part of your syllabus narrative. 
  • You might review the “Transparency Framework” google document to begin drafting the longer documents you’ll craft to include in your course website’s Assignment section. At this stage, brainstorming about the four core elements of transparency - audience, purpose, tasks, criteria - can support your further thinking about creating inclusive accessible activities, assignments, and assessments. The vital components of these short descriptions include the big picture items: the what, when, and why.

Begin to Incorporate Policy Statements 

As a first step, ask this question: Where might I place policy statements in my learning-syllabus  narrative so that students can cognitively and practically link those policies to course practices and processes? Maybe you’re carrying two additional questions at this point: Why, and How would I either accept or adapt the suggested policy wording to my own course? 

As a starting point, a reminder that instructors at University of Minnesota campuses have three options for incorporating required statements: 

  1. Copy/paste the exact language of that campus’ published policy statements, 
  2. Include links to an individual policy, or to the whole policy page, or 
  3. Include course-specific statements about policy items in the syllabus.

We know as learners and teachers that copying and pasting exact language into a syllabus as its final pages are treated like product disclaimers or consumer notification statements, and simply listing links provides no information about what might be relevant information. Because both of these approaches focus more on the rights of the writer or lists of “do nots” for the reader, that end user either does not read the policies, or returns to them only to build a defense when there’s a problem. 

Why and how is this third option integral to composing a learning-centered syllabus? In drawing on research involving students three main reasons: 

  • This rhetorical organizational strategy places related content together. For example, a section focused on participation includes policies related to absences and make-up work, or a section on exams incorporates information about studying alone or with peers and make-up options. Academic honesty is addressed within a major assignments section. 
  • Linking policy practices to course processes clarifies how the course operates and names learners’ roles and responsibilities within the course context.
  • By writing the policy statements for an audience of learners, we make the course practices and classroom behaviors explicit so that students can read our words and not our minds. 

In some instances, departments, collegiate units, or outside certification agencies may set out local and/or additional expectations about what to include, which might be incorporated into the text in the same ways noted above. The policies addressed in the section just below are generally reflective of policy focuses expected on US-based campuses, and we recommend checking with your local campus teaching and learning center or academic affairs office for local requirements and range of practice.  

The following alphabetized, 11-item listing is compiled from Policy Library webpage resources (Duluth offers its own resource webpage, with the other system campuses sharing policies set out on a second webpage). The policy statement language is generated and approved within faculty governance processes at University of Minnesota campuses. 

  1. Academic Freedom and Responsibility
  2. Academic Integrity
  3. Disability Accommodations
  4. Equity, Diversity, Equal Employment Opportunity, and Affirmative Action
  5. Excused Absences and Makeup Work 
  6. Grade Definitions 
  7. Mental Health and Stress Management
  8. Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault, Salking and Relationship Violence
  9. Student Conduct Code
  10. Teaching and Learning: Instructor and Student Responsibilities
  11. Use of Class Notes, Course Materials, and Electronic Devices

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Resources

In his slidedeck focusing on the rhetoric of “Cruelty-Free Syllabi,”  Matt Cheney illustrates a learning- and learner-centered policy approach with examples from his own courses. Kevin Gannon provides examples of updating course policy practices in his own teaching practice within this “How to Create a Syllabus” document excerpt.  

The Sample Syllabuses in our shared folder reflect two approaches to incorporating policy statements: using or slightly adapting university policy wording, and incorporating these passages into relevant sections of the syllabus; or more significant rhetorical choices to match tone and specifics to the writers’ individual courses.

Continue Creating an Accessible Syllabus Document

Two resources support instructors in selecting accessible teaching and learning practices: 

  • Dartmouth University’s “Creating Accessible Materials” webpage opens with a helpful rationale for providing accessible materials, then offers helpful guidelines from experienced users, and a guidelines section with platform-specific suggestions.
  • “The Seven Grounding Principles” section of the Teaching with Access and Inclusion resource highlights ideas for each principle. 

In working with the syllabus document, the “Start with the 7 Core Skills” webpage organization includes “do & don’t” and “how to” information for each of the skills. The five skills most common to creating accessible course materials involve using:

  • headings and paragraph styles,
  • embedded hyperlinks within text rather than copying the URL into the document,
  • white space, and bulleted and numbered lists to support digital and visual scanning,
  • writing alt text (alternative text) for images, graphics, or SmartArt in your syllabus, and
  • incorporating tables mindfully, eg, when information can’t be organized in another way.

When you begin creating or updating your course website, the “Maximizing Student Access and Success by Using Canvas Due Dates” web resource will walk you through how to accurately and consistently set up the Assignments index page.

Share Your Draft

Readers might include people who read your Course Reflection Memo - eg, colleagues in your department, as well as those outside your department who you’ve met in teaching professional development programs or whose students might enroll in the course you’re planning or revising, as well as recent students. Consider using the Revision Memo approach to provide context and seek specific feedback.