Syllabus Activity #4: Finalize Your Syllabus

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

Overview

“Wrapping up the drafting,” that last stage of creating or significantly revising an important piece of academic writing, typically requires reviewing previous drafts, as well as feedback and revision notes made along the way.  This re-familiarization lets us identify what’s working, notice early ideas to restore, mark passages that need deleting - no matter how well worded, and gaps to address. 

As a follow up to your own rereading review, this Syllabus Activity #4 guidance page includes five syllabus review prompts with linked resources. Also, the “Sample Syllabuses for Design Activity #4” google folder includes learning-centered narrative syllabus examples, as well as a sampling of graphic, online, and web-based syllabuses. Both sets of resources convey an author’s individual approach to teaching and learning, their modes of communicating with learners in their courses, and their interpretation of the 4As course design framework.

Review Your Syllabus

You’ve worked with this now quite familiar document over a long period of time now, so we’re offering a set of “fresh eyes” resources to draw on at this editing stage when you’re polishing your syllabus so it can become the student-facing public document for your course. 

1. For major course assessments and assignments review wording with the transparency framework in mind, and the timing/sequencing for individual assignments and assessments, as well as how, where, and why these overlap with other course activities. Helpful resources for this work include the following:

• “Transparency Framework” google document,
• “Course Workload Estimator” webpage created by Rice & Wake Forest Universities, which draws on course- and assignment-related data from teachers seeking to understand time that students likely need to allocate to the course overall and to particular learning tasks,
• “Maximizing Student Access and Success by Using Canvas Due Dates” webpage resource to set up assignments and activities on your site.

2. Evaluate syllabus accessibility. While digital accessibility as set out by the 7 Core Skills webpage may first come to mind, accessibility also refers to 4As elements of accessibility such as student agency in making some decisions about coursework, authenticity of assessments, inclusivity of course content, and creating interactions that matter. Reviewing some already consulted resources can be helpful here:

• “Teaching with Access and Inclusion” google document,
• “Grading for Growth” section of the Assessment webpage , and 
• “Begin to Incorporate Policy Statements” resources from Syllabus Activity #3 webpage.

3. Condense policy “legalese” to increase clarity and transparency. Rather than plan for a “worst case scenario,” incorporating learning-centered policy language that condenses, clarifies, and contextualize policies helps meet two teaching goals: students are more likely to read shorter “need to know” passages, and we move from expecting students “will know what we mean” toward sharing how a particular course “works.”

• The “Creating Student-Centered Course Policies” google document from the College Transition Collaboration employs orienting tasks and transparency frameworks in a 5-step reflective document rich with specific examples, and a closing that forthrightly addresses common questions: what about rigor? cheating? gaming the system? developing professional skills?

4. Articulate protocol in positives rather than negatives to transparently address the rationale for process rules linked to your course. How might you emphasize positive opportunities rather than penalties? For example, if late assignments receive half credit, explain that these assignments can “earn up to half credit” rather than “lose half credit.” Or, as another example, acknowledge that “life happens” or that there are “oops” moments that happen in everyday life, and offer students 2-4 “tokens” (a google document offers a description and examples) that they can use to extend a deadline for an assignment, or use to identify one of two or three smaller activity scores you’re dropping from grade calculation. 

5. Explain learning expectations, with concrete ways to meet them. All of the information on our syllabi can still leave students wondering how much time they should expect to dedicate to a course. If students repeatedly seem to misunderstand what is expected of them in and out of class, consider explicitly stating some of these expectations. Here are a few examples.

• Modes for asking questions. When should students email you with a question? What other options are available to them?
• Technology backup plan. Explain how students should use cloud storage and plan on alternative ways to access the internet to prevent losing their work.
• Frequency of Canvas and email access. How often should students check their email for class updates? How might they monitor their grades? 

Share Your Draft

For gathering feedback, you might use the “Polished Syllabus Self-Assessment” google document, with attention to clarity and transparency in setting out grading and policy elements in their documents. As with earlier drafts, 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. 

Deeper Dive Resources