Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee

Follow the Syllabus

(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, November 2010 issue)

“My syllabus says ‘no late papers,’ but one student turned in a paper one minute late and another turned one in five minutes late. What should I do?” “I have a student with health issues who says her other professors help her work around the school’s attendance policy. Should I give the student a pass?” In both cases the answers are simple—follow the syllabus. And both cases illustrate how a good syllabus can be used as a teaching tool and to set the tone for the course.

Sometimes we as instructors think of the syllabus as nothing more than an addendum and yet, it is perhaps the most important document we’ll distribute to our students all semester. As a contract between the instructor and the student, the more specific a syllabus is the better. It lets students know what’s expected of them and what the consequences are for failing to meet those expectations. In classes with multiple sections, a common syllabus goes a long way towards ensuring equity in terms of workload and minimizes the likelihood students will “shop” for the section that has fewer assignments than the others. A syllabus needs to be set at the very start of the semester, but the course schedule—what’s going to be covered when—needs to be flexible so the instructor can adjust what he or she is teaching to take advantage of opportunities that may pop up over the course of the semester and to the pace at which different groups of students learn.

Each semester my colleagues and I review dozens of syllabi and over time have developed, with some help from our university’s center for teaching and learning excellence, a checklist of what a solid syllabus should include. Many of the items on the list are responses to thorny questions/issues/problems that arose because a syllabus was unclear or silent on a key point. At the top of a good syllabus is contact information for the instructor(s) and graduate assistants, office hours and whether appointments are preferred, required or unnecessary. The next section should address course prerequisites and what is expected of students at the start of the class in terms of prior knowledge of the subject.

Course goals give the instructor the opportunity to tell students what they will get from the course and what they can expect to learn. Skills classes might include a list of the kinds of things students will know and will know how to do at the semester’s end. Text and materials, recommended readings and resources cover not only books, but also items like portable hard drives, headphones and three-ring binders. Policies on academic integrity, diversity, classroom etiquette, attendance, deadlines and the penalties for failing to meet them and whether make up work is permitted should all be spelled out in as much detail as possible. Doing so makes it easy for the instructor to address questions like those mentioned at the top of this column.

Aside from these policies, perhaps the most critical part of the syllabus is the assignments section. Here is where clarity really counts. Specifying in the syllabus the number, type and most important, weight of assignments and the scale for final course grades not only saves time later, but also drastically reduces the number of student complaints and questions about how much an assignment is worth. The best syllabi also include the grading criteria that will be used for each assignment.

Indicating whether extra credit is available and if so how much extra credit a student can earn and what s/he needs to do to earn it will cut down on end of the semester pleas from students who are not doing as well as they would like. While writing a good syllabus that includes all of the elements outlined above takes time and careful thought, the investment is more than worth the savings in instructor headaches and student angst.

For more information visit:
http://clte.asu.edu/resources/delicious/syllabus%20checklist.pdf
http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/syllabus/basic/index.html
http://clte.asu.edu/resources/delicious/syllabus%20checklist.pdf

By Marianne Barrett
Arizona State University
AEJMC Teaching Committee