So often in education – especially higher education – we assume that students come into our classes with a baseline level of understanding.  We are so familiar with the content that we teach that forget that for student in our gateway courses, taking an entry level course in a subject they are unfamiliar with is like dropping them in the middle of a foreign land and expecting them to be able to thrive without understanding the culture or language, and without any kind of guidebook to help them navigate the strange new land.  This post is going to focus on what we can do as educators to build transparency into our teaching practice to support ALL of our students.

There was a really good guide in the Chronicle of Education a while back that focused on best practices related to syllabi.  It’s a really good step-by step of what (and what not) to include in your syllabus.  Each year we are faced with more and more information that we need to share with our students about our class to ensure they have access to the information they need to be successful.  Because of this, I want to encourage fellow educators to be innovative when it comes to designing the syllabus.  On most campuses, it would be easy to end up with a syllabus that is 10 – 20 pages long.  When a syllabus is that long, we know that the likelihood that students will actually read the darned thing is very small.  Fortunately, we have tools at our disposal that can make including all of the information students need in an easily navigable format at our fingertips.  For each class that I teach, I have created an entire module in our LMS that covers all of the things students need to know about to be successful in my class.  It is the first module in the course and it is titled “Syllabus:  how to successfully complete this course”.  I have found that creating a module for my syllabus allows students quickly and easily find any information they need about the class.

Whether you prepare a traditional syllabus, a visual syllabus, or are going digital, you’ll want to make it as meaningful and user friendly as possible.  I’ve found that reviewing the syllabus page by page on the first day of class does not necessarily engage students or get them excited about your class.  I used to get so frustrated every fall working so hard to get class started off on the right foot – getting students excited about the class and making sure they had all the information they needed to be successful – only to be met with blank stares and silence.  After several years of trial and error, I believe I have hit on a combination of activities that accomplish that intent.  To ensure that students actually navigate the syllabus, I have a few classroom activities built into the first day of class – sort of a syllabus scavenger hunt.  I break students into groups and have them complete tasks like:

• Read the learning objectives for this course and rank them in order of most to least important to you.
• On a scale of 1 – 10 where 10 is expert and 1 is novice, rank your current level of expertise related to each learning outcome.
• Read through the major assignments for this class and tell me which one you are most excited about and why.
• Read through the final project with your group.  Identify questions you might have about this project and create a timeline for completion with your group.
• What do you think are the most important class expectations?  Which ones might you struggle with?

My whole goal for my class from day one is to be transparent with them.  What are we doing?  Why are we doing it?  How do I expect you to do it?  I also make it a priority to share with them examples of good work.  Not all students will have been introduced to the concept of a course syllabus before coming to college.  You may have students in your class who have no idea what a syllabus is or why they need one.  Take time the first day of class to help students understand that the syllabus is like a contract between the student and instructor.  When put together with thought and purpose, and presented to a class with care and guidance, the syllabus can serve to elevate the level of engagement in the course resulting in a higher quality experience for all participants – students and instructors.

I’ve compiled some additional resources that I have used to continually improve my own syllabus.  I recognize that it truly is a work in progress.  I spend several hours before each term “tweaking” it and am pleased with the way in which it has evolved.  I hope these resources work for you as well.