A thoughtfully constructed syllabus can be transformative for your
students' learning, communicating the path they can take to succeed.
This book demonstrates how, rather than being a mundane document to
convey policies, you can construct your syllabus to be a motivating
resource that conveys a clear sense of your course's learning goals, how
students can achieve those goals, and makes evident your teaching
philosophy and why you have adopted the teaching strategies you will
use, such as discussion or group activities.
Developing or revising a syllabus also presents you with a perfect
opportunity to review the learning possibilities for the semester.
Well-designed, it can help you stay focused on achieving the learning
outcomes, as well as determine if the class is on track and whether
adjustments to the schedule are needed.
The authors show how, by adopting a welcoming tone and clearly stating
learning outcomes, your syllabus can engage students by explaining the
relevance of your course to their studies, create an all-important
positive first impression of you as an instructor, and guide students
through the resources you will be using, the assignments ahead, as well
as clear guidance on how they will be assessed. Referred to frequently
as the course progresses, an effective syllabus will keep students
engaged and on task.
Christine Harrington and Melissa Thomas lead you through all the
elements of a syllabus to help you identify how to present key messages
and information about your course, think through the impressions you
want to create, and, equally importantly, suggest how you can use layout
and elements such as images and charts to make your syllabus visually
appealing and easy to navigate.
