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Imagine you signed up for an African safari. \u00a0You were told that you\u2019d see lions, elephants, giraffes, rhino and zebras. \u00a0But at the end of your trip you only saw lions. \u00a0Your safari leader apologizes and explains that he planned poorly and didn\u2019t leave enough time to get you to the other animal\u2019s habitats. \u00a0You would probably feel disappointed and disillusioned about that leader.<\/p>\n
Your students want the same thing from your syllabus. \u00a0They want to know what exciting things to expect to learn as well as the hard work they\u2019ll have to do to get there.<\/p>\n
Before writing or revising your syllabus, think about the course from the very first day until the final exam. \u00a0Plan the learning objectives, the activities, the assessments and everything in between. \u00a0If your syllabus is to be a complete, factual representation of your course, then it is important that you have a clear understanding or map of how you\u2019ll get to your destination!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There are a whole host of ways to incorporate pictures into your syllabus. \u00a0Some people will depict the distribution of grades in a pie chart to help students understand the importance of, say participation. \u00a0Include a picture of you so that students can get used to seeing your face and can recognize you on campus.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve inserted a small, color picture of the textbook next to the textbook name so that students can be sure to visually identify the right edition when they buy it. \u00a0\u00a0Many syllabi are posted in Blackboard so you don\u2019t have to incur the cost of color printing.<\/p>\n
You could even make your entire syllabus into an infographic. \u00a0Click here to read more on this topic from The Visual Communication Guy\u2019s blog – http:\/\/thevisualcommunicationguy.com\/2014\/07\/02\/would-a-course-syllabus-be-better-as-an-infographic\/<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2026 and then stick to them. \u00a0I\u2019m talking about academic policies like accepting of late work and civility policies like eating in class. \u00a0You need to decide which policies to mention and what side of the fence you\u2019re on with them, but put them in the syllabus so there isn\u2019t any guessing about your stance. \u00a0Do you want students to be able to check their cell phones during class? \u00a0Is it okay if they snack during your lecture? How quickly can they expect to get graded work back? \u00a0Think about these and the other questions that students often have and answer them in your syllabus. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You could include a Q & A section where these questions are addressed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Your class is way more than just the content. \u00a0You and your personality have a lot to do with how your students will interact with this course. \u00a0Why not let your syllabus reflect you. \u00a0What about using humor to get your point across? \u00a0Whether you\u2019re teaching an on-campus or an online class, how about a short video of you introducing yourself?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What good is writing an awesome syllabus if the students don\u2019t read it? \u00a0You have put a lot of thought and work into this document and you\u2019re hope is that students will keep it on their bedside table and read it nightly! \u00a0But often the syllabus is like the owner\u2019s manual that gets overlooked and tossed into a drawer (until something breaks).<\/p>\n You could give your students a quiz on your syllabus. \u00a0In an online class I taught, the students had to pass the syllabus quiz in order to have the course content revealed. \u00a0The syllabus quiz works equally as well in face-to-face classes.<\/p>\n Another way to get students looking at the syllabus is to refer to it often in class and ask them to pull their copy out and read along with you as you cover important ideas. \u00a0For example, as the first test approaches you can refer back to the syllabus and read the policies on test taking. \u00a0Do you allow them to use their book? \u00a0Can they use a calculator? How much is this exam worth? \u00a0All of those questions are (hopefully) answered in the syllabus. \u00a0Model the behavior of referring back to that important information in your AWESOME syllabus.<\/p>\n For more help with your syllabus, contact me at Jen.Gregory@valpo.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Jen Gregory, Director of Instructional Design \u00a0Spend some time planning (or reviewing) the course Imagine you signed up for an African safari. \u00a0You were told that you\u2019d see lions, elephants, giraffes, rhino and zebras. \u00a0But at the end of your trip you only saw lions. \u00a0Your safari leader apologizes and explains that he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[76,118],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-17293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-35","tag-curriculum","tag-preparing-for-class"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"kim.pomeroy@valpo.edu","author_link":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/author\/kim-pomeroyvalpo-edu\/"},"featured_img":null,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"Profile":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"kim.pomeroy@valpo.edu","author_link":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/author\/kim-pomeroyvalpo-edu\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":" by Jen Gregory, Director of Instructional Design \u00a0Spend some time planning (or reviewing) the course Imagine you signed up for an African safari. \u00a0You were told that you\u2019d see lions, elephants, giraffes, rhino and zebras. \u00a0But at the end of your trip you only saw lions. \u00a0Your safari leader apologizes and explains that he…","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["2018<\/a>"],"unlinked":["2018<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Curriculum<\/a>","Preparing for class<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Curriculum<\/span>","Preparing for class<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 11 years ago","modified":"Updated 11 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on August 14, 2015","modified":"Updated on August 14, 2015"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on August 14, 2015 1:50 am","modified":"Updated on August 14, 2015 1:50 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17293"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=17293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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