How do you go about designing a syllabus?

I begin with a huge list and narrow it down. I have my basic “go-to” readings. I revise it from there. If there is a current event that is related, I add that (I have taught Juvenile Justice, for example. When a new theme, highly visible case or change in law occurs, I revise my master syllabus to include that).
I also try (not always possible) to give my students some choice, especially in upper level classes. Some classes prefer tests, some papers. I ALWAYS have at least two papers. I need to, my university requires “writing standards”
What type of course are you teaching?
You can also find example syllabi at your discipline’s professional organization page(s). I wouldn’t copy them, word for word. However, it can be a good place to start.
I would recommend adding at least one topic that you are passionate about and specialize in. Students will eventually learn you are the go-to “gender” or “conflict theory” grad student (a couple examples from my discipline). This will make you part of the community and the students will appreciate your interest.

I just saw you listed sociology as a topic. That’s what I teach! What course are you designing?

@naomi29 – Hah! As soon as you mentioned conflict theory, I had a feeling that we were in the same discipline! I am designing a course on the sociology of American higher education.

Oh- check ASA- they have syllabi suggestions. Soc of higher ed- that sounds really interesting. I would love to know what you end up assigning…

Syllabus design starts with a needs analysis – what do the students need to learn? What does the school or university need to impart?

Once you have the needs analysis, you have your goals. It’s then a matter of working backwards to broke those broad learning goals down into more manageable skills and knowledgde items.

We have a tool that models best practices for creating a syllabus. It’s called the Online Syllabus Template tool and you can download the file from our Faculty Resources page at http://www.fact.usu.edu/htm/faculty-resources. It is a PDF file that opens in the free Adobe Reader.

Regards,

George

Check to see if your university has any boilerplate statements to go in the syllabus, such as a learning disabilities clause, handicapped accessibility, sexual harassment, university attendance policy, and so forth. They probably do. Then see if they have a template or suggested design. If not, talk to your chairperson or a senior faculty member. Remember that syllabi are increasing becoming more like legal documents, so make sure you’re clear about grading standards, required materials, lateness policy, etc. If you’re challenged on a grade, that syllabus will be very important to your defense. (Trust me. I was a department chair for 8 years.)

My first few syllabi were always jam-packed with readings, assignments, and pointless tasks that I thought my students would like/keep them from falling asleep. I haven’t fully adopted a less-is-more position, but there is something to be said for not including more material that you actually can get through in a term. I learned the hard way that, if you have assigned far more readings than you cover in class, your students will soon figure that out and adjust their behavior accordingly. In those first few classes, I would occasionally have negative teaching evaluations that began, “Professor assigned lots of readings but didn’t get to them.”

Along with jazzticity’s excellent suggestions, I would submit that you should sit down with a calendar and a rough estimate of how long it takes to actually do the work that you’d like to assign. Then subtract 10% (at minimum). You are, after all, at the next level and, therefore, presumably read and comprehend more quickly than your students will.

And then make sure you add the “This document is provisional” or “I reserve the right to make changes to the schedule, readings, etc.” disclaimer.

Narrowing things down:
Consider. If you had your students read only one book, what would it be? Why?
Then, if you had them read only two books, what would it be? Why these two? How long do you think it would take to teach these two books?
Repeat until you have reached the maximum you think the students can take in your course period. Yay! You have a shortlist!

Then also work the other way, top down. Go back to the goals of this course. Is there anything missing from what you feel like is essential to your course? (e.g., some obscure topic or seminal work that is not necessarily your favourite but they sort of need to know it.) Readjust the list according to those needs.

Voila!

The best syllabus is an annotated timeline for the course. In addition to a required reading list, including supplemental materials and URLs is extremely helpful. If the reading is listed tied to the class meeting, then you will be able to stay on track, and post class notes or an outline, so that if a student misses for some reason or has a 504 plan, they will be able to pick up the notes.

Sounds like fun!

Thanks folks!

One thing I would strongly recommend is having a complete list of all requirements, with due dates, in one place. For each of the last several classes I’ve taken, I have had to do a laborious job of assembling all pertinent information into one big table where I could check things off as I did them. There were heaps of information sprawled all over the place, in a syllabus and in numerous groupings of links online, that made it very hard to see the whole picture of what should be read, written, posted, e-mailed, carried to class, and written in class, and when.

The instructor who came the closest to supplying full information also forgot to update a lot of the due dates from the last time he taught the class, and when he did, he often mismatched day and date, as if he were looking at the wrong calendar. Do double-check everything.