Thriving in Academe

Creating the Elegant Syllabus
Surprising benefits emerge when faculty strive to develop model syllabi.

The literature about syllabi and and my survey of hundreds of actual syllabi reveal mixed results concerning current practice.

Altman and Cashin (1992) suggested that weak syllabi impede the quality of communication between professors and students and that some instructors underestimate the value of a fine syllabus.

It is indeed worth our effort to strive for an elegant syllabus that aims toward depth, creativity, and self-disclosure. In recognition of the importance of the syllabus, the Chronicle of Higher Education recently introduced a useful feature, a regular sidebar highlighting an exemplary syllabus in each issue.

The effort to improve syllabi is reflected in the success of the project of the West Virginia Consortium for Faculty and Course Development in International Students (FACDIS). It promotes the improvement of syllabi in order to enhance teaching effectiveness and has won two national awards.

While the functions of syllabi vary by discipline, there is nonetheless value in establishing general guidelines. At a minimum, the well-designed syllabus will include the following features, as recommended by Altman and Cashin (1992).

• Course information
• Instructor information
• Readings
• Course goals and student learning outcomes
• Course description
• Instructional methods
• Course calendar
• Course policies
• Grading criteria and standards
• A listing of all course assignments
• Support services

However, the elegant syllabus will go beyond this minimum, as an assessment reveals.

Grading Syllabi
Reviewing a lot of syllabi gives one a good sense of what to look for, and one way of assessing them is to assign letter grades.

Those deserving an F reveal themselves by their brevity. Length is not the sole criterion, but the assessment process begins there. A two-pager almost never fails to fail. What generally characterizes the F syllabus is a sketchy preface, an all-too-brief outline of course topics, only hints as to when assignments are due, and incomplete grading criteria.

D syllabi are likely to provide fuller prefaces, course descriptions akin to catalog entries, a pinch of grading information, and hints concerning the relationship between course themes and reading assignments. However, the Ds omit goals or objectives, schedules, and vital information about teaching methods.

C syllabi offer a few general course goals—but no learning objectives—clear grading criteria and course policies, academic honesty statements, an assignment calendar, and a more thorough course description. The basics are covered, but no subtext stretches the students intellectually.

B syllabi, however, begin to illustrate the intellectual rigor of a course and reflect the instructor's seriousness of purpose. With good planning and effort, these syllabi model detailed specificity and conceptual complexity. B syllabi may incorporate objectives with action verbs to state what students are expected to do to fulfill the objectives.

The A syllabus takes us one step further and moves us into the realm of creativity and risk. Authors of A syllabi ask the "why" questions that truly matter. They personalize the document and make it simultaneously user-friendly and detailed. They experiment with new process and content in ways guided by their teaching philosophy. Often their syllabi place the course in a larger context by exploring relevance to the world we live in. (See examples under "Best Practices.")

Benefits for Students
Well-designed syllabi send a variety of messages conveying a business-like and professional atmosphere. And let us remember that the first order of business in most courses, the syllabus, sets the tone for the semester.

We know that many students fear the unknown when entering a new course—which a clear and comprehensive syllabus helps to alleviate. If it remains a touchstone, referred to often by teacher and learner, then benefits will continue to accrue.

As we revise our syllabi and think creatively, we also move toward a learner-centered model of instruction, which has implications for how we conduct our business. Judith Grunert (1997) illustrated this approach in her comprehensive "learning-centered" syllabus. A.G. Serafin (1990) found that a "more detailed and informative syllabus" improved student grades. Since using a maxi-syllabus for my introductory course, I have found that A grades have jumped from 10 percent to 20 percent and B grades from 20 percent to 30 percent, although students below the class mean have not shown comparable improvement.

Business professor John Lough (1996) analyzed the behaviors of Carnegie Professors of the Year. Above all, he concluded, these exemplary teachers are well organized, which manifests itself in the "detailed precision"of their syllabi. Many favor active learning, and some even use lesson plans.

Lesson plans reflect the actual what and how of our teaching. They also save time in future semesters, prevent backsliding by recording what works and what does not, and unleash creativity.

Other Benefits
Another benefit of sophisticated syllabi is their use in the evaluation process. Nothing produces such a rich harvest of soft data as a detailed syllabus. Nevertheless, human nature is prone to the numbers fallacy.

Because hard data communicates in numbers rather than words, it is assumed to be more rigorous. Instructors should encourage administrators to recognize the limitations of standardized student evaluations and to use soft data like the syllabus more prominently in evaluating teaching.

Solid course syllabi enable us to ground qualitative assessment in the classroom experience, where it belongs. At least one accrediting body apparently agrees.

The American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business conducts program evaluation by "an assessment-oriented syllabus model for business courses." (See Cunningham and Omolayole 1998.)

Robert Diamond has pointed to cracks in the curricular foundation at three levels of the academy—individual courses, departmental programs, and general studies—all said to proceed randomly, rather than in concert.

Using the exemplary syllabus as a fulcrum can unite the three academic levels in common pursuit of institutional goals.

The importance of the syllabus may have gone unnoticed in our past. Now, however, as we pay better attention to teaching and learning effectiveness, we can indeed realize the significance of this "humble" document and raise it to its rightful place in our thinking.

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