Resource of the Week #92: Some Guides to Preparing Syllabi

Hello again. As I write this post, the spring semester at my university will soon begin. Therefore, one of my next tasks is to finish preparing the syllabus for each course that I will teach.

A syllabus (plural: syllabi or syllabuses) both describes a course and lists the work that the students must do. Commonly, the students receive the syllabus during the first class session. It serves as sort of a contract between the teacher and students.

Spending time preparing a good syllabus can save time later. One reason is that a course with a good syllabus already is well planned. Another is that a good syllabus is clear, thus preventing confusion and misunderstanding.

Fortunately, some convenient guides to preparing syllabi are available online. Among them are the following:

• “Preparing a Syllabus” (from The Teaching Center, Washington University in St. Louis)
• “Syllabus Preparation” (from the “New Faculty Survival Guide”, California State University, Northridge)
•  “Syllabus Design” (from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan)

If you are a researcher who teaches (or who will teach), maybe some of these guides can be helpful to you.

Until the next post—

Barbara