Syllabus Design

Readability

Students tend to skim. Try to avoid large walls of text, and make use of formatting options like headings, larger fonts, lists, and white space to emphasize what students need to know.

Information Organization

• Foreground key information that students need to know early on (and consider putting it on your Camino Syllabus page)
• Connect course learning objectives to assessments to show how they work in practice (you can see an example of this in the ENVS syllabus sample below)
• Move the boilerplate content somewhere else (later in the syllabus, on a separate document, or include it as hyperlinks to university statements.

Considerations

• Is there a clear hierarchy to the information in the document?
• Can you break content into smaller readable chunks with headings?
• Do you need a table of contents or other navigation?
• Can you use visual elements to highlight important information?

What do your students need to know right away? What do students tend to ask you about the most? 

• Contact information
• Course meeting times and location
• Table of Contents 
• How to get started / Preparation
• Resources
• Learning objectives
• Assessments / major projects
• Class schedule 
• Grading
• Boilerplate statements

Be sure that any language or syllabus sections that address non-student audiences (administrators, Core committee members, etc.) are meaningful to your students. If not, consider replacing those sections with links to university or departmental policies.

Take a welcoming tone

• Positive instead of punishing
• “I want you to come to class. Engagement points reward you for doing so” rather than “Attendance is required.” 
• Inviting instead of commanding
• “Late work is eligible for 60% of the original points” rather than “Late work receives a 40% reduction.”
• Cooperative instead of paternalistic

“Classes at Santa Clara, including this one, are designed for all students. If you have a disability for which I can make accommodations, set up a time to meet with me one-on-one so we can make a plan for you to succeed in my class” rather than “If you have a disability for which accommodations may be required in this class, please contact Disabilities Resources.”

Can you reconsider traditional policies, which often read as class management more than learning opportunities? Consider places where you can build flexibility into your syllabus:

• Could you expand deadlines?
• Could you be flexible about grading distributions? 
• Could you allow alternate forms of submission for graded activities (e.g. podcast instead of paper)?