How to Write a Detailed Syllabus and Course Objectives for College Teaching

Writing a syllabus for college level courses is not that difficult, but extremely important. Not only does it set the tone for your course, but it provides students with essential information about your course, your policies, how they can do well in your course, and clearly defines your expectations. In addition, this document can serve as a tool for yourself as the teacher to ensure you are staying on track with your course, and are meeting the objectives you outlined in your syllabus.

It is better to have a very detailed rather than a sparse syllabus. In my personal experience, I have found the more detailed my syllabus is, the better students understand the expectations for the course, the more likely they will follow instructions for assignments, and the less likely I have a student protesting a grade at the end of the semester.

While your syllabus can be as creative as you would like, this article will provide you with the basics for making a detailed syllabus.

Course information:

First, the name of the school, the department, the course number, times the course meets, your name, contact information, and office hour information should appear at the top of the syllabus.

Interesting information:

I like to begin my syllabus with a quote related to the subject matter. It helps to set the tone for the course and can be a great tool for discussion on the first day of class when you discuss with your students what the course is about, what their expectations are, and help get them started thinking critically about the subject matter. You can also consider a piece of trivia, a fun idea, or anything else that might spark some interest in the subject matter at hand.

Course description:

Next, I provide the course description as found in the college catalogue, along with any prerequisites or important information they need to know before continuing in the course.

Course objectives:

Course objectives follows. This is a crucial piece of the syllabus as it outlines what students should expect to learn or be able to do by the end of the semester. The objectives can also be thought of as a contract between you and the students-what you promise to them that they will be able to know or achieve by the end of the course. It also helps to decide upon assessment tools, and to help you assist students who may be struggling in the course if they are not meeting those objectives.

The objectives also serve as a tool for the instructor to ensure she is keeping her class on course. It helps to refer to the objectives periodically throughout the semester, and to even share with the students what objectives they are working on that day in class, or to explain how a particular assignment meets one or more of the objectives for the course. Every teaching evaluation at the end of the semester I have seen always asks students if the course met its objectives. By the end of the semester, most students will not even remember what the objectives are. If you communicate the objectives to them throughout the semester, it will help to ensure that they have a full understanding of whether or not the course (and you) are meeting the set expectations.

When writing the objectives, keep in mind that they should be as specific as possible, and should detail what students should expect to know or be able to do by the end of the semester. For example:

"Understand the various theories of adolescent development, including identity development, motivation, moral development and reasoning, social-cognitive and cognitive theories, and be able to identify the similarities and differences between the developmental theories."

This objective explains what the students should be able to understand and do. It also provides you with the ability to utilize assessment tools to ensure that they can in fact identify the similarities and differences between the theories.

Objectives should also be measurable. How will you know a student understands something or has learned course content? It would be even better to include in the objective how this is going to be measured. For example, "...and be able to identify the similarities and differences between the developmental theories through in class activities, exams, and written papers." Here you are telling the students exactly how you are going to assess them with this objective. You are providing information on what they should be able to know, and do, as well as how this will be measured.

Objectives can follow the ABCD method. A (audience), B (behavior), C (condition), D (degree). Who is your audience? What do you want them to accomplish or do (what is the behavior?) Under what conditions will this occur? (written paper, in class discussion, exams). What level of performance is accepted? (at what level or grade should their performance be at? Should they achieve an 85% on an exam or more, and if so, will they have to retake it?) It is often difficult to include the degree, and as a result many teachers leave it out and use just the ABC model, which does not include the D (degree).

An objective using the ABCD method would look something like this:

"Students (audience) should be able to demonstrate an ability to apply the various learning theories to a character in their chosen movie (behavior) in a written paper (condition) by adhering to the rubric provided them (degree).

At the college level, objectives and course content should also be focused on higher order learning. Is it really learning that a student can memorize a list of theories? Or is learning their demonstrated ability to apply a theory to a practical example? Instructors should include higher order learning objectives, such as the ability to apply, synthesize, and integrate course content to case examples, scenarios, etc.

Course format:

In this section, I clearly explain what format the course will take. If it is only going to be lecture based, state this. If however, you will be employing class presentations, group activities, guest speakers, etc. you should state this in this section. This allows students to decide whether the course is right for them, and provides them with an idea of how the class itself will flow. This would be a good place to outline how you conduct your class period by outlining how long lecture will be and types of information that will be covered in lecture (such as "lecture will supplement, not regurgitate the text"). If you include a discussion or group activity section in your course, this would be a good place to mention that you do so, and that it typically will follow the lecture period.

Students with Chronic or Temporary Disabilities/Special Accommodations:

Each syllabus should have a statement about how you will meet the needs of students with disabilities, or those requiring special accommodations. Not only does this provide students with these needs with the information about this, and how they should go about ensuring they get their needs met, but it conveys a sense that you care about each student's learning needs. You should also include information about what the student needs to do in order to receive special accommodations. For example, "Any student with a disability and wish to request accommodation should contact the Office of Student Disability Services...". I always provide the contact information for this office here as well.

Academic Integrity:

This is a crucial section that is often left off of a syllabus, and if not left out, it is never actually discussed in class. If your college or university has an academic integrity policy, it is a good idea to place the policy (or an excerpt of it) in this section. You should state exactly how you will handle issues of academic integrity, such as what disciplinary actions you will take. I find that it is also helpful to briefly discuss what plagiarism is in this section, and the importance of not plagiarizing (and consequence) of what engaging in plagiarism would lead to. I find many students do not even realize what plagiarism is. I discuss this aspect the first day of class to ensure each student clearly understands my expectations and policies of academic integrity, as well as to hopefully convey my belief in its importance.

Policies:

In this section, I provide in list form an outline of my policies. This includes the attendance policy, my expectations on how they should conduct themselves in the classroom, my policy on late assignments, (including how many points will be deducted for late assignments), prohibition of things such as computers, cell phones, or if you are in a computer lab things such as food or drink. I also list what they can expect from me. This would include when assignments will be returned, how I grade papers, and a statement about willingness to discuss disputes in grades (with a written request from the student expressing their argument given to me prior to our meeting).

Other sections:

I have separate sections for each aspect of the course that I use in their final grade. For example, there are section on exams, attendance/participation, and assignments. Within each section, I clearly state my expectations of the students, and provide information about each assignment. I utilize rubrics within my grading scheme. It can be helpful to provide students with the rubrics that will be used with their assignments throughout the semester. This ensures that each student has upfront knowledge about assignments, due dates, and grading schemes (which prevents problems later in the semester when these assignments are due).

Attendance and participation:

I find it particularly helpful and crucial to have a detailed section on what my attendance and participation policies are. As an instructor who utilizes active learning strategies such as group activities, and discussion, it is important all students participate. As a result, participation always counts toward their final grade. One way you could have students keep track of their own attendance and participation is to provide them with a point system and criteria. For example, if participation counts for 25 points in their grade, a good rule of thumb would be they have to participate at least twice a class period to get the full points. Students can tally their own level of participation each class period (in addition to you keeping track). This way, they always know where they stand and disputes at the end of the semester are less likely.

Let's face it, college students need some incentive to attend class. Grades are like their paycheck. I clearly outline in my syllabus how students can obtain full credit for attendance. Similar to the grading scheme for participation, each class is worth so many points. If you miss a class, your grade is reduced that many points. I always give one class missed as a freebie. In addition, there are also penalties. For example, more than three missed classes result in a reduction of their grade. Some schools have set policies on this. If so, outline the school's policy here. This is a surefire way to back up your class policy, and may reduce disputes at the end of the semester. If the school has a policy, students can't argue. If you detail your policy from the outset, there is less chance of a dispute.

Grading scheme:

In this section, I provide an outline of what percentage (or how many points) each assignment is worth, and what the grading distribution is.

Tentative class schedule:

Here I provide the schedule for the course along with when reading or other assignments are due. At the end, I always include a statement such as "The instructor reserves the right to change the schedule as necessary." It is inevitable that schedules will change depending on student needs. This statement allows the instructor that right and can help to prevent student protest that you broke the contract.

While providing all this information may seem tedious and perhaps overwhelming to students (or the instructor) at first, having a detailed syllabus with specific and measurable course objectives arms students with information on how to do well in the course, reduces student-teacher disputes, and provides you, the instructor with a tool to use for assessment and helps you stay on track.