Organizing Syllabi for Online Courses
A syllabus is both a map of your course and an agreement between you and your students. It's a resource that you will likely refer students to throughout the course. Having an organized, approachable, and accessible syllabus helps to set a positive tone for the course and support students' confidence in you as the instructor. According to backward design, writing the syllabus is one of the last things you do because, until you have worked through your outcomes, assessments, activities, and content, you wouldn't have the information that you need to write one. You are basically translating your course map into a syllabus at the end. If you made a visual course map you may want to include that in your syllabus as well.
What is different about a syllabus for an online class?
An online course syllabus is generally similar to a well-structured traditional syllabus in many ways. The differences center on the need for it to be very clearly written, well organized, readable, and complete. Unless you are doing an in-person or synchronous video orientation there won’t be easy opportunities to talk through confusing points or clarify instructions or explanations. The syllabus needs to convey the necessary information in a way that students can understand.
Research into syllabus construction and the influence of the syllabus on student motivation and retention has influenced growing popularity of a learning-centered syllabus (in contrast to a coverage-centered syllabus). This also reflects the Significant Learning process by Fink Links to an external site. as we mentioned in the Outcomes Module. This is an especially useful form for online students who may have no interaction with an instructor in the first few weeks of class. While still containing much of the standard information, a learning-centered syllabus also communicates enthusiasm, mutual accountability, and a belief in students' learning potential, as well as respectfully socializing them to the roles and norms of the class (Habanek, 2005; Sulik & Keys, 2014).
Palmer, Bach, and Streifer (2014) developed and validated a rubric for learning-focused syllabi review Links to an external site. reflecting the importance of learning outcomes and alignment as well as Fink's Significant Learning taxonomy. Their rubric criteria include items such as:
- well organized and easy to navigate
- a positive, respectful, and inviting tone
- directly addresses the student as a competent, engaged learner
- indicates a learning environment that fosters positive motivation (see teaching approach section below)
- clearly communicates high expectations and projects confidence that students can meet them through hard work
As noted in the rubric, in an online course it is important to define expectations and responsibilities up front as much as possible. Online there are fewer opportunities for peer pressure to encourage disengaged students to participate. Making sure participation expectations, as well as other expectations such as writing quality, citation format, etc., is quite helpful to both your students and to you as the semester progresses. While spelling out these sorts of expectations in the syllabus may seem odd at first, you will appreciate taking the time to do so - and doing so in a positive, encouraging manner - as you refer students back to that pre-written section.
Having a complete syllabus at the beginning of the course is often much more important for online students than for on-campus students. On-campus students who physically see you every week tend to have a higher tolerance for ambiguity so it is easier for instructors to make decisions about the course as they go along. Changing the focus of a week, swapping out an assignment, replacing readings and resources are all easier for students to manage in an on-campus course. Online students who are balancing school work with jobs and families are less amenable to change and lack of evidence of clear planning tends to make them anxious when they don't feel a personal connection with the instructor. Lack of visible proof that the course is fully planned can be unsettling - especially to online students that have had the experience of being in a course that was only built a week or two in advance.
Sections of an online course syllabus
As you have seen over your time as a student and an instructor, there are some standard items that are on most syllabi Links to an external site.. Instructor contact information, required textbooks, course grading scale, and university, school, and department policies are almost universally included. Other sections recommended to make your syllabus complete, and sufficiently detailed include:
- measurable learning outcomes which are then referenced throughout the course
- brief module descriptions - these are especially important if your modules are not all open to students at the beginning of the semester
- technology requirements such as needing a headset with microphone, a webcam, or specialized software, if applicable
- a clear statement about types of academic misconduct, their consequences, and the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct.
On the other hand, there are also some sections you may include on your on-campus syllabus that are not needed in an online class because there are other places where they should be. For example, some instructors automatically put a section in the syllabus for detailed assignment instructions because in the on-campus class the syllabus may be the only piece of paper students keep. In an online class, the detailed assignment instructions should be kept with the Canvas Assignment, Discussion, or Quiz and only a brief overview of the assignments needs to go in the syllabus.
Faculty also often write up a schedule and include it as part of the syllabus. In Canvas, as you put due dates in published Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes, they are automatically added to both the course Calendar and at the bottom of the Syllabus Tool. When you change a date in one place it is automatically updated everywhere else in the course where you would have entered it in a due date field. Wherever you type a due date in a text box or a document, if you change it you have to manually find every instance where you typed it in and change it yourself. By using these automatic schedule tools you know everything will be consistent and students will not see different due dates for the same assignment.
Other important items to pay attention to in a syllabus for an online course include:
- When and how are you available to your students: Many instructors find that holding online open office hours is less effective than asking students to request a meeting and finding a mutually acceptable time. It's also helpful to have options for how to meet that include both phone and video. Providing more than one option for contacting you, as well as stating how quickly you will respond to requests for a meeting provides a signal to students that you are accessible to them should they have a question or a concern.
- How the time zone of the course affects deadlines and other communication: If your assignments are due at midnight students need to understand if that means only midnight in the eastern time zone and 11pm or 10pm or earlier in their time zone or if it means midnight in their respective time zone. Clarifying time zones for synchronous activities is also critical as time differences are not something most people think about on a regular basis.
- How the course progresses through the semester: Many students come to online courses with the expectation that it will work like a correspondence course - they can do what they want, when they want. The fact that there are deadlines, interaction, and potentially, group work involved can be a surprise. Making sure they understand the pace of the course from the beginning helps to set realistic expectations for student participation. If you have 1-week modules with more than one regularly occurring due date (for example, initial discussion posts are due every Friday and quizzes are due every Sunday) it is critical for them to understand the pace and rhythm in that first week.
Important Sections for Student Support
There are also some specific sections that should be included on every syllabus that you may not automatically add.