SOTL Archives January 2014
January 6th…
SoTL in 10 minutes
Syllabus
The Many Purposes of Course Syllabi: Which are Essential and Useful?
SB Fink
Syllabus 1:1 (2012)
Despite the almost universal agreement on the need for a syllabus in college courses, what actually
constitutes a syllabus – content, format, and function – remains unclear. This lack of consensus may
derive from the need of the syllabus to fulfill multiple purposes and to satisfy multiple constituents.
(Doolittle & Siudzinsla, 2010, p. 30)
The Two-Purpose Syllabus: A Blueprint for Faculty and Students
Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at Penn State
Normally, we think of a syllabus as the document that contains all of the information pertaining to our
course. However, the syllabus can actually serve two purposes: A blueprint for you as you plan your
course and a blueprint for your students that can act as an advanced organizer and means of
communication containing the course objectives, schedule of topics, assignments, assessments, and the
grading policy for the course. Regardless of the function, a syllabus should reflect a conversational tone
as it shows the students and others how the course and its material are relevant.
January 7th…
SoTL in 10 minutes
Syllabus
How to write a syllabus?
For many of you, cut and paste works just fine – don’t forget to change the date. But consider starting
from scratch, review syllabi from other sources, follow the link below and shake things up a bit. Your
syllabus doesn’t need to be all the things outlined in the link below – but when was the last time you
evaluated what your syllabus did need to be for you and your students?
Carnegie Mellon
Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Innovation
http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/syllabus/index.html
January 8th…
SoTL in 10 minutes
Syllabus
I couldn’t decide which would be more helpful first – yesterday’s “How to write a syllabus” or today’s
link “Evaluating your syllabus”. Either way, consider NOT taking the easy way out and upgrade your
syllabi for this fall.
Penn State
Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence
http://www.schreyerinstitute.psu.edu/pdf/Evaluating_a_syllabus.pdf
January 9th…
SoTL in 10 minutes
Syllabus
Some important information for your students – consider putting it in your syllabus and/or on your
course Bb page.
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Mid-term grading, March 5-12
Last day to drop, Friday 1/17
Last day to withdraw, Friday 3/28
o Do your student know the difference between drop and withdraw?
Counseling center – Chapel, x7180
ADA compliance – Dr. Kristi Gover, 3rd floor DSC, x7067
Advising Center – 1st floor Howard, x7170
Athletic advising – Chris Johnson, x7794
Learning Resource Center – 3rd floor Swisher library, x7717
 Student Solutions Center – 2nd floor DSC, x7700
 Writing Center – Council 143, x7353
 Don’t forget about your academic advisor, coach, professor you like, mom and dad
The final exam schedule can be found here
January 10th…
SoTL in 10 minutes
Syllabus
It is the first day of class and you have spent a lot of time updating your syllabus for student
success. You could stand at the front of the room and read the document AT them. OR:
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Get them into groups and have them identify questions they have about the course. Give out
candy for novel questions not actually addressed in your syllabus.
Create a speed quiz – fastest student or small group to answer all questions correctly wins a
cheesy prize.
Turn your syllabus into a game of Jeopardy or other quiz show – again, candy for correct
answers.
o http://jeopardylabs.com/
o http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/ppt-games/
Please read this article for more first day ideas:
Here’s your syllabus, see you next week: A review of the first day practices of outstanding professors
Iannarelli, Bardsley and Foote
The Journal of Effective Teaching
10(2): 29-41, 2010
January 13th…
SoTL in 10 minutes
Documenting growth
Whether you are teaching an “old-standby” class or a new prep, you would probably like to know if your
students will grow or mature with respect to your course over the next 15 weeks. This week will
introduce 5 techniques to help assess this important issue. Use these to assess the entire semester or
an individual topic or unit.
Wordle.net
This website makes word clouds based on frequency of use each word in a list or passage. Have your
students write down the three words that come to mind when they think of “Topic X”. Type them all,
including repeats, into wordle and show them the word cloud. Then repeat the activity, at the end of
the unit or semester – which words have appeared/disappeared, grown or shrunk in size, what about
the quality of the words. Great to start a discussion of “Topic X” as well.
Credit: Steve Hunsaker, Brigham Young University - Idaho
January 14th…
SoTL in 10 minutes
Documenting Growth
Whether you are teaching an “old-standby” class or a new prep, you would probably like to know if your
students will grow or mature with respect to your course over the next 15 weeks. This week will
introduce 5 techniques to help assess this important issue. Use these to assess the entire semester or
an individual topic or unit.
Pre- and Post- Test
The questions can be objective or subjective, easy or challenging – but can give you great insight into
where your students are on day 1 (foundational knowledge and misconceptions) and how far they have
come.
January 15th…
SoTL in 10 minutes
Documenting Growth
Whether you are teaching an “old-standby” class or a new prep, you would probably like to know if your
students will grow or mature with respect to your course over the next 15 weeks. This week will
introduce 5 techniques to help assess this important issue. Use these to assess the entire semester or
an individual topic or unit.
Correct the misconceptions
You know what they are in your discipline, and chances are your students believe or have been taught
one or more of them in the past. Provide them a list and as either a writing assignment or small group
work, have them find evidence to dispute or correct the misconceptions. Maybe even have some fun
and include a few facts in the list – hopefully they won’t debunk those!