What a Syllabus is For & Series Wrap-Up (Summer Course Design Series #8)

Jay Parkes and Mary B. Harris (2002) posited three purposes of a syllabus: syllabus as a contract, syllabus as a permanent record, and syllabus as a learning tool. That old insight still holds value. In this session, we’ll consider how to make your syllabus fulfill these three main functions. We’ll also take some time to look back over the entire series and pull all the threads together.

The summer course design series will introduce you to the notion of backward course design, then use the backward design approach to guide you through the major steps of your course design. Originally created for graduate students about to teach their first full course, the series has proven useful to any instructor designing or redesigning a course, or even wanting to take a fresh look at an old course.

You don't need to attend every workshop in the series to benefit, but the more you attend, the more of a head start you'll have on your course design.