Each week, the Faculty Collaborative for Teaching will bring you an easy-to-implement tool that you can use immediately in your classroom teaching. The goals of these tips will be to add to your teaching toolbox, share resources on teaching, and alert you to upcoming teaching and learning opportunities from the Faculty Collaborative.

TUESDAY TEACHING TIP: Is your syllabus a binding contract or a welcoming invitation?

Does your syllabus look like an iPhone contract, listing endless paragraphs of information that students numbly scroll through looking for the assignment due dates? If your students’ eyes glaze over at the sight of your ever-longer syllabus, or if the syllabus makes you sound more like a correctional officer than an educator, consider changing your approach. The newest research in teaching and learning suggests we should look at our syllabus as an invitation to a community of learning instead of a contractual agreement listing sanctions for breaking our rules. Inviting syllabi can be especially important for creating equitable environments in STEM fields where historically marginalized students often feel minimized.

This week, we encourage you to look over the language in your syllabus to see how inviting it is.

Here are some things to try:

• Consider changing your tone. Communicate your enthusiasm for the topic, reveal something about yourself, use the first person (instead of the third) when writing the syllabus.
• Add images to your syllabus. Check out this example from a Biology professor at the University of Texas at Austin who created a graphic syllabus.
• Add links to policies to reduce length like the example below:

Disabilities & Accommodations Many of you have disabilities, both visible and invisible, that may affect your learning. I have used principles of Universal Design in organizing this class that should help make the course more accessible for many people. Please talk with me about what kind of support you need. Contact the Office of Accessible Education to discuss your needs and to register for accommodations.

DID YOU DO IT?

Let us know how it went? We would love to hear your feedback about how you implemented today’s Tuesday Teaching Tip in your classroom. Click here to fill out our 3-question survey.

WANT MORE?

Stay tuned for an exciting special bonus Week 11 Teaching Tip on how to design assignments that are inclusive. You guessed it…it’s going to be on Tuesday.

WANT TO READ A LITTLE MORE?

• Faculty Collaborative DRT page on Syllabus Design
• How to Create a Syllabus: Advice Guide, Chronicle of Higher Education
• Creating a Syllabus that Students Want to Read
• Provost Office Teaching Expectations and Syllabus Standards

This week’s Tuesday Teaching Tip was prepared by Maggie Hunter on behalf of the Faculty Collaborative.

Missed a teaching tip? Read them all here:

• Teaching Tip #1 - Reflection (January 30, 2024)
• Teaching Tip #2 - Mid-Course Evaluation (February 6, 2024)
• Teaching Tip #3 - Beyond Think-Pair-Share (February 13, 2024)
• Teaching Tip #4 Grading–Good for them and good for you? (February 20, 2024)
• Teaching Tip #5 - Inclusive Teaching (February 27, 2024)
• Teaching Tip #6 - Mindfulness and Self Care (March 5, 2024)

And check out our full calendar of CAFEs and other Faculty Development and Faculty Collaborative events.Tuesday Teaching Tips 03/5/24