Online syllabi suggestions
Written on April 12, 2008 by Devon Adams
I was reading a chapter on “Creating an Effective Online Syllabus” recently and found some good information that I guess I’ve not really considered. Some of it feels like common sense, but some of it just gets missed by anyone who teaches online. Sign posts included in this article are “the contract”, “the map”, and “the schedule.” Now some instructors really don’t consider the syllabus as a contract, but I’ve been doing it that way for at least five years now. Not so much for me at the college level, but at the high school level this has gotten me out of a couple jams from parents. As for the schedule, I don’t include dates anymore on schedules. I always put the dates on the Google calendars (or other course management calendars), and I even included doing this at the high school level now, too. But at that level I always embed the calendar in some public webpage the parents can access, too.
This idea from Chris Moggia of assessing based on “quality” and “timeliness” is interesting but how is that measurable? What rubric system can we use for this? I don’t know many college professors who use rubrics, and most of my high school colleagues use them badly. I find myself using them at the high school to cover my ass, but when I get to the college courses I don’t. I have an idea of how I grade each assignment, but if push comes to shove I feel like an intellectual snob who is the final word on the grade. High school feels a lot more like customer service to me than college, probably because I have to kowtow to parents there.
There’s a line here that says “Responses should we well written (please spell check!) and clearly address the issues being discussed.” This is so important. We get some really bad emails, blog posts, discussion board posts, etc… from students in our WRITING classes! I also am tired of things being labeled incorrectly. If I saw I want the section number and student’s last name in an email header, I am almost inclined to NOT read the email without those elements.
As a word about expectations. In a face to face class, we all know when the students are there (at least physically!) but online, as an instructor, I need to lay it out clearly. Writing something like “I expect you to log into the course regularly (at least three times over a seven day period) to check for announcements, new discussion posts, etc. Your full participation on a weekly basis is not only a requirement, it is an essential component of the online learning process” should better lay out the instructors expectations for the course.
Some course management systems include stats the instructors can use to see the last time the students log in (WebCT does this well), but some don’t. For example, when I use Google Apps to teach, the last time the student has emailed me, saved a doc, posted a blog, commented on a classmate’s work, etc… is how I know when they’ve worked on the class. I use to drop (after warning them) after 14 days of inactivity and my boss doesn’t want me to do that anymore. He would rather keep the student on the roster and give them an “F”.
Another thing discussed here is the placement of the syllabus. The first time I taught outside of WebCT, I didn’t make a portal page at all. I had students have no idea of how to find me. Oops! Teaching in Sakai (an open source course management system) this spring has allowed me to include my syllabus under a link to the left side near the top of the page that says “SYLLABUS”, and yes, they still ask where it is! This article suggested the syllabus has to be visible on the first two levels of the course. If it takes a couple of mouse clicks to get to the syllabus, then an introductory note should be posted on the top level and/or emailed to the students.
I taught an English 101 course in the past that was inherited from another colleague. It bugged the hell out of me that she was so damn redundant with everything, but as I taught the class I appreciated it, because of the type of student I had. So this article from Houghton Mifflin includes a clear statement of advice: “IMPORTANT! In an online environment, redundancy is often better than elegant succinctness.” I really need to learn this so it doesn’t bug me as much.
Speaking of succinctness, I will leave you my dear readers before I become verbose and return to editing my syllabus.
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I also use the syllabus as a contract and I even have my students sign a form acknowledging that they have received it. At the community college it is becoming more important that we document everything. I am even required to have certain items in my syllabus as a campus rule. I also use rubrics a lot. My course is 20% hybrid using blackboard. The students have to do research projects that they post in the discussion board. I give them a rubric for each assignment so that they know exactly what they are graded on. So when I tell them they got x number of points, I can easily justify why. I also require grammar, spelling, and full paragraph (which I tell them must be at least five sentences) I have the students critique each other and that’s worked out fairly well. Because I’m not an English teacher I find my English grading to be weak, however, a lot of my students are really good at grammar mistakes etc. and they are required to point out mistakes in their critique. Anyway, really good blog. I enjoyed reading it.