Key Points and Takeaways:
- Students do read and use the syllabus, but not in ways that we may think.
- Syllabi are the students' first contact with a course and they make immediate and lasting judgments about instructors based on it.
- The syllabus is a document for guiding students through the course and should be less transactional and more conversational.
- The more collaborative and inviting the syllabus, the more students engage with the learning.
- There is a "hidden curriculum" that assumes students know things they may not, such as what office hours are for.
- The more graphics the syllabus has, the better for student reading engagement and retention.
- Some people choose to have a formal policies syllabus and an informal alternative syllabus such as a newsletter.
