The authors of Learning That Matters: A Field Guide to Course Design for Transformative Education were on a recent episode of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast (#391) and spoke with host Bonni Stachowiak about ways to design classroom experiences that challenge, motivate, engage, and affirm students.
There are two takeaways worth thinking about as we revise our course information sheets for the next semester – student hours and syllabus efficacy.
STUDENT HOURS
One of the easiest things to do in a syllabus to reframe how students think about out-of-class interaction is to rebrand the term “office hour”. At 12:44, Cynthia says:
For example, using the term student hours as opposed to office hours, things like that, but I’ve also gotten into the habit of providing a syllabus letter that goes along with the syllabus because that’s where I feel like I can really say what I need to say just right upfront.
As I was listening to this, my mind quickly drifted to elementary school. In fourth grade, I was in physical education class and was (surprisingly) one of the last survivors in a fierce dodgeball battle. I wound up in a dive worthy of nothing less than a John Woo film. And because I was an aggressive player and – more importantly – aggressively clumsy, I fell on my face and started bleeding all over the gym. The teacher scooped me up and ran me to the nurse’s office.
Then I started thinking about all my “office” associations. The principal’s office when I got in trouble (stories for another time). The doctor’s office when I was sick. Police officers (also when I got in trouble, again). Official reports (again, trouble). The dentist’s office (where I got in trouble for not flossing — multiple times).
After a coarse accounting, I don’t think I’ve ever really been in a healthy relationship with the word “office”. I’m not sure many students have by the time they come to college.
I’m not saying that’s the only reason why student’s in my classes don’t take advantage of office hours, but I’m sure that the moniker “Office Hours” doesn’t drive business.
So I’m revamping my “Office Hours” to “Student Hours”. Small change. Easy change.
I’ve also found (and many colleagues have said the same thing) virtual office hours increase engagement. And it’s not just FLCC or SUNY – Princeton wrote a piece about it as did The Collegiate Times. This semester I required my online students to set up a time in Starfish to meet with me. And it was awesome!
Additionally, in March 2020, Aaron Sullivan set up a Discord environment for the department (staff and students). It has lived on and become a vital part of the Computing Sciences DNA. I always have Discord open during my office hours, too, to accommodate students who might be camera shy.
SYLLABUS EFFICACY
I took a class two years ago and the syllabus was twenty-eight pages long. Twenty-eight! That’s a lot of content to digest and remember. In the podcast Bonni says (around 14:30):
I’ve also changed my mind a lot about syllabi. In fact, I think I’m probably never going to stop changing my mind about it, but I don’t like to talk very often about it. I used to be in corporate training and it feels like a thing you shouldn’t admit to thousands of people. Corporate training, one of the things that we used to talk a lot about is just-in-time training. That can sound cheesy, but I think about that a lot when it comes to the syllabus and how many times we said, “Go back and read the syllabus and get mad at people.” Well, how many of you can hang onto things in your brain?
And I thought back to that twenty-eight page syllabus. There were maybe five or six items that were mission critical; the rest of the content was just-in-time content. When I was writing papers for the class, I would consult the syllabus for the specifications (citations, font, etc.). But the five or six big items (late work policy, community norms, etc.) should have been front and center (and not buried in twenty-eight pages of reading).
Next semester, I’m introducing a TL;DR section into my syllabus. In internet lingo, Too Long; Didn’t Read is a mechanism where authors distill lengthy posts into only a few sentences that summarize the critically important parts. I don’t think there is anything wrong with a long syllabus as long as the length is validated by the content. But I do believe that it is important to design a student friendly syllabus that is designed for the student experience.
My TL;DR section will be above the fold and will contain a few super-uber-important bits about the class. The rest of the syllabus will (hopefully!) be organized such that students can find important information right when they need it.
I am also going to revise the language to make it more student-centered. Language like using “us” and “we” instead of “you” and “students”. I want to make the semester exploration be a group experience – me included! The APA has some good resources, as does UMASS, CSU, and IDEA.
I know I’ve been in conversations at the college with faculty who already do this. If you want to share your syllabus as an example, let me know!
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
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