Academic Development Day, October 10, 2017
Workshop description: Could your course syllabi use an overhaul? Join Tona Hangen, an associate professor of history at Worcester State and recent recipient of her university’s teaching award, for a syllabus makeover workshop. Work with her on crafting a beautiful and more effective syllabus for any course. The workshop will cover improving course design, writing precise and assess-able student learning outcomes, updating the look from 8 pages of plain text, and publishing it electronically to your students. All courses and disciplines welcome! Bring a syllabus of your choice to the session.
What is a Syllabus?
- A contract & road map
- A permanent record of the course
- A learning tool
- A thing of beauty, creative expression of your pedagogy
Getting Acquainted (Padlet)
Course Design Links
- Course Design Aids (Stanford Teaching Commons)
- Planning a Course with Backwards Design (ProfHacker)
- Backwards Course Design (Indiana University Bloomington)
- Bloom’s Taxonomy basic overview (Vanderbilt)
- Bloom’s Taxonomy – cool Flash version mapping Knowledge and Cognitive Process dimensions, with sample learning outcomes (Iowa State)
Syllabus Design Links
- A Recent Example
- DIY Syllabus (Kevin Gannon, ChronicleVitae)
- The Promising Syllabus (James M. Lang, Chronicle of Higher Education)
- Design Inspiration: StockLayouts.com / Canva.com / Pinterest / 50 Creative Resumes
- Craft the actual syllabus using a platform that allows more than text… such as Pages for Mac (my preferred; I use the Newsletter templates), Powerpoint, Word, Publisher, or Adobe.
- You may need to make a plain-text Universal-Design compliant version
- Save as PDF and share in print, online and/or with Flipsnack
- Creating an Infographic Syllabus (Piktochart)
Today’s Slides
Handouts
Syllabus Checklist (made with Piktochart exported to PDF)
Course Design Brainstorming Worksheet (made with Powerpoint)
Course Design Matrix for Outcomes / Assessment (Word doc)
Bloom’s Taxonomy – Verb Ideas
More Examples
First Year Seminar HI 193 American Carnival Fall 2014
Intro-level History Course HI 112 Spring 2017
Elective: US Since 1945 HI 203 Spring 2016
Elective: History of American Thought HI 215 Spring 2014
Upper-Level Seminar: Citizen Nation HI 320 Fall 2016
History Methods Course HI 411 Fall 2017 – on Flipsnack
Senior Capstone (HI 460 Fall 2014)