Planning and Designing Your Courses
Designing a Syllabus
While there are many resources available on how to build a syllabus, some central points to consider incorporating are:
Generic Syllabus Maker
Using a Generic Syllabus Maker that creates a template of the class dates to help facilitate designing the weekly schedule.
Easy Course Navigation
Use the “Headings” function in Microsoft Word to facilitate screen-reader compatibility. The headings can create a table of contents for longer documents. You can set the table of contents to link to sections in your document for easier navigation.
Linking Assignments to Learning Objectives and Outcomes
Draw on Bloom’s Taxonomy [PDF] to connect assignments to particular learning styles. You can find more details on Bloom’s Taxonomy below.
Sharing Your Teaching Philosophy
You can include a statement on your teaching philosophy or model this philosophy through the syllabus.
For example, if you use a student-centred approach to learning, include details on student roles, collaboration, shared power, and professor accountability in your syllabus (Richmond 2016 [PDF]).
Include Accessibility Details
You can include accessibility details about the classroom space or location in the syllabus, such as the location of the closest washroom with electronic door opening mechanisms and gender-neutral or single-user washrooms.
For an example of this, see our Strategies for Accessibility in Strategies for Supporting Students.
Syllabus Quiz
A quiz based on the syllabus content may encourage students to read through the syllabus carefully. The quiz can be “open-book” with a small grade assignment.
Generic Syllabus Maker
Using a Generic Syllabus Maker that creates a template of the class dates to help facilitate designing the weekly schedule.
Easy Course Navigation
Use the “Headings” function in Microsoft Word to facilitate screen-reader compatibility. The headings can create a table of contents for longer documents. You can set the table of contents to link to sections in your document for easier navigation.
Linking Assignments to Learning Objectives and Outcomes
Draw on Bloom’s Taxonomy [PDF] to connect assignments to particular learning styles. You can find more details on Bloom’s Taxonomy below.
Sharing Your Teaching Philosophy
You can include a statement on your teaching philosophy or model this philosophy through the syllabus.
For example, if you use a student-centred approach to learning, your syllabus should include details on student roles, collaboration, shared power, and professor accountability (Richmond 2016 [PDF]).
Include Accessibility Details
You can include accessibility details about the classroom space or location in the syllabus, such as the location of the closest washroom with electronic door opening mechanisms and gender-neutral or single-user washrooms.
For an example of this, see our Strategies for Accessibility in Strategies for Supporting Students.
Syllabus Quiz
A quiz based on the syllabus content