Inclusive Course Design
20 Online Syllabus Basics
An effective online course starts with a well-designed syllabus.
The first step in creating an effective course site is actually the creation of an effective syllabus. So, that is where we will begin!
For any course, a syllabus acts as both a map of your course and an agreement between you and your students. It’s a resource that you will likely refer students to throughout the course. Having an organized, approachable, and accessible syllabus helps to set a positive tone for the course and support students’ confidence in you as the instructor.
An online syllabus has some additional needs. It should be very clearly written, well organized, readable, and complete. Unlike an onground class, there may not be easy opportunities to talk through confusing points or clarify instructions or explanations. The syllabus needs to convey the necessary information in a way that students can understand.
According to Backward Design, completing your syllabus is one of the last things you do because, until you have worked through your outcomes, assessments, activities, and content, you wouldn’t have the information that you need to write one.
Once you have developed your course syllabus, it will serve as your roadmap and guide to developing your online course site.
We will begin drafting our online syllabus, and continue to work on adding and revising it throughout this program.
The Learner-Centered Online Syllabus
As we have discussed in other OTDP modules, creating a learner-centered experience is important to student motivation and retention. We can begin with a learner-centered syllabus.
In addition to including standard course information, a learner-centered syllabus also communicates enthusiasm, mutual accountability, and a belief in students’ learning potential, as well as respectfully socializing them to the roles and norms of the class (Habanek, 2005 (Links to an external site.); Sulik & Keys, 2014 (Links to an external site.)).
In her article, “A learner-centered syllabus helps set the tone for learning” (Faculty Focus, 2015) (Links to an external site.), Mary Bart suggests including the following features:
- A rationale for course objectives and assignments
Set the stage and the context for the course and where it sits within the discipline. - Shared decision making
Allow students to have some say in course policies and procedures, assignments or activities. - Warnings of potential pitfalls
Give students a heads-up of what to look out for or behaviors that could impede success. - An opportunity for students to set teacher expectations
Ask students what they expect of you. - Recommendations for staying on track
Provide guidance on how to tackle specific projects—from how much time something will take to strategies for gathering the necessary resources.
For an online course syllabus, Palloff and Pratt’s Building Online Learning Communities (Links to an external site.), recommends the following specific considerations. Online students benefit from having all of this information available to them in your course syllabus and/or your online site as your course starts.
- What are the desired learning outcomes for this course? What do I want to accomplish?
- What criteria must be included, as dictated by the institution (for example, disclaimer and office hours)?
- Are there any unique requirements that my students need to be aware of such as methods to assess progress, desired outcomes, guidelines for participation, content, and context, or the need to be aware of good grammar and punctuation?
- What guidelines, rules, roles, and norms do I want to establish upfront and stand firm on? Which can I be flexible about and negotiate? What do I let the participants decide?
- How do I want to organize the course site? What are my options? How much flexibility will I have based on the software available?
- How do I plan to asses the students? Are traditional means such as exams and quizzes adequate and appropriate? Or do I need to consider collaborative assignments, case studies, essays, and online exercises?
- How do I address attendance requirements? Will I rely on the quality, quality, and frequency of postings, or simply the number of log-ons and postings?
- Do I want to establish “office hours” online? What times can I make myself available and be able to respond quickly to student concerns, questions, and ideas?
- Do I want to offer face-to-face (on ground) tutoring sessions, meetings, focus groups, and so forth? If so, what are the logistics of those?
Additional resources
- Syllabus requirements for UMN-Twin Cities, Crookston, Morris, Rochester campuses.
- UMN Guidelines for Online Teaching and Design
Instructional Strategies & Best Practices
For instructional strategies and best practices, see the learning-focused syllabus rubric developed and validated by Palmer, Bach, and Streifer (2014). (Links to an external site.) Their rubric criteria include items such as:
- well organized and easy to navigate
- a positive, respectful, and inviting tone
- directly addresses the student as a competent, engaged learner
- indicates a learning environment that fosters positive motivation (see teaching approach section below)
- clearly communicates high expectations and projects confidence that students can meet them through hard work
This rubric could be used to review syllabi for any course– online, onground, or blended. In upcoming pages, we will look at the specific needs of an online course syllabus.
Up next
Having read this information on learner-centered syllabi, how would you rate your own syllabus? Did you look at the syllabus rubric (Links to an external site.) mentioned above? If so, what areas might you work on first?
Next, we’ll look at information that is especially critical to include in an online course syllabus.