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Write syllabus for blended/online course Teaching Commons 2017

Overview Common syllabus components Additional syllabus components suggested for blended/fully online courses Strategies to motivate students to read syllabus Templates and examples

Facilitators Yelin Su Educational Developer, Teaching Commons ysu@yorku.ca Ext 22117 Lisa O’Neill Educational Developer, Teaching Commons mloneill@yorku.ca Ext 22138 Polling activity: Which faculty are you from? Do you have a syllabus developed for your fully online/blended course?

Essential purpose/value of a syllabus The syllabus serves as a map of the course and an agreement between instructor and students The syllabus provides a teaching and learning plan for students This is what they must do This is when it must be done This is how it will be graded This is how their grades for the semester will be determined

Essential components for syllabus Course information Course info (credits, prerequ’s, term, course page, location, etc) Your name, email, (virtual)office hr’s, phone #, homepage link Expanded Course description Statement of the purpose Course learning outcomes Course Structure Schedule of topics and readings Course evaluation and grading information Expectations & responsibilities of you and your learners Associated policies (academic honesty, ethics review, accessibility, etc)

Additional components for blended/fully-online courses Online classroom organization Class participation expectation Guidelines for remote participation Etiquette for online learning (Netiquette) Instructions on teamwork Online communication guidance Communication with the instructor Technical requirement What it takes to succeed in a fully online class

Online classroom organization Online classroom procedures The class and tutorial format Explanation of course geography, such as specifics on how to log in to the course, how often to log in to the course, how the online classroom is organized, where to post materials in the classroom, how often to post in the discussions, and any special other instructions.

Class participation expectation Participation expectation, focusing on guidelines for remote participation, Expectations for discussion forum participation, Netiquette (how to communicate effectively and courteously online) guidelines. If students are required to do collaborative team projects online, it is best to include instructions on teamwork.

Online communication guidance Indication of instructor availability online, including “office hours” and private communications Information on communication turnaround time Preferred email addresses/ways of communication, for example whether students should contact the instructor via email or in-Moodle messages If students will submit assignments via emails, indicate file format, file size, and how the file/email message should be labelled if applicable Where the grade will be posted and the grading turnaround time.

Technical requirement Information about the software/technologies needed and where to get them Contact information for technical support Specify what to do in the event the course site is down and an assignment is due.

What it takes to succeed in a fully online course List important characteristics/skills/prerequisites required for the successful completion of the online modules Link to additional resources if applicable to provide additional information/assistance.

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Strategies to motivate students read syllabus Make syllabus easier and more fun to read Graphic syllabus https://magic.piktochart.com/output/4103252-mgmt-450-v1 Tool: https://piktochart.com/ Discuss the crucial information in the first class meeting (blended) or in course welcome messages (fully online) Revisit when the crucial information becomes more relevant Have required/extra credit/graded activities requires syllabus reading Have students develop questions about the syllabus (individually or in group) A scavenger hunt exercise requires students to review the course syllabus to find answers A syllabus quiz

Guidelines & Templates York university course outline guidelines http://secretariat.info.yorku.ca/files/CourseOutlineGuidelines.pdf York basic course outline model http://secretariat.info.yorku.ca/files/BasicCourseOutlineTemplateNovember2013.docx Q & A