It’s the fine print. All the details needed to know to make a good decision. You know--the part where one hollers for reading glasses to understand the medication side effects, or where we all strain to understand the broadcast announcer squeezing two paragraphs of disclaimers and exceptions into just one breath. Or where our favorite fruit-related computer company has a EULA that we just click through every time so we can just get something done (Apple, 2019). Higher education has that, too. It’s called the syllabus.
In a perfect world, the syllabus is the document our students want to read, and provides the first insights into the faculty’s thinking and connections between what the student doesn’t know and what they might be able to do in the future. And from that history of helping a student understand what a course might be about, the syllabus has slowly morphed into an accountability tool to both the faculty member and the student (Comer, 2016) that establishes expectations and responsibilities (Wikipedia, 2019).
And because Accountability never goes to a party without his wingman Policy, suddenly things get a little less fun for that simple syllabus. The stakes are higher. Students are trading time for earning potential and gambling with educational debt to complete this one course which may just be the bottleneck to completing their General Education requirements, or even finally completing a degree program to become a college graduate!
On my youngish campus of nearly 25-years, founded in 1994, we have yet to define and approve a syllabus policy by the Academic Senate. Further, and even closer to my interests, we have not yet defined an Online and Hybrid Course (OHC) policy. Both of these policies, in the California State University (CSU) system, have policy expectations created at the Chancellor’s Office level, but that should be defined at the local campus level. OHC, of course, relies on the Syllabus for some of its definitions and detail.
This distribution of authority to develop this policy aligns with Fullan’s (2016) model of Coherence. The CO has put the onus to complete these policies on the local campus. Campus leaders and faculty have come together to discuss and distill ideas and language that can align with our student population and campus environment. Other stakeholders, such as the Office for Student Disability Resources, the Center for Academic Technology, and even students, have been consulted and their input integrated into a draft document that conforms to system requirements, national and state laws. But the policy approvals are not finalized and accomplished.
So what to do in lack of definition around how to support our students? The right driver of moral imperative (Fullan, 2016) seems to steer each faculty member, section or program keader, and departnent chair to meet their understanding of an appropriate syllabus. And regular flurries of energy toward standardizing and defining these outcomes arise from time to time, much like Rippner (2016) describes as “fluid participation” (p. 37) within an organized anarchy of goals to ensure student success in each course.
But ultimately, this campus needs a leader to focus direction (Fullan, 2016) and accomplish this minimum requirement--the fine print--so the burden of minimum standards can be addressed and defined, allowing meaningful, helpful, student- and learning-centered syllabi (CHE, 2018) to become the norm for all courses.
References
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) [Policy Guidance]. (2018, September 25). Retrieved July 6, 2019, from https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/hq9805.html
Apple. (n.d.). Legal - Licensed Application End User License Agreement - Retrieved July 6, 2019, from Apple Legal website: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Comer, A. R. (2016, July 27). The Syllabus as a Contract. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Syllabus-as-a-Contract/237251
Fullan, M. & Quinn, J. (2016). Coherence: The right drivers in action for schools, districts, and systems. Corwin, Thousand Oaks, CA.
The Chronicle of Higher Education. (2018, September 12). How to Create a Syllabus. Retrieved July 6, 2019, from The Chronicle of Higher Education website: https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/advice-syllabus
Rippner, J. (2016). The American education policy landscape. Routledge, New York, NY.
Wikipedia. (2019). Syllabus. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Syllabus&oldid=903139237
In a perfect world, the syllabus is the document our students want to read, and provides the first insights into the faculty’s thinking and connections between what the student doesn’t know and what they might be able to do in the future. And from that history of helping a student understand what a course might be about, the syllabus has slowly morphed into an accountability tool to both the faculty member and the student (Comer, 2016) that establishes expectations and responsibilities (Wikipedia, 2019).
And because Accountability never goes to a party without his wingman Policy, suddenly things get a little less fun for that simple syllabus. The stakes are higher. Students are trading time for earning potential and gambling with educational debt to complete this one course which may just be the bottleneck to completing their General Education requirements, or even finally completing a degree program to become a college graduate!
On my youngish campus of nearly 25-years, founded in 1994, we have yet to define and approve a syllabus policy by the Academic Senate. Further, and even closer to my interests, we have not yet defined an Online and Hybrid Course (OHC) policy. Both of these policies, in the California State University (CSU) system, have policy expectations created at the Chancellor’s Office level, but that should be defined at the local campus level. OHC, of course, relies on the Syllabus for some of its definitions and detail.
This distribution of authority to develop this policy aligns with Fullan’s (2016) model of Coherence. The CO has put the onus to complete these policies on the local campus. Campus leaders and faculty have come together to discuss and distill ideas and language that can align with our student population and campus environment. Other stakeholders, such as the Office for Student Disability Resources, the Center for Academic Technology, and even students, have been consulted and their input integrated into a draft document that conforms to system requirements, national and state laws. But the policy approvals are not finalized and accomplished.
So what to do in lack of definition around how to support our students? The right driver of moral imperative (Fullan, 2016) seems to steer each faculty member, section or program keader, and departnent chair to meet their understanding of an appropriate syllabus. And regular flurries of energy toward standardizing and defining these outcomes arise from time to time, much like Rippner (2016) describes as “fluid participation” (p. 37) within an organized anarchy of goals to ensure student success in each course.
But ultimately, this campus needs a leader to focus direction (Fullan, 2016) and accomplish this minimum requirement--the fine print--so the burden of minimum standards can be addressed and defined, allowing meaningful, helpful, student- and learning-centered syllabi (CHE, 2018) to become the norm for all courses.
References
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) [Policy Guidance]. (2018, September 25). Retrieved July 6, 2019, from https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/hq9805.html
Apple. (n.d.). Legal - Licensed Application End User License Agreement - Retrieved July 6, 2019, from Apple Legal website: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Comer, A. R. (2016, July 27). The Syllabus as a Contract. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Syllabus-as-a-Contract/237251
Fullan, M. & Quinn, J. (2016). Coherence: The right drivers in action for schools, districts, and systems. Corwin, Thousand Oaks, CA.
The Chronicle of Higher Education. (2018, September 12). How to Create a Syllabus. Retrieved July 6, 2019, from The Chronicle of Higher Education website: https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/advice-syllabus
Rippner, J. (2016). The American education policy landscape. Routledge, New York, NY.
Wikipedia. (2019). Syllabus. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Syllabus&oldid=903139237
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