Assignment: Create a Syllabus It may cause some anxiety to put an entire course plan on paper, as if it were a contract written in stone. Actually, to some degree a syllabus is a contract: You say what you will do and what you expect from the class, and you both (students and instructor) use it as a tool and resource. The idea of syllabus as a contract is so engrained that some instructors and institutions put all their rules there, with the result that some syllabi are over 20 pages long! For this Assignment, you only need to include what you will do, what students will do, and when (the schedule component of the syllabus). Although a syllabus is by nature a plan, try not to be anxious about committing to it. Envision the syllabus as a dynamic document. Although you cannot change the rules of the game mid-way, you can change many components of the syllabus if you find it is not working for any reason. The rule of thumb is: Don’t hurt students (do no harm). Examples of harm might be moving due dates earlier, tossing out a reading that students already purchased, or adding assignments that greatly increase the difficulty of the course. If your changes do no harm, you can explain to students the rationale. It is not a preferred approach but a good one, if it results in a better learning experience for students. The most common changes are in the schedule, and there are reasonable justifications for that (e.g., if the instructor was ill one day, a speaker could not come, or the students needed more time on a topic than originally planned). As you have done for other assignments, throughout the quarter, consider teaching ethics when developing your syllabus. How can ethics come into play in this most common task of instructors? Is it through making sure you communicate all students need to succeed? Is it by being open and clear about what each party will do, and what the expectations are for performance? In what other ways can you make sure you are following ethical standards when developing syllabi? To Prepare: Complete all assigned Learning Resources. Revisit your reflections and conclusions about your personal instructional style. Review your lesson plan and assessment plan (both the formative and summative assessments within them) from prior weeks. Review the content of the Griggs textbook alongside your assessment plan, and begin to map out how you would teach an Introductory Psychology course, based on this text and plan. Research literature on syllabus development in the Walden Library, and look for syllabus models on the internet, as needed. By Day 4 Create a syllabus for an Introductory Psychology course, using the Griggs textbook as your course text. Your syllabus should include at least the following: Course description Course outcomes Course meeting times Dates for and description of assessments (from your assessment plan) Topic outline and reading assignments for each week or course meeting Grading grid and grading scale Instructor availability At the end of your syllabus, summarize and justify your syllabus design choices/approaches in no more than 1 page. Submit your syllabus by Day 4. Here are the required reading ; Learning Resources Required Readings Chapman, S. (2018). Creating an effective syllabus. Retrieved from https://tilt.colostate.edu/teachingResources/tips/tip.cfm?tipid=5 Gannon, K. (2018). How to create a syllabus: Advice guide. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/advice-syllabus TILT Staff. (2018a). Brainstorming course vision, goals and outcomes. Retrieved from https://tilt.colostate.edu/teachingResources/tips/tip.cfm?tipid=129 Lansing Community College. (2018). Determining a grading system for your course. Retrieved from https://www.lcc.edu/cte/resources/teachingtips/course_grading_system.aspx
