Roosevelt University - Developing a Detailed Syllabus

Developing a Detailed Syllabus
Ideas for Effective College Teaching | Faculty and Staff

A thorough and well-designed course syllabus can be critical for the success of a course. There are several reasons why.

First, when faculty spend the time and effort developing their syllabi, they are also constructing a coherent vision of the course as a whole. An overarching vision for your course can ensure that your teaching goals are addressed frequently.

Second, a detailed syllabus can help establish a shared framework for the course. The syllabus is an opportunity for students to discover exactly what will be covered in the course, how you will teach the material, and the strategies that you will evaluate their learning.

Finally, constructing a detailed syllabus allows you to anticipate -- and often prevent -- problems. For instance, clearly explaining the content, weight, and due dates for all of the assignments in your course minimizes the chance of students' confusion or classroom conflict.

Here are some important issues to include:

Basic information about the course. This includes the course number, name, as well as the current year and semester. Listing the number of credit hours is also helpful.

Information about the instructor. This includes your name (and degree), your office location and office hours, your telephone number, e-mail address, and voice mail numbers. Some faculty specify the hours that they prefer to be contacted, especially if they list a home telephone number. In addition, some faculty provide more information about themselves, such as their area of expertise or professional interests. In general, students enjoy learning more about their professors.

A list of required readings for the course. This includes full citations of the required and recommended texts. More information may be needed if there are specific instructions about how to access the material (e.g., where in the library are the reserve readings located?)

Describe the course prerequisites. Are students allowed to take these courses concurrently?

Provide students with an overview of the course. One starting point is to use the description found in the course catalog. However, this is frequently short and vague. Complement this information by providing more details. List your teaching goals for this class and the specific skills that students should be able to perform or demonstrate at the end of the semester that would indicate that they have mastered the material.

Describe the strategies that you will use to evaluate students' performance. This includes providing details about the content of tests, quizzes, essays, or projects (i.e., Which evaluation methods will be used? What material will be covered on each? How exactly will students' performance be graded?). List the relative weight of each assignment so that you (and your students) would be able to calculate their final course grade.

Provide a course calendar. This includes the topic of each class session, the readings expected for each date, and the dates that assignments are due.

List course policies pertaining to issues such as attendance, student behavior, late work, make-up work, and plagiarism. Don't wait until an issue arises in your class before you develop your policies!

Would you like to learn more about constructing a thorough syllabus? Try these two on-line tutorials available at: