Annotating Our Syllabus

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person using blue highlighter pen on a book page

In the introductory materials and conversations we share with students in the opening days of our courses–call it our “syllabus” for shorthand–how are we introducing students into the course? That’s a question worth thinking about as we once again prepare and revise each course for the new semester.

A syllabus and other course materials have grown into lengthy documents over the years: beyond the overview of the course and a list of assignments, they have become policy documents, a necessary anthology of statements and communications to students regarding, among other things: academic integrity, accommodations and academic resources, attendance policies, discussion and participation guidelines, diversity and inclusion, grading, late work, learning objectives, mental health support, office hours–and if there’s any room left, maybe a few words about what students will be studying.

These and other items that have made their way onto our syllabus are all important matters. There may be no way around this rather long and somewhat legalistic document. However, we can and should think about what it is like to be a reader of the syllabus–and more broadly, to be a student invited into our course by these introductory materials.

A number of our recent workshops on syllabus, course design, and inclusive teaching (see below for links to these resources) thread together a central point: student learning correlates with a sense of belonging and engagement in the course; the ways we introduce and invite students into our course matters in their learning. We can think of the introductory components of a course as an introduction to an article or book we might read for our research. Are we engaged and curious enough? Do we have interest and clarity in the matter, but also sufficient questions and challenge to keep reading?

To help us think more about being a reader of our own syllabus and to help students read through our syllabus more actively, we propose the #AnnotatedSyllabus assignment developed by Remi Kalir, a scholar of annotations and Associate Director of Faculty Development and Learning Innovation at Duke University. You can read more about this simple but innovative way of distributing your syllabus to students at the beginning of the semester. In brief: refocus your syllabus in terms of its audience and as a shared communication for your classroom community by inviting students to annotate it with questions, comments, and suggestions.

Even if you don’t invite annotations from students, you might reread and annotate the syllabus on your own, looking for places to update, clarify, or revise how you communicate the course. Might you need to update your academic integrity policies with regard to AI? Clarify your attendance or participation expectations? Develop community guidelines for classroom discussion and free expression? Might you make the syllabus more inviting and engaging for its readers by posing key questions the course will explore, or by shifting from the exclusive use of imperatives and the second person (“You will do this but won’t do that”) to more use of first person plurals (“We will explore, encounter, attempt…”)?

Our Annotated Syllabus workshop (January 15) focuses on updating, revising, and enhancing the ways we introduce students to three broader areas of syllabus and course design. We will share and discuss some best practice and provide time for you to annotate your own syllabus in these areas (with links to additional resources):

You can find lots of discussion and resources on The Catalyst by browsing through recent posts on the home page and looking up our listing of curated Resources. There you will find this listing of resources on syllabus design:

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