ith August almost halfway over, my mind has turned to the first day of class. When I first started teaching college-level classes, the first day seemed so straightforward it hardly required prep. As ...

Many of the decisions affecting the success of a course take place well before the first day of class. Careful planning at the syllabus design stage not only makes teaching easier and more enjoyable, ...

Many of us struggle to confirm that our students do, in fact, read the syllabus. I used to read through it aloud on the first day of class. However, not only is that tedious, but there are often ...

Joseph A. Howley knew getting students to read his syllabus, even in a class that emphasized close reading, would be a struggle. So in 2015, Mr. Howley, an assistant professor of classics at Columbia ...

Both minimalist and maximalist approaches to syllabus design have their proponents: concise syllabi are easier to navigate, while detailed ones offer a more precise picture of the course structure.