Generic Syllabi
From ElateWiki
Various online courses in higher education may use generic syllabi. These are templates of syllabuses that are specific to a college department, program, college, field-of-study, or university.
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[edit] The Contents of a Generic Syllabus
A syllabus is often considered the unofficial contract between online instructors and learners. While this document does not have that legal standing, it does help set expectations among learners and is the document-of-reference if the teaching does not follow the descriptions in the syllabus.
The contents of a generic syllabus (for an online course) are typical ones:
A course description (usually tied to the official college catalog); A space for instructor professional background, contact information, office hours, and possibly biographical information (for telepresence development); General course policies (often linked to the university policies and in alignment with applicable state and federal ones—related to issues of learner privacy, accessibility, learner disabilities and accommodations, intellectual property, grading, learner honor and academic honesty, and civility clauses—often with URLs to the direct university policies themselves); A space for learning outcomes; A space for required textbooks (including International Standard Book Numbers or ISBNS, for easier learner purchases) and learning materials; A clear course schedule, and A grading rubric or cumulative grade structure.
The background behind a course build may be mentioned in the generic syllabus.
Because a generic syllabus is “inheritable,” there may be highlighted areas or form fields where updatable contents (instructor names and contact information, schedules, books and required course resources) may need to be changed.
[edit] Why Generic Syllabuses
Generic syllabuses are co-created by faculty and used to enhance consistency in the sharing of information with learners. These also protect the institution of higher education by ensuring that basic information is conveyed to all learners in a uniform and standard way. This templating also helps faculty members put together syllabi more efficiently.
[edit] Flexible Documents
These are flexible documents in many ways. Faculty may add their own instructional approaches, headshots and more “telepresence” information, URLs to main learning repositories or digital libraries, and a range of other information that will enhance their students’ learning.
[edit] Distribution to Students
Students do not usually receive generic syllabuses. They work with customized ones that are unique to each course, each instructor, and each learning term. These should be updated and clarified before students use them. These are usually distributed early in a term, and students will use these to help define their learning objectives and their e-learning path / trajectory in an online course.
[edit] See Also
“The Uses of Generic Syllabi in Collaborative Course Builds.” Retrieved Sept. 21, 2009, from http://id.ome.ksu.edu/blog/2009/jun/15/uses-generic-syllabi-collaborative-course-build/.