Syllabi

What to include in your syllabus

Course Introduction

Outline the purpose of the course. You may include a brief synopsis of the course. Use this space to share your enthusiasm for the subject and get your students excited.

Course Learning Objectives

Your course learning objectives should precisely and clearly describe what learners will learn and be able to do if they successfully complete the course. Learning objectives should use terms that are specific and measurable. Outcomes should be designed and written for the target student audience, avoiding jargon, and should be suited to the level of the course.

Prerequisites

Expectations for prerequisite knowledge in the discipline and/or any required competencies are clearly stated. Do

You must include prerequisites in your syllabus, even if there are none. Simply type "none."

Required Course Materials

Include any required textbooks or other reading. When listing textbooks, we recommend including the ISBNs.

Technical Requirements

Minimum technology requirements for the course are clearly stated, and information on how to obtain the technologies is provided.

This can include hardware, software, subscriptions, plug-ins, and mobile apps. Include links to any downloadable software required, or a link to a "software" page in the course.

Minimal Technical Skills

Computer skills and digital information literacy skills expected of the learner are clearly stated.

Examples might include:

• Using the Canvas Learning Management System
• Using email with attachments
• Scanning documents and converting them to pdfs
• Using Spreadsheet programs

Attendance Policy

Expectations for attendance is clearly stated. Include your policy for excused absences. Include any grade deductions for tardies or unexcused absences. Outline what is considered tardy in your class.

Instructor Biography

Include a brief bio of yourself. This creates a sense of connection between you and the learners.

You may include:

• Comments on teaching philosophy
• Past experience with teaching the course
• Personal information such as hobbies, family, travel experience, etc.
• A graphic representation, audio message, or video (including alternative formats such as a transcript of close-captions to ensure accessibility)
• How you prefer to be addressed

Instructor Contact Information

Include:

• Your name (and title, if desired)
• Email
• Office phone number
• Office hours (this can include virtual office hours, using Zoom, Google Hangouts, Slack, etc.)

Grading Policy

• You do not need to include the breakdown of assignment group weighting (Quizzes = 20%, Tests = 40%, etc.) as this will be automatically added to your syllabus by Canvas. Be sure you set up assignment group weights. Information on setting up assignment weights can be found on the Assignments Settings page of this style guide.
• If grades will be reduced due to late submissions, clearly state the amount of the reduction.

Grade Scheme

• If using an NCSSM Course template, this has automatically been added to your course syllabus. If you edit this information in your syllabus, be sure to also edit the grade scheme in the course settings. This may need to edited if teaching an Online or Open Enrollment course.
• You can find the current default grading schemes in the Grading section of the style guide.

Communication Policy

Clearly state your plan for interacting with learners during the course. Include:

• Your time-frame for responding to emails
• When students can expect to receive your responses to discussion posts and feedback on assignments
• A statement explaining the regularity of announcements students can expect in the course.

Netiquette and Academic Integrity Policy

• If using an NCSSM Canvas template, this has already been added to your syllabus and cannot be edited. If you wish to add additional guidance to students, we recommend adding a section to your syllabus preceding the "NCSSM Academic Integrity and Netiquette" section called "Course Academic Integrity and Netiquette" or similar.
• Expectations of how learners are to communicate online and in the classroom are clearly stated. Types of communication include email, discussion forums, assignments, and other interactions or collaborations.

This is the policy used in the course templates, in case you need to add it to a syllabus elsewhere:

All work turned in by you should be the result of your own efforts unless otherwise instructed. All tests and quizzes should be done individually with no help from others. Specific instructions on how to collaborate are given for any assignments that are completed with a partner or a group. Tutorials may be available to you, but only if your teacher allows you to get help on an assignment. It is always to your advantage to make a serious attempt at an assignment before seeking help.

For essays and research assignments, students must cite all sources for ideas that are not their own. For a guide to citing sources and avoiding plagiarism, a student should confer with the course instructor and Purdue Online Writing Lab's citation guides (Links to an external site.).

The following are considered a breach of academic honesty:

1. Giving or receiving help during a test or quiz;
2. Discussing the contents of a test or quiz;
3. Programming unauthorized information into electronic devices to be used during a test or quiz;
4. Completing graded assignments for other students - violation for both the giver and recipient of the work;
5. Collaborating on assignments that have clearly been designated as individual work; unless the submissions notes a group assignment, it is considered an individual assignment.
6. Not citing correct sources for ideas and evidence in written and, in some cases, oral work (including copying or heavily paraphrasing summaries or abstracts from scholarly or academic work and representing them as your own)
7. Taking credit for more work on an assigned group project than was actually contributed;
8. Submitting work previously done for another class at NCSSM or elsewhere without acknowledgement.

Also, please review the core rules of netiquette (Links to an external site.) for some guidelines and expectations on how to behave in an online learning environment.

An instructor who suspects that a student has violated academic honesty expectations should discuss the situation with the student and, on the basis of that discussion, decide whether the perception is accurate or inaccurate. If the instructor believes that a violation did occur, the procedures stated in the Code of Student Conduct should be followed. In accordance with school-wide policies and the list above, the instructor sets the standard for what does or does not constitute academic dishonesty in a specific class.