Graphic Syllabus
This week we were fortunate to have completed our 15th Course Design Studio over the past two years. We thought it timely to share this 2016 study, Student Impressions of Syllabus Design: Engaging Versus Contractual Syllabus by Mary-Jon Ludy et al. The study analyzes student responses to two different types of syllabi, the first being a text-rich contractual syllabus and the second being one that is graph-rich. The authors note that while a common complaint from instructors is that students do not read the syllabus, the literature would challenge this position stating that 70% of students use and access the syllabus on the first day and throughout the semester.
The methods of this study employed both a quantitative and qualitative analyses which indicated that there was not a discernible difference between how the respondents judged the two syllabi, however, the qualitative analysis found that four times as many statements about students liking the engaging graphic-rich syllabus over the contractual syllabus.
Finally, the findings show that both instructors and students received added benefits from a syllabus that attended to student needs and engaged in a clear and meaningful way. It is noted that students responded well to both the engaging syllabus and contractual syllabus, however the engaging syllabus was shown to have a greater resonance with students when it came to motivation and interest.
Ludy, M., Brackenbury, T., Folkins, J., Peet, S., Langendorfer, S., & Beining, K. (2016). Student Impressions of Syllabus Design: Engaging Versus Contractual Syllabus. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10(2). doi:10.20429/ijsotl.2016.100206
