Not sure many educators stop and think about it, but I LOATHE the traditional syllabus paradigm. I understand why we have a syllabus for classes, I know the educational psychology behind the need for a syllabus, and I agree with having one. However, I hate how they look- which is closely connected to- how they are generally ignored.
Will changing the format mean that students stop asking you questions that are addressed in the syllabus? Absolutely not, but there is at least a starting point for making a syllabus more effective.
First, quit printing off your syllabus. Don’t waste the paper for the sake of sustainability, and students are already accustomed to looking online for answers. Second, consider utilizing the digital medium. Make it an organic document, make it something that updates live (like google docs), let it have videos/gifs/sounds embedded in it (ie, things that a sheet of paper cannot do). Third, make your syllabus visually appealing. The tools are easy to use that could make your syllabus more than just black text on the white paper.
Lastly, and this is a pedagogical element, consider being upfront about the emergent nature of a good course. If you are letting students construct understanding, design and build, and undertake authentic and community-centered projects as an integral part of the class, you probably do not know where things will end up and that’s okay! Just say, in your neat and interactive digital syllabus, that you don’t have the vision for what students will make because you want them to make their own vision and follow it.
Here is my current syllabus (some hyperlinks are blocked/removed and only for folks at my school- sorry). It isn’t as interactive as I would like, but it’s organic (kids can comment to parts of it and get responses to their comments), it is embedded with gifs, and is designed for a digital medium. And I’m sorry but it absolutely has too many words on some slides… I’ll try to fix that.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1y7Y76_p70LcaorE3p3xu70zdNWBy0NPQJaSd5btUteQ/edit?usp=sharing
Learning V. School 