Syllabus: Your Course Roadmap

"Syllabus: a brief statement of the main points of a course of study" -- American Heritage Dictionary

"Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants." -- Deuteronomy 32:2

Dictionaries often use the phrase "brief statement" in defining syllabus. In reality, most course syllabi (at least mine) tend to be multi-page documents. A good syllabus is a gold mine of information about assignments, due dates and grading expectations.

A good description of syllabi1 at schools like Southern Nazarene University appeared some time ago in the Journal of Education for Business. In describing a syllabus, Greg Kearsley and William Lynch wrote:

"The single most important instrument of structure in a course is the SYLLABUS, [a document] which outlines the goals and objectives of a course, prerequisites, the grading/evaluation scheme, materials to be used (textbooks, software), topics to be covered, a schedule, and a bibliography. Each of these components defines the nature of the learning experience:


1Greg Kearsley and William Lynch, Journal of Education for Business.

1Note: Syllabi is the plural form of syllabus.

Syllabi on this website

For courses at European Nazarene College

For course at Nazarene International Language Institute (Quito, Ecuador)

For a course at Nazarene Theological Seminary

For a course at Northwest Nazarene University

For courses at Southern Nazarene University

For course taught at Trinity International University

Are you one of these characters?

Online students I've met -- Caricatures of annoying behavior in online classes

    -- Howard Culbertson,

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