Syllabus: Your Course Roadmap
- A course syllabus is usually a detailed multi-page document
providing essential information on course structure, assignments, due dates, and grading
expectations.
- Greg Kearsley and William Lynch, authors in the Journal
of Education for Business, say that a syllabus serves as a comprehensive roadmap for a
course, delineating goals, prerequisites, grading schemes, topics covered, and schedules.
- Syllabi at institutions like Southern Nazarene University are
vital instruments that define the learning experience by specifying outcomes, restricting student
populations, guiding evaluation methods, detailing course content, and providing a timetable for
learning.
"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:
- "Goals and objectives identify the expected outcomes and scope of the course as
determined by the instructor or course designer, restricting the domain of knowledge for the
learner.
- "Prerequisites limit the student population to those with certain kinds of learning
experiences, usually other courses.
- "The grading or evaluation scheme tells students what kind of learning activities are to be
valued (e.g., assignments, tests, papers, projects), that is, the currency of learning in this
particular course.
- "Topics to be covered specify the content that the instructor feels is important.
- "The schedule provides a timetable for learning, usually with milestones in the form of due
dates or tests."1
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,
Origin of the word "syllabus"
The word "syllabus" has an interesting origin. It comes from the Latin word "sittybas," which
itself is derived from the Greek word "sittybos" or "sittybos," meaning a label or table of contents.
In ancient Greece, "sittybos" referred to a label affixed to a manuscript or a scroll indicating its
contents.
So, in a sense, the concept of the syllabus has its roots in the organizational tools used by
ancient scholars to keep track of written materials. Then, as education systems developed, the
term came to refer to a summary or outline of topics covered in a course or a curriculum. Today,
a syllabus typically outlines the objectives, topics, assignments and projects, readings, and other
important information for a course.
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