Preparing Syllabus and Schedule Mikhail Nesterenko Why Syllabus

Preparing Syllabus and Schedule Mikhail Nesterenko

Why Syllabus • • • syllabus is a contract between you and students. Treat it seriously. Works both ways: – if a student says he/she does not know, have not heard, etc. The answer that closes the discussion: it is in the syllabus. be very careful about stating something in the syllabus (e. g. the number of midterm exams) and then changing it later (e. g. adding another midterm). It can be done, you just have to be very careful the students understood it. – always change to simplify, never to make it more difficult – students will think it is unfair. – in general – the relative difficulty of the course needs to be about even or with slight easing towards the end. Thus: get them to work early and quickly (added benefit – weaker students drop out) note: a few students check to see if you really mean what you wrote in syllabus (say, do you really prohibit laptops). Stand by your policy if it is reasonable.

Contents • • • coordinates/contacting instructor policy prerequisites textbook outline schedule grading policy late submission/makeup/extra credit cheating and plagiarism students with disabilities

Coordinates • • instructor’s name (they’ll need, believe me), office, classroom, lectures/lab times, email, office hours (better be determined by the time you hand out syllabus), to make useful, schedule them right before or after classes – students might come then – if before class – can use for preparation – do not make office hours that are hard to attend – too early/too late, once a week, etc. nice if you can name the TA, better if you list his/her office, office hours course’s webpage, mailing list, contacting the instructor – answer email – outside of office hours – by appointment, will still walk in at random times (see if it is urgent or minor and give consultation), may start abusing, if big class – may become a problem

Prerequisites • • • required courses/knowledge that a student needs to take before this one. for undergraduate courses this is usually determined by the curriculum committee so you do not have leeway requirements explicitly stated in syllabus are very handy in case there is a conflict – for example familiarity with C++ in case there is a project on C++ and you won’t cover it. Be prepared to explain what you mean by familiarity (classes/pointers, STL, basic loops? )

Textbook • • • select it. It is your best teaching tool. Spend time choosing it make sure to state that the textbook is required. Be prepared for students to still ask if it is really required. Do not pick more than one required textbook – they cost money. do not put recommended textbooks in the syllabus. The students won’t buy them and you can’t refer to them. do not make students buy anything besides the textbook. Buying something costs money. Provide extra reading yourself. make sure to invoke textbook in class – make them read it, assign from textbook (but do not repeat it, unless you wrote it, even then don’t) – easy way to spoil relationship with students: make them buy a textbook and not use it.

Course Overview • • • no particular instrumental use. schedule does a lot better job usually good to get started introducing the course on the first day

Determining Schedule • • • think about the schedule. It usually centers around tests, assigned homework and projects. make sure that you space them out so that multiple assignments (homeworks and projects) are not due on the same or close date. – students tend to start working on an assignment pretty close to the due date. However, give them sufficient time anyway problem to think about: need to have the material covered before students can start working on assignments. If assignment is too late (wrt material covered) – the students forget what was discussed in lecture and have to re-learn (wasted lectures, frustrated students, inefficient) – avoid long semester-long assignments. Break them up into smaller, manageable ones: note, more scheduling work for you – do not schedule anything for first week/two weeks – students coming and going do not put deadlines right after breaks (students are forced to work on breaks) – before break is ok (can always give an extension with minor penalty for weaker students willing to work on break) do not cancel class before break – discipline suffers. Easy way to silence complainers: the students paid for the whole course. Keep in mind that some students will miss it anyway. Do not put something vital, or be prepared to repeat it

Determining Schedule (cont. ) • • try to schedule some kind of major test early in the semester and get the results to students quickly so that the students get the idea of class’s difficulty, your grading style, etc. The benefits are mutual – weak students drop out or start putting in more work – you get the feedback as to how they are learning publish approximate schedule early. This way both the students and you have a guideline throughout the semester. Ideally – hand it out together with syllabus. Note that what you hand out, cannot easily be amended. Cal it tentative schedule – it is okay to move deadlines a bit. However, do not do it often, provide justification for the movements and always move them back (remember: do not make it harder)

Grading • • • state grading policy – how the final grade is determined, what the weight of each individual assignment should be – weigh you grading such that assignments requiring more preparation get more weight. Weigh heaver the ones you (not TA) control – make sure the grade is sufficiently differentiated – students like +/- grades grading is usually the most hotly contested issue. State it clearly in syllabus explicit curving (despite scientific trappings) punishes better students and weakens discipline. Use with caution or avoid. extra credit punishes better students. Try to arrange your grading such that it is not required participation grade – as in grade for just coming to class punishes better students and weakens discipline – as in grade for talking in class and participation in class discussions. Good motivator, difficult to enforce fairly. more in separate lecture

Late Submission/Makeup Policies • • • best if avoided – schedule exams well in advance, be clear when homeworks/exams are due however, you won’t: students get sick, have emergency circumstances (note: forgetting deadline is not an emergency) – general attitude: the class is for learning not punishing students, the policy needs to be fair but firm and not too onerous. Remember if you fail a student on major assignment, he/she is out of the class – taking attendance: brutal, seldom worth it, think twice before introducing – if no late homeworks (make sure it is clear, accept over email) – no makeup exams (probably best avoided) – late projects – probably allow: extensive work, hard to predict timing if debugging is involved. State clearly what late policy is. Worth stating it such that they keep working until done. – spot and clamp down on failing-as-late/makeup/sick late/makeup add to your time commitment. May be significant if large class. Streamline.

Cheating and Plagiarism • • • the university makes you put in syllabus several paragraphs of legalistic text. Not worth repeating in class however, sternly state in class that you are serious about enforcing no-cheating, explain that it applies to coding, copying on internet students from other countries may have lax rules on plagiarism. Which may mean that they may expect instructor to state the anti-plagiarism stance but not enforce it. Helps to cite an example of a student failing/being expelled – more in separate lecture

Students with Disabilities • • usually, there is a standard text to be put in syllabus. Not worth repeating in class try to accommodate students with disabilities as best you can – note, there is a limit to it – you have to serve the whole class.

Other Policy Issues • • • general attitude – make sure you are doing it in the interests of the students – if something irritates you personally, but okay with students (like sleeping in class, as long as not snoring), see if you can allow it – if it becomes an issue during semester, make a note, put it in syllabus next time talking to other students – absolutely not. Extremely distractive. Quickly deteriorates and ruins class. Disallow and stick to it firmly. Put in syllabus? try not to be late (try not to enforce too harshly – everyone can be late, remind sternly once and live with the rest) silence your cellphones (nice to remind about it), absolutely no talking on cellphones in class. Probably okay with texting, not distracting anyone but themselves laptops in class – huge distraction, however, some take notes on laptops, warn and allow individually (? ) no eating in class(? )

Syllabus Style • • • businesslike – title, sections, section titles. It is not a comic book or an advertisement do NOT overuse (try avoiding altogether) bold font, italics and other forms of emphasis!!!! – if you are overemphasizing something, then something else, by comparison, becomes less important. Everything in syllabus is important – overuse of stylistic accents gives an impression that you are not sure that your students will learn (or you will deliver) the message. Besides, a lot of style is no style should be businesslike, not neurotic

What to Say in Class • • • go over syllabus – do not assume the students will read it, – cover at least the parts you want them to know – focus on parts that are “unusual”: other instructors seldom do it (or you remember that students had trouble remembering some part) do not create an impression that you try to “catch” them by putting something in the syllabus and then not mentioning it in class do not dwell on syllabus: it is not the most exciting part, the students heard it multiple times. Go over it quickly and get to the subject matter. – excellent way to ruin discipline in the first class: discuss syllabus and leave, or give easy introduction (make them read it in the textbook instead).