Every semester, professors are forced to act as prosecutor, judge, and jury as they vigorously defend their course policies, deadlines, and expectations on a seemingly innocent document called the ...

Joseph A. Howley knew getting students to read his syllabus, even in a class that emphasized close reading, would be a struggle. So in 2015, Mr. Howley, an assistant professor of classics at Columbia ...

You may remember the syllabus. Handed out on the first day of class, it was a revered and simple artifact that would outline the plan of a college course. It was a pragmatic document, covering contact ...

Back in the days before college was largely virtual, one of the first things you learned as a student was that very little, if anything, happens on the first day of classes. Perhaps you’ve been ...

As we all rush to prepare our syllabi this August, as social media fills up with instructors lamenting how many hours they are spending and how impossibly long their syllabi are growing, we recommend ...

Both minimalist and maximalist approaches to syllabus design have their proponents: concise syllabi are easier to navigate, while detailed ones offer a more precise picture of the course structure.