Center for Teaching and Learning

Syllabus Creation Guidelines

 

Syllabus Creation Guidelines (last updated 10/2023)

Accessibility

All Brandeis University syllabi must be accessible (in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and revised ADA regulations) and must provide Important Brandeis Policies and Resources.

Tone

It is important to create a syllabus that is learning-focused rather than content-focused (Palmer, Wheeler, & Aneece, 2016). Content-focused syllabi describe the rules (what students will and will not do and how they will be rewarded or punished) and list requirements in an abstract way with an emphasis on due dates. Learning-focused syllabi emphasize what students will learn, highlight big ideas or questions that will be explored, explain how the engagement will take place, and describe how student learning will be demonstrated to the instructor and students themselves. Often the difference between the two is the tone of the writing.

Some helpful resources

• Brandeis official academic policies and required syllabus statements
• Brandeis University syllabus template
• Syllabus creation guidelines
• Example generative AI syllabus statements
• Student-centered syllabus rubric: evaluate your own syllabi
• Wake Forest's Workload Estimator 2.0
• UVa's student-centered syllabus rubric: you can evaluate your own syllabi
• Palmer, Michael S., Wheeler, Lindsay B., and Aneece, Itiya. 2016. "Does the
  Document Matter? The Evolving Role of Syllabi in Higher Education." Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning 48(4): 36–47.