Syllabus Resources

In addition to using the Syllabus Templates linked above, please see the additional information below.

Student Absences

For additional information or to review TCU’s policies about Official University Absences, please visit the Dean of Students: Student Absences page.

New to TCU Teaching Resources

Visit the New to TCU Teaching Resources created for all who teach, especially those who are new to TCU. Here you will find a wealth of information about additional policies (FERPA, attendance expectations, Title IX, etc.) and documentation that may be helpful as you build your syllabus, such as CORE and WEM designations and guidelines, unsatisfactory grades information, Don’t Cancel that Class workshops, and links to the Faculty/Staff Handbook and Part-time (Adjunct) Faculty Resource Manual.

Native American Land Acknowledgment

If you would like to use TCU’s Native American Land Acknowledgment, the short version is below. To learn more, see Native American Land Acknowledgment.

TCU acknowledges the many benefits, responsibilities, and relationships of being in this place, which we share with all living beings. We respectfully acknowledge all Native American peoples who have lived on this land since time immemorial. TCU especially acknowledges and pays respect to the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, upon whose historical homeland our university is located.

Check Department Standards

A department may have specific standards or norms about policies or expectations, such as the amount of homework given for different course levels, if late work is accepted, if there is a uniform unexcused absence penalty, what the average grading turnaround time is, or what percentage of student work should be graded by the official drop date. Some of these may be official departmental policies, others might be more like guidelines or suggestions. You should check with your department to align your syllabus with those standards.

Confirm Dates

Don’t forget to compare your course schedule with the Academic Calendar for holidays and special days when your class might be cancelled, such as convocation, breaks, and holidays. Also look up your Final Exam dates and times.

Review for Accessibility

As with all course content, it is important to ensure that your syllabus is accessible. As you add your content to the syllabus template, be sure to consider the following:

• text, use properly formatted headings to build hierarchy and structure into the page, and maintain a proper reading order.
• images, add alternative text descriptions that provide information to the reader about the content and function of the images.
• lists or tables, format lists as lists (using the bullet or numbered list button), and create tables with column and/or row headers.
• links, should have meaningful link text that indicates the link’s destination.
• colors, use sufficient color contrast, and do not use color alone to convey meaning.
• required software, web applications, or links to external resources, (such as online materials provided by publishers, software required for class, and links to websites) should also be accessible. If they are not accessible, an accessible alternative will need to be provided that allows for an equally effective learning experience. Ask the vendor/publisher these questions before adopting their tools and materials.

Once you have finished adding content to your syllabus, consider the following to ensure your syllabus is accessible.

• For Word documents, view the Microsoft Word Document Accessibility guide and run the Accessibility Checker. Fix any identified errors.
• For a PDF, view the PDF Accessibility guide, perform an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) check, and run the Accessibility Checker. Fix any identified errors.
• If using the HTML Editor in TCU Online, view the TCU Online Accessibility guide and run the Accessibility Checker. Fix any identified errors.

View the Creating Accessible Course Content resources for more tutorials and tips on meeting accessibility guidelines in your syllabus and course content.

Offer an Accessible Format

As with all course content, it is important to provide the syllabus in an accessible digital format. Providing students with only a paper copy does not meet accessibility guidelines. To provide an accessible digital format, consider uploading the Word or PDF document to TCU Online, or creating your syllabus using the HTML Editor in TCU Online.

Looking for a way to motivate students to read the syllabus?

In Class: Create an active, engaging, student-centered experience that demonstrates how you believe learning happens and helps build classroom community from the first day.

• Information Search: Divide students into groups and give each group a different question, assignment, or policy they have to teach their peers about based upon the information in the syllabus. After a short planning time, each group presents about their question, assignment, or policy. Presentations can be informal and may or may not include visual aids. This can also be done with content or information from TCU Online.
• Syllabus Stations: Give each student a copy of the syllabus and divide them into small groups. In groups, the students visit various syllabus stations around the room. Each station has a commonly asked question about a policy, assignment, or element in the syllabus. Groups have to find answers to each question because at the end of the period each group will have to answer a question for the class. This activity starts training students to be responsible for their learning by asking them to look for the answers in the syllabus. Learn how to set up and lead this activity, as well as a few helpful tips.
• Team-based Game: Encourage students to meet one another and start building classroom community by creating a team-based game about your syllabus and policies.  Divide students into small teams and have them compete to answer questions about the syllabus based on speed and accuracy covering the content you usually say or read to them.
  • Option 1) It could be done through a live, question-by-question format where you call out the question and teams have a limited amount of time to find the correct answer and buzz in.
  • Option 2) It could be a multiple-question survey format they have to complete together and turn in at the front to you, but when they do, you’ll ask each individual team member a random question from the survey, so they each have to be able to answer all of the questions.

Out of Class: Require students to engage with the syllabus and complete the task outside of class using one of the activities below. You can use the first-day class time to create interest in your course through big-picture questions, real-world problems, or future challenges the course will grapple with or address.

• Netiquette Email: Teach students about email netiquette and syllabus policies by having them practice emailing you answers to questions you have posed about the syllabus. This can also provide you with a simple writing sample. Read about this syllabus and netiquette technique in action. This could also be paired with the Pre-assessment Writing option.
• Pre-assessment Writing: Collect a formal or informal writing sample by asking students to read the syllabus on their own and write about how the upcoming course outcomes and assignments connect to their previous experiences, current interests, or future goals. This type of pre-assessment writing can help students set personal goals, and reflect about their learning metacognitively later in the semester. It can also help find unexpected ways to create student engagement through the other interests and experiences students identify.
• Scavenger Hunt: Help students learn the organization of your course content by creating a TCU Online scavenger hunt that incorporates syllabus components and interesting hidden messages, images, questions, or surprises. For example, have students identify which chemistry pun or cartoon will best help them remember the Heavy Metals in week 3’s content. Or find in Unit 2 which musician’s songs can help students remember different literary devices.
• Secret Incentives: Require students to read the syllabus for homework. Before giving students the syllabus, include a sentence somewhere in it directing students to email you that they have read and understood the policies or assignments and will not tell peers about the secret sentence. To encourage students to keep the secret, include a stipulation that if less than half the class emails about the secret, the students who do email get two bonus points instead of one. Other instructors have included secret tasks or challenges in the syllabus that must be completed in the few weeks of class for a bonus point or two.
• Syllabus Quiz: Write a syllabus quiz that covers the main content areas you might normally read to students on the first day. Have the students read and complete the syllabus quiz on their own during the first week. Consider having an open-ended question that allows them to ask you any questions they might still have, and let students know where you will post answers to these questions or when you will anonymously address them in class.

Doolittle, P. E., & Siudzinski, R. A. (2010). Recommended syllabus components: What do higher education faculty include in their syllabi? Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 21(3), 29–61.

Eberly, M. B., Newton, S. E., & Wiggins, R. A. (2001). The syllabus as a tool for student-centered learning. The Journal of General Education, 50(1), 56–74.

Garavalia, L. S., Hummel, J. H., Wiley, L. P., & Huitt, W. G. (1999). Constructing the course syllabus: Faculty and student perceptions of important syllabus components. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 10(1), 5– 21.

Matejka, K., & Kurke, L. B. (1994). Designing a great syllabus. College Teaching, 4(3), 115–117.

O’Brien, J. G., Millis, B. J., & Cohen, M. (2008). The course syllabus: A learning-centered approach (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Parkes, J., & Harris, M. B. (2002). The purposes of a syllabus. College Teaching, 50(2), 55–61.