a syllabus my students rewrote

I negotiate the syllabus with students in the first class. Assessment weights, revision rules, deadlines, project topics.

• The syllabus as I wrote it
• The syllabus after the class negotiated it
• Course map

The two files are eleven pages each and they differ in the learning outcomes, the prerequisites, the office hours, and the wording of the course description.

The cost of changing

One student wrote that I “was able to listen to our feedback to make the course better.” The same report rated my syllabus 4.00 against a departmental 4.56, and that is the largest negative gap in my scores. Both of those are consequences of the same decision. A plan that moves is a plan students cannot rely on.

I’m continue to listen, but now change will have defined places to happen. Activities are adjustable, assessment criteria are fixed once the class after first negotiation, and I repost the new syllabus, with emphasis on the changes, as soon as something is improved.

The full evaluation report, including the items where I came in below the department, is on the evaluations page.