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Visually Mapping Course Design for Students: The Graphic Syllabus*

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Title: Visually Mapping Course Design for Students: The Graphic Syllabus*


1
Visually Mapping Course Design for Students
The Graphic Syllabus
  • Jackie Cason, Ph.D.
  • Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence
  • New Faculty Orientation
  • Fall 2006
  • Adapted from a pre-conference workshop by Linda
    B. Nilson,
  • Clemson University, Writing Across the Curriculum
    Conference, May 2006, and from the UAF Center for
    Distance Education and Distance Learning Systems
    based on the work of Grant Wiggins Jay McTighe,
    1998, Understanding by Design.

2
Reflecting on Current Practice
  • What planning process do
  • you currently use when
  • developing a course and
  • preparing your syllabus?
  • Take a moment to generate a response.
  • You can jot notes, create a diagram or flowchart,
    or write a descriptive paragraph.
  • Just capture your current process!

3
Identifying Course Goals
  • Traditional Process
  • Curriculum Content Guides http//www.curric.uaa.al
    aska.edu/curric/courses/
  • Previous Syllabi
  • Backward Design
  • Enduring Understandings
  • Essential Questions
  • Unit Questions and Activities

4
Traditional Process
  • Teach, Test, Hope for the Best

5
Backward Design
  • Stages of the Backward Design Process

6
Why Backward?
  • The stages are logical but
  • they go against habits!
  • Were used to jumping to lesson and activity
    ideas first before clarifying our performance
    goals for students.
  • By thinking through the assessments up front, we
    ensure greater alignment of our goals and means,
    and ensure that our teaching is focused on
    desired results.

7
Curricular Priorities
  • Types of Understanding/Bodies of Knowledge

8
Levels of Knowledge
  • Its worth being familiar with if it
  • ? is really interesting and adds value to
    lifelong learning.
  • ? can be a hook to a big idea or theme.
  • helps in making links to other ideas or
    disciplines.
  • It is important to know and do if it
  • ? is key to understanding the subject.
  • ? is something one might need to know and do
    throughout life.
  • ? links to enduring understandings.
  • It is an enduring understanding if it
  • ? is at the heart of the discipline.
  • ? has value beyond the classroom.
  • ? is that aspect of learning that will remain for
    a lifetime

9
Uncoverage
  • Instead of Covering Material, Uncover It
  • Find ways to have students do the material, not
    just learn it.
  • Focus on integrated performance, not isolated
    lessons.
  • Enduring understandings are subtle and unobvious.
  • Uncover what is vital and revealing.
  • What is uncovered is a shorthand for results of
    inquiries, problems, and arguments, not
    self-evident fact.
  • Breadth
  • Unearth, Analyze, Question, Prove, Generalize
  • Not the same as coverage
  • Depth
  • Connect, Picture, Extend

10
Some Enduring Understandings
  • American History
  • Individuals and their varied backgrounds
    contribute to the diversity of American culture
    and society.
  • Tensions are inherent in the principles, values,
    and ideals of American society.

11
Some Enduring Understandings
  • Composition Studies
  • Communication is contextual and occurs at the
    intersection of writer, audience, and publication
    forum.
  • Genres evolve, and are always evolving, as a
    matter of practice therefore, the rules of
    good writing are descriptive rather than
    prescriptive.
  • Citation practices in academic writing are the
    means of joining an ongoing intellectual
    conversation and a way of contributing new
    knowledge to that conversation.
  • Writing styles arise out of a communitys
    particular ways of knowing and being.

12
ActivityEnduring Understandings
  • Use Worksheet 1

13
Understanding ? Questions
Understanding Leads to Essential Questions
  • From Enduring Understandings
  • Physics the nature of gravitational force
  • History the subjective aspect of the historical
    record
  • Literature the roles of morals, heroes, and
    villains in fiction
  • Communication the characteristics of sarcasm,
    irony, and spin
  • Create Essential Questions
  • What is gravity?
  • Is history objective? Is it a history of
    progress?
  • Must fiction involve morality?
  • Do we always mean what we say and say what we
    mean?
  • The Essential Questions Endure
  • Recur throughout the course (and beyond)
  • Cant be answered simply or sometimes at all

14
Essential Questions
  • Essential Questions--Organizational Framework for
    Units of Instruction
  • Go to the heart of the disciplineaddress the
    philosophical or conceptual foundations of the
    discipline
  • Have no obvious right answer
  • Recur naturally throughout ones learning and in
    the history of the field/discipline
  • Raise other important questions, often across
    disciplinary boundaries
  • Lead readily to asking research or inquiry
    questions
  • Are framed to provoke and sustain student
    interest

15
ActivityEssential Questions
  • Use Worksheet 2

16
Essential ? Unit Questions
Essential Questions Lead to Unit Questions
  • Unit questions inform class activities
  • Uncover facets of essential understandings
  • Still not self-evidently true uncovered
  • Provoke/sustain student interest
  • Samples of Unit Questions
  • Physics How is gravity related to mass? Explain
    the basic inverse square proportion (Newtons
    Law)
  • History How have perceptions of Columbus (and
    our celebration of Columbus Day) changed? Why?
  • Literature Who are the moral centers of Huck
    Finn?
  • Communication Is the Alanis Morrissette song
    Ironic actually ironic? How does it differ in
    this respect from Mark Antonys Brutus is an
    honorable man?

17
First Impressions Course Design and the Graphic
Syllabus
  • Now that you have taken the time to design your
    course with enduring understandings, essential
    questions, and authentic activities and
    assessments, how do you communicate that to
    students?

18
Traditional Definition of a Syllabus
  • The Oxford English Dictionary defines syllabus as
    a statement of the subjects covered by a course
    of instruction or by an examination, in a school,
    college, etc. a programme of study 1889.

19
How Some Students See Your Syllabus and Course
Design
  • Organization of Course, BLAH 300 Something I
    Gotta Take to Graduate
  • Week 1 Overview of Orienteering through
    Obstacles
  • Week 2 From Compasses to GPS Technology
  • Week 3 Hiking Boots and Knot Tying
  • Week 4 ContUntying Knots
  • Week 5 Encountering Wildlife I Bears and
    Beavers
  • Week 6 Encountering Wildlife II Moose and
    Waterfowl
  • Week 7 Fur Rendezvous
  • Week 8 How to Cure a Hangover and Prevent
    Pregnancy
  • Week 9 Cabin Fever and S.A.D.

20
Four Functions of a Syllabus
  • A contract
  • A communication device
  • A plan of action
  • A cognitive map

21
A Contract
  • The syllabus is an important legal document that
    represents an agreement between you and your
    students.
  • Consider seriously the policies you want to
    enforce.

22
At UAA, a syllabus is a student right
  • Students have the right to be informed at the
    beginning of each term of the nature of the
    course, course expectations, evaluation
    standards, and the grading system. (Ch. 5, p.
    44)

23
A Contract
  • The syllabus is an important quasi-legal document
    that represents an agreement between you and your
    students (and UAA)
  • It must reflect the purpose of the course as
    stated in the Catalog.
  • It must state your course policies explicitly to
    be enforceable.
  • By remaining in your class, a student consents to
    be governed by the syllabus.

24
Instructor Contact Information
  • Please remember
  • Faculty are required to hold office hours
  • Students need at least two ways to contact you
  • Say which way is best to contact you

25
Exercise 1 Enforceability
  • Papers must submitted in class on the day they
    are due no late papers will be accepted.

26
Note Academic Freedom
  • Be aware of the rights and responsibilities of
    academic freedom
  • It is your right to use any material, even if it
    is controversial, if you deem it germane to the
    subject being studied.
  • It is your responsibility to warn students about
    controversial material at the beginning, so that
    they can make an informed choice as to whether to
    stay in the course.
  • The syllabus should alert students to material
    that might be offensive.
  • For example

27
Sample Disclaimers
  • The texts studied in this course are intended
    for adults and may include some disturbing
    language or situations.
  • The writings of the past are filled with ideas,
    images, and words that contemporary readers may
    find offensive.

28
A Communication Device
  • The syllabus provides the opportunity to
    anticipate and respond to student questions and
    to establish a tone for the course.

29
Note Clarify boundaries policies
  • Make your boundaries as a faculty member clear.
    Don't try to be all things to all students!
  • List student services that are available for
    non-academic needs, such as
  • Disability Support Services
  • Information Technology Call Center
  • Enrollment Services
  • Make your plan crystal clear by avoiding
    misleading language.

30
Exercise 2 Clarity
  • Attendance Grading Scale
  • A in the class 1-3 absences
  • B in the class 4-6 absences
  • C in the class 7-9 absences
  • D in the class 10-12 absences
  • F in the class more than 12 absences
  • Paper 1 500 points
  • Paper 2 500 points
  • Total points possible 1000

31
A Plan of Action
  • The syllabus should represent the overall plan
    of action for the semester
  • Course mission http//curric.uaa.alaska.edu/curric
    /courses/
  • Educational philosophy
  • Course strategy
  • Course goals

32
Note Make sure your syllabus is flexible enough
  • Assignments and policies should be realistic.
  • Policies should be worth the trouble to enforce.
  • Policies and grading should give room for
    (fairly) exercising your discretion in unexpected
    situations.

33
Exercise 3 Flexibility
  • If you are 15-29 minutes late, you will receive
    half of the attendance grade for the day. If you
    are more than 30 minutes late, you will receive
    no credit for attendance for the day.

34
A Reference Guide
  • The syllabus is a reference for you
  • The syllabus is a reference for your colleagues

35
Note Keep a copy of every syllabus for your
records
  • Hard or electronic copy
  • For Annual Activity Reports
  • For Review Files
  • For reference when you teach the course again
  • Course designation easy identification

36
Rolling with the Punches
  • Expect to make mistakesthe perfect syllabus is
    an ideal to strive for.
  • When students misread your syllabus, give them
    the benefit of the doubt.
  • Choose your battles, always keeping your overall
    goals in mind.
  • If you have to make a major change in
    mid-semester, go about it in the appropriate way.
  • Be aware of the process and timeline for student
    grievances.

37
Handouts CAS Template Checklist Syllabus
Checklist
38
A Cognitive Map
  • Because students need to engage actively in
    creating their own cognitive maps, you can
    facilitate active learning by modeling the
    mapping process.

39
What is a Graphic Syllabus?
  • Definition
  • A flow chart, diagram, or topical organization of
    the course that complements the printed syllabus.

40
Benefits of a Graphic Syllabus
  • Appeals to nonverbal learning styles
  • Models a learning tool by encouraging students to
    map course concepts
  • Reinforces memory
  • Offers the big picture without being over-laden
    with language
  • Forces us to tighten our own course organization
    and to clarify the enduring understandings and
    essential questions as well as the relationships
    among various units of instruction
  • Releases faculty creativity in course design

41
Examples
  • See handouts with examples of graphic syllabi
  • Social Stratification
  • Conservation Biology
  • Public Science Writing

42
Variations in Graphic Syllabi
  • Shape, Shading, and Color of key enclosures,
    activities, assignments, etc.
  • Shape, Shading, and Color of Connecting lines
  • Type size, face, features (bold, italics)
  • Graphic metaphors or symbols

43
Verbal Visual Variations
  • Verbal
  • When properly implemented, the case method,
    problem-based learning, (PBL), service-learning
    (SL), and simulations all teach students how to
    apply course material.
  • Visual

44
Verbal Visual Variations
  • Verbal
  • When properly implemented, the case method,
    problem-based learning, (PBL), service-learning
    (SL), and simulations all teach students how to
    apply course material.
  • Visual

45
Verbal Visual Variations
  • Verbal
  • When properly implemented, the case method,
    problem-based learning, (PBL), service-learning
    (SL), and simulations all teach students how to
    apply course material.
  • Visual

46
Verbal Visual Variations
  • Verbal
  • When properly implemented, the case method,
    problem-based learning, (PBL), service-learning
    (SL), and simulations all teach students how to
    apply course material.
  • Visual

47
Verbal Visual Variations
  • Verbal
  • When properly implemented, the case method,
    problem-based learning, (PBL), service-learning
    (SL), and simulations all teach students how to
    apply course material.
  • Visual

48
Verbal Visual Variations
  • Verbal
  • When properly implemented, the case method,
    problem-based learning, (PBL), service-learning
    (SL), and simulations all teach students how to
    apply course material.
  • Visual

49
ActivityExercise in Thinking Graphically
  • Use Worksheet 3

50
Final ActivityDesigning A Graphic Syllabus for
your Course
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