How much do we know about what's in the syllabus, what should be in the syllabus and how it should be in the syllabus? Furthermore, what do students know about the syllabus?
Literature shows that great care should be taken when writing and implementing course syllabi in order to avoid creating unintentional equity gaps with class policies.
I learned from student success literature that often, underrepresented students will not ask for exceptions to syllabus policies while their counterparts will, thus creating unintentional equity gaps with class policies. I studied various course syllabi from EMCC classes to see how certain policies compare. I then surveyed EMCC faculty and students about the course syllabus. I focused on late work, make up work, attendance, and office hour/student support language.
I found a mismatch between practice and policy regarding to late work, 53% of surveyed faculty have a "not late work" policy while 95% have accepted late work. I shared my research at college and district workshops wherein other faculty have shared their policies as well as their revamped syllabi. I revised my syllabus and heard from my colleagues about the changes they implemented. These new syllabi were added to a google drive and shared as a resource for others.
This syllabus research project is an example of assessing learning practices to enhance learning environments at the classroom, program, and college level. I learned from student success literature that often, underrepresented students will not ask for exceptions to syllabus policies while their counterparts will, thus creating unintentional equity gaps with class syllabus policies. I studied various course syllabi from EMCC classes to see how my policies compare. I then surveyed EMCC faculty and students about the course syllabus. I found a mismatch between practice and policy with regard to late work and make up work. I shared my research at college and district meetings. I have since revised my syllabus and heard from many of my colleagues about the changes they also implemented. This work resulted in a shared folder of resources for faculty to view and contribute to and the creation of an open dialogue about a sometimes overlooked but crucial policy document, the course syllabus.