Encouraging Student Engagement

Warm Language

A syllabus does not just provide relevant information about your course, but it also invites students to form a first impression of you, your course, and your teaching style.Prior to the course, students can learn about faculty and their courses through many channels (e.g., other students, other faculty, advisors, your department profile, and internet sources). Your syllabus is also another critical source of information for a first impression in which students can learn about your teaching style and approachability.

Research shows that the tone and language of a syllabus can influence students’ perceptions of the instructor and course. Writing the syllabus in a warm and friendly tone promotes a welcoming attitude, encourages students to talk with you, and motivates their learning (Harnish & Bridges, 2011).

We encourage writing your syllabus using a warm tone, such as these examples:

• “I welcome you to contact me outside of class and student hours. Please email me so we can find a time to meet that works for both of us.”
• “Attending class and engaging in class discussions contributes to achieving the learning outcomes of this course. You should attend every class to the best of your abilities, but I understand that extenuating circumstances arise. If you cannot attend a class or will be late, please reach out to me.”

A warm tone is one that is both positive and friendly, which can makes students feel more comfortable and welcome. It also could be used to show enthusiasm for your course and  compassion to relay that you understand that students lead lives outside of the classroom, balance a number of responsibilities, and sometimes have to address unexpected (and unwelcome) life events (Harnish et al., 2011).

Using a warm tone throughout the syllabus broadcasts that the design of this course–including policies, expectations, and learning outcomes–were developed to encourage learning and success and create a learner-centered environment.

Visual Appeal

A syllabus has plenty of potential to be visually appealing to better engage your students and convey critical information. A graphic or infographic syllabus (see example) utilizes a combination of text and visuals (including images, charts, and illustrations) to present course information. Research shows that a visually attractive syllabus is “easy to use, memorable, organized, and engaging” and has made students feel less anxious and more comfortable with a course’s requirements (Kaur, 2021).

In a text-heavy long document, readers can easily miss pertinent information. To increase readership, adding visual elements to a syllabus can:

• Signal important topics
• Segment information for better retention
• Weed out extraneous information

There are many ways you can create an infographic syllabus. Outside of the standard document form, you can also use resources such as:

• Adobe Creative Cloud
• Canva
• Google Sites (see example)
• Google Slides or Microsoft Powerpoint

Activities

Creating activities around the syllabus asks students to become familiar with the document.

Reflection

Metacognition, or “thinking about thinking,” allows students to reflect about why they are doing something.

As illustrated by the BU Writing Program, metacognitive activities could bring awareness to the relationship between privilege, identity, and learning and prompt students to contemplate the ways in which their life experiences or views on broader social elements relate to their learning or course content. For example, students could be asked to reflect on “the syllabus as a genre that forms/is formed by social relationships and operates within a system of power” (BU Writing Program).

Goal-Setting

In response to the syllabus, at the beginning of the semester, you can ask your students to create a brief semester plan with a list of short- and long-term goals. You can ask them to respond to a series of questions such as:

• What are your goals for the first half of this class and how can you accomplish them?
• What concerns or challenges do you anticipate having and how do you plan to overcome them?

Following this, you can ask your students to check in about their progress and compare their work with their initial goals (University of Pittsburgh).

Quiz

Consider creating a multiple-choice quiz on Blackboard that asks a series of questions that will prompt students to study the syllabus. You could ask questions such as:

• Where do you submit assignments?
• How can students meet with me outside of class?
• Where are the readings found?
• What is the course policy on late assignment submissions?
• Are there extra credit opportunities?
• What are the learning outcomes of this course?

We encourage providing clear and detailed instructions for this syllabus quiz.

If you would like to gamify your syllabus quiz, you can turn the quiz into scavenger hunt activity during class. You can split the students into small groups to answer a series of questions that involves looking at the syllabus within a time frame.

Annotate

In a shared document that allows students to comment, invite your students to annotate the syllabus and add comments and questions as individual students or in small groups. Following their additions, you can then go through the syllabus and engage with their comments left. Through this exercise, you may learn that some of the syllabus needs to be edited for clarity and will make revisions based on the student input (Inside Higher Ed).

Student Input & Collaboration

Engaged pedagogy, bell hooks writes, “begins with the assumption that we learn best when there is an interactive relationship between student and teacher. As leaders and facilitators, teachers must discover what the students know and what they need to know. This discovery happens only if teachers are willing to engage students beyond a surface level. As teachers, we can create a climate for optimal learning if we understand the level of emotional awareness and emotional intelligence in the classroom” (hooks, 2009).

Research shows that working with students on a syllabus enables instructors to create a more effective learner-centered syllabus and promotes student engagement and collaboration. Its benefits include students building negotiation skills and becoming more familiar with the syllabus. For the instructor, you receive student input and reflection, and an increase in “buy in” for your course (Kaplan & Renard, 2015).

Co-creating a syllabus could take many forms in which various aspects of the syllabus can be discussed with your students. Important questions to ask yourself are:

• Where is there room for collaboration in your course? 
• What areas of the syllabus have more flexibility for negotiation? Why?
• What areas of the syllabus are more firm? Why?

Potential areas for co-creation include:

• Course topics
• Assignments and activities
• Course policies
• Classroom norms and expectations, which can be created as a set of community agreements

Aligning with hooks’ concept of engaged pedagogy, collaborating elements of your syllabus with your students ultimately:

• Contributes to a learner-centered course design
• Shows your students that they are active participants in their learning and invites them to create a learning community that is productive, respectful, and collaborative (Open Pedagogy Notebook)
• Promotes education as a form of community-building and democratic practice (Blinne, 2013)

References

Blinne, Kristen C. (2013). Start With the Syllabus: HELPing Learners Learn Through Class Content Collaboration. College Teaching, 61(2), 41-43. 

Harnish, Richard J. & Bridges, K. Robert (2011). Effect of syllabus tone: students’ perceptions of instructor and course. Social Psychology of Education, 14(3), 319-330.

Harnish, Richard J., McElwee, Rory O’Brien, Slattery, Jeanne M., Frantz, Sue, Haney, Michelle R., Shore, Cecilia M., & Penley, Julie (2011, January 11). Creating the Foundation for a Warm Classroom Climate. Association for Psychological Science (APS). https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/creating-the-foundation-for-a-warm-classroom-climate

hooks, bell (2009). Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom. Routledge.

Kaur, Angel W. (2021). “Dope Syllabus”: Student Impressions of an Infographic-style Visual Syllabus. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 15 (2), article 6. https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2021.150206

Updated August 28, 2024