New Faculty Resources
Welcome, New Colleagues!
The Teaching Engagement Program is here to support you as a teacher and help foster an imaginative, resourceful, and connected teaching culture at the University.
You’ll have us as backup throughout your UO career: join us to discuss course design nuts and bolts, or to breathe new life into a course you’ve taught for years. Our staff consults on best practices for responding to student work, integrating technology into the classroom, establishing classroom dynamics, interpreting student evaluations, writing teaching statements, developing truly innovative assignments, and more.
And you can come to TEP to seek more satisfaction from your teaching, to forge a multidisciplinary teaching community with other scholars, and to contribute to timely conversations about higher education.
Please contact any time to set up a confidential consultation and check for TEPlist, our e-newsletter, which we publish about four times a term. You can subscribe yourself and see all of our upcoming events and standing resources at tep.uoregon.edu.
This packet includes:
I. The “parts” of a UO syllabus
II. Advice about writing meaningful learning objectives
III. Sample course policy statements
IV. Funded teaching development opportunities
V. Data snapshots of UO students
VI. University resources that may be relevant to you or your students
We hope this is helpful, and can track down other resources if you need them—please be in touch.
I. The ‘Parts’ of a UO Syllabus
(N.B. This handout is meant to give you a sense of the typical UO syllabus—yours may vary from this in arrangement and style.)
(1) Basics: The Who, What, Where, When
Subject code + course number and name
Professor + Contact Info + Office hours
Meeting times and locations
Required course materials
(2) Course Description: The Why
This should be succinct (perhaps 100-250 words), clear, and written for the prospective student (who likely won’t have mastered the field and its jargon)
What will you do in the class? Why is the class important, even exciting? What questions will it raise or answer? How does it intersect with the broader curriculum or ongoing field-specific or public debates? Is there a compelling example, event, quotation, question you might offer as a “hook” to encapsulate or illustrate the work of the class? Does the class develop from something to something—if so, what’s its trajectory? (“First we do x, then, building on that, we do Y.”)
(3) Expected Learning Outcomes: More Why
All UO syllabuses are meant to include course-level learning objectives (Column A below). As a good course design activity for you as the instructor, it can be helpful to link these goals directly to your particular assessments (Column B) and plans for the activities and tone of the class (Column C). See “Learning Objectives: Some Considerations” also in this packet for advice about the value and “genre” of learning objectives.
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(4) The How: Course Workload
A short paragraph that describes the type of work students will do in the course (like reading, writing papers, doing fieldwork or problem sets). How many hours do you project students will spend in a typical week—what about at crunch time? Note that the University defines a credit hour as 30 hours of student work, so a 4-credit course is 120 hours of total student engagement—attendance and effort—across a term.
(5) How Grades will be Determined
Assignments + grading weights
Some faculty also offer a breakdown of the characteristics of A, B, C, D, and F-level work. Many departments have already done this together, and you can just refer your students to the department’s grading standards (see gradeculture.uoregon.edu).
(6) Course Schedule and Assignments
Some faculty include a note that this schedule will be revised and refined as the course goes to reflect the interests and needs of the developing group.
(7) Course policies (see “Sample Policies” in this packet.)
II. Thinking about Course Learning Objectives
by Lee Rumbarger, Teaching Engagement Program
As the University asks faculty to add course-level learning objectives to our syllabuses, here are ideas for what these might look like, and how they can be useful to faculty and students. If you have a favorite learning objective for your course—one that really crystallized something for you, or changed your classroom practice in a key way, we’d love to hear about it and share examples in a future TEPlist. Email us a .
What’s the context for this campus-wide effort to write learning objectives?
In Spring 2013, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, UO’s accreditor, recommended that the UO “intensify and focus its efforts to identify and publish expected course, general education, program, and degree learning outcomes” and commit leadership and resources to assessing student achievement of those objectives in ways that centralize the insights of teaching faculty.
What is the purpose of course-level learning objectives (LOs)?
(1) LOs are the “guiding stars” of course design and daily practice.
The gold standard for course design is to begin the process by articulating LOs and then align the activities, tone, and assignments of the class with them. (This is called “backward design”—you start with where you want your students to end up, then work backward…)This may sound obvious, but it’s common to see courses that seem misaligned: an instructor thinks getting his students to think critically is the paramount objective of his course but teaches only through lecture and recall-based exams; a professor thinks it’s urgent for today’s students to slow down and develop detailed close-readings, but packs so many novels onto the syllabus that there’s never time to model or practice this in class.
A good set of LOs helps us know how to direct our efforts, divvy up class time, and even ensure we occasionally prioritize joy, or fun, or community. If you had an LO like, “Students will come to see themselves as a community of writers, developing and earning trust in one another through thoughtful, constructive critique,” then you might take more time early in the class to actually form a community—learn names, interview each other, attend an optional co-curricular event. Or you might devote time to clearly modeling what helpful peer feedback really looks like; peer reviews might be a part of the final grade in a class that aspires to be a learning community.
If it’s important to you that students be able to “use the rhetorical gestures of published academic argument in the field” then you might need to devote class time to naming these gestures; rather than just reading secondary sources for content alone, students might need to annotate them for writerly technique.
(2) LOs are student focused rather than teacher focused.
LOs remind us that even if we assign brilliant readings, even if we perform our hearts out at the podium, “teaching can and unfortunately does occur without learning” (Linda Nilson, Teaching at Its Best, 17). The best—and perhaps only—measure of successful teaching is in its influence on how students “think, act and feel” (Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do, 5). LOs direct our attention where it belongs: student learning.
(3) LOs suggest a reasonable level of faculty accountability for how we use student time and effort; and they help students see what they’re working toward.
Even as some faculty seek to complicate instrumentalist views education—“I need this course, this credit, this credential so that I can get this job, this lifestyle”—it seems fair enough that students should feel they’re moving purposely through the course and curriculum toward clear goals that they understand and share, not engaging in busy work for reasons that seem like mysterious impositions of the professor’s authority—“I’m doing this because… she told me to.” Ideally, LOs invite students to have a mature relationship to the “whys” of their own educations. When we articulate goals, students can buy into them, track their own progress toward them, see coherences across courses and co-curricular activities, use them—repeat them to families who thought they should major in X not Y, to employers who want to know just what they bring to the table.
What is the genre?
(1) An LO is a succinct statement with a verb indicating exactly what students should be able to do at a given point in your course or its afterlife.
(2) Most of these student actions should be demonstrable through the completion of the tasks you assign. (Though I do think the best teachers have a couple of LOs that suggest student development well beyond the timeframe of the course itself.) Use verbs like “understand” and “appreciate” with caution because you can’t really observe or assess them. Instead, students might “translate,” “compare,” “interpret,” “recommend,” “appraise,” “predict,” “design,” or “rank.”
(2) These goals should have an appropriate level of rigor—they shouldn’t be easy, nor should they be impossible. With their diligent effort and your support, students should be able to achieve them.
(3) Some LOs should demand a high level of student cognition—if they’re all about memorizing and recalling information, that’s probably a missed opportunity for a university-level course.
(4) They should be in a language students can understand, not shrouded in specialist language.
Kinds of goals, samples
Some faculty think of LOs in terms of Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy, considering a range of objectives that run from Bloom’s lowest or foundational level, knowledge (students remember/recall) to:
· comprehension: students can explain/translates ideas and concepts;
· application: students can use information in another context;
· analysis: students can break down information into parts, identify patterns;
· synthesis: students can combine information and ideas to create new knowledge; and, ultimately,
· evaluation: students can make judgments/assess ideas and theories.
My own favorite list of types of objectives is from L. Dee Fink’s Creating Significant Learning Experiences (2003). I like it because it asks us to think about a fuller range of affective, developmental and “metacognitive” dimensions of student growth. It too begins with foundational knowledge, then works up to:
· application: What do I want my students to be able to do (analyze, evaluate, calculate, critique, etc.)
· integration: What kinds of connections do I want my student to be able to make (between my course and another, my course and the broader field, my course and their everyday lives, etc.)
· human dimension: How do I want my students to grow in their understanding of themselves or others? What are the personal and social stakes of my class?
· caring: Do I hope my students come to care about something more? How might the course impact their feelings, interests, and/or values?
· learning how to learn: Have my students learned something about the process of learning itself that will help them in other courses and environments?
I might put some of these types of objectives/dimensions of learning into action with a list like, “Students in this class will…
· summarize beautiful, complex storylines and identify rhetorical strategies authors employ in literary texts. (knowledge)
· develop sophisticated written and oral arguments of their own about how these works function to enchant, trouble or compel readers to deeper understanding of themselves and others. (application/human dimension)
· connect the concerns of these imaginative works to ongoing debates in American political and cultural life.” (integration, caring)
III. Sample Course Policy Statements:
Models and suggested language for your reference, use, adaptation
Disclaimer: This document contains sample language for course policies for use on course syllabuses at the discretion of individual faculty members. The Teaching Engagement Program and the Teaching and Learning Center advise all instructors to consult with their home departments or programs about course policies, and to consult with appropriate units on campus about specific language to be used on course syllabuses.
Academic Integrity
The University Student Conduct Code (available at conduct.uoregon.edu) defines academic misconduct. Students are prohibited from committing or attempting to commit any act that constitutes academic misconduct. By way of example, students should not give or receive (or attempt to give or receive) unauthorized help on assignments or examinations without express permission from the instructor. Students should properly acknowledge and document all sources of information (e.g. quotations, paraphrases, ideas) and use only the sources and resources authorized by the instructor. If there is any question about whether an act constitutes academic misconduct, it is the student’s obligation to clarify the question with the instructor before committing or attempting to commit the act. Please contact me with any questions you have about academic conduct. Additional information about maintaining your academic integrity is available at intergrity.uoregon,edu; information about a common form of academic misconduct, plagiarism, is available at http://library.uoregon.edu/guides/plagiarism/students/index.html
[statement is suggested by Office of Dean of Students, Academic Misconduct page: http://uodos.uoregon.edu/StudentConductandCommunityStandards/AcademicMisconduct/AddressingAcademicMisconduct/tabid/249/Default.aspx ]
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Accessibility
The University of Oregon is working to create inclusive learning environments. Please notify me if there are aspects of this course that result in disability related barriers to your participation. For more information or assistance, you are also encouraged to contact the Accessible Education Center, 164 Oregon Hall, 346-1155; website: http://aec.uoregon.edu/
[statement is suggested by Accessible Education Center, Procedures and Best Practices page: http://aec.uoregon.edu/faculty/procedures.html]
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Diversity and Inclusion
The University of Oregon is dedicated to the principles of equal opportunity and freedom from unfair discrimination for all members of the university community and an acceptance of true diversity as an affirmation of individual identity within a welcoming community. This course is committed to upholding these principles by encouraging the exploration, engagement, and expression of distinct perspectives and diverse identities. We will value each class member’s experiences and contributions and communicate disagreements respectfully. Please notify me if you feel aspects of the course undermine these principles in any way. You may also notify the [instructor’s home department] at [department phone number]. For additional assistance and resources, you are also encouraged to contact the following campus services: