Syllabus Engagement Assignments
You know your syllabus is full of useful information, but how do you get your students to read it? The required prep modules are intentionally redundant, covering the most important points, but we still want students to read the syllabus. Following are some clever, low-stakes ways other instructors have approached this.
The Syllabus Walkthrough
Create a video of yourself going through the syllabus, elaborating on the most important points. You can do this during a synchronous class session, if you have them, but providing this ahead of time—and possibly following it with one of the assignments below—saves that valuable class time for more important matters.
Your walkthrough video could be part of a video introducing yourself and the course. Three for one! Some examples:
- Troy Appling: ENC 1101 Links to an external site.
- MTH 325 Syllabus walkthrough Links to an external site.
The Syllabus Quiz
A required quiz on the syllabus can be an effective check that students have read the syllabus, even if they look the answers up as they go! You could add passing a syllabus quiz as a required part of your prep modules. Some examples:
- Examples, with supporting research links, from University of Central Florida Links to an external site.
- UW Bothell Online Course Prep example
- UW Seattle Canvas Course Design example
- Arizona State University sample syllabus quiz questions Links to an external site.
Annotating the Syllabus
Having your students annotate a copy of the syllabus, directed by your prompts and questions, is a great way to lead students into reading your syllabus in more detail. This can be done in a number of ways: providing a digital copy that the students mark up and return, linking them to a shared document that they can add to, or using a web annotation tool.
Examples:
- UW Bothell Online Course Prep syllabus annotation assignment (Google Doc)
- Remi Kalir's annotation assignment using hypothes.is Links to an external site.
- Another example using hypothes.is from University of Wisconsin Madison Links to an external site.
Syllabus Scavenger Hunt
Usually administered as an online, auto-graded quiz, or a low-stakes written assignment, the syllabus scavenger hunt is a venerable activity in the online teaching world. Some examples:
- Scavenger hunt as a written submission Links to an external site.
- Scavenger hunt as a quiz Links to an external site.
The scavenger hunt activity can be more interactive and engaging, by having students not only find information, but actively learn by doing. This interactive scavenger hunt in Canvas Links to an external site. is a fine example.
Syllabus Reflection
Instead of a quiz, you can assign a syllabus reflection assignment, asking your students to reflect on the syllabus. Some examples of such assignments: