Would you get annoyed if the ding came from someone further up the hierarchy? If you didn't include a certain element because you don't think it applies to you, I can imagine chafing at the correction no matter where it came from.
Couldn't you just get together with the secretary and key the dean's car after work someday?
2: That sounds like it could go horribly wrong. For example, what if the dean's car is overinsured against that sort of damage?
I suppose that kind of rule is needed to protect the students from a really half-assed professor.
My advisor, close to retiring, has recently started flat-out refusing to rewrite/reformat syllabi, because, he says "what are they gonna do? Fire me? I have better things to do with my time."
I feel bad for the department chair and the secretary, but I also am kind of curious- I mean, what happens then? It seems like, nothing.
I used to work at a school where required boilerplate was conveniently standardized and available for stapling onto the back of your syllabus. On the other hand, this was enforced by the department manager--a person of considerable authority whom you really did not want to fuck with.
to protect the students from a really half-assed professor.
There's another kind?
My advisor (as close to retiring as I am to finishing, presumably) today advised me that I should blow off one of my two required courses this semester and instead take a cool-sounding class at a different institution because he wants me to explain it to him. I think that may count as half-assed, but it's my kind of half-assed.
8 was sort of weird and irrelevant 'cuz HEY GUYS HOLY CRAP I STARTED SCHOOL SUCH AN ODD THING. I do believe I'll knock that off, though, and weigh back in when I have syllabi to mock/laud.
What kind of syllabus-related required features are we talking about here? There are obvious things, like how much each paper/exam counts toward the final grade, and the exam/paper due date schedule, and the reading list and schedule, but otherwise I'm not sure what would be required that wouldn't be intuitive in the first place.
Is most of the obligatory stuff matter that could be pulled from other campus resources or pushed to them? E.g., class time and location, prof's office hours, prereqs, boilerplate about rules and accommodations? I'd sure like a system in which two profs couldn't schedule conflicts for a given lab and then *not find out about it until the first week of classes*. It's the second year this has happened for the same class, too. I am not interested in volunteering to run a computer lab section in a storage room.
8 was sort of weird and irrelevant
Oh shit, we're supposed to avoid that?
9: Today is also the first day of the term which is the first in which I have been enrolled in a class since 1996 or so. But I don't have class until Wednesday and am in a different state until tomorrow.
Rutgers requires that all syllabi include a statement of the university's policy on plagiarism.
(I assume that's the sort of requirement heebie's talking about.)
14: Right, I can see that sort of thing (though honestly, I think including it in the student handbook or whatever should suffice), but it could then be a standard statement stapleable to the back of the syllabus, per Gonerill up in 6.
What kind of requirement would be not applicable to one's own course, but still required anyway?
I'm thinking, hm: if your course doesn't have exams, but just papers, but you still have to include a statement about the policy for make-up exams. I'm with Gonerill's former university. Jeez, write it all up and make everyone staple it to the back, duh.
Rutgers requires that all syllabi include a statement of the university's policy on plagiarism.
Is one allowed to copy and paste the statement from another class's syllabus?
I think including it in the student handbook or whatever should suffice
I think the idea is to ensure that students can't claim ignorance of the policy if they get caught plagiarizing.
Is one allowed to copy and paste the statement from another class's syllabus?
Apparently so, since that's what a lot of professors seem to do.
18: I agree that would be the idea, but it seems idiotic defensive hand-holdy. In any case, that policy would apply to every course, and Heebie's talking about things that don't apply, yet she must include them.
20: Well, it is a state school (despite the name).
I agree that what heebie's talking about in regard to her own syllabi sounds like something slightly different.
I sympathize with the secretary. I am department head and I have to do this as we have no secretary. Inevitably, the most difficult tenured prof will do egregious things like have no schedule of readings or assigents on the syllabus and cry qcademic freedom when this is brought up. The new federal definition of the credit hour is finally going to make our institution go to a syllabus template. Like everything, most people do a good job but a few bad apples ruin it for everyone.
The new federal definition of the credit hour
I hadn't heard anything about this (because I'm not in academia, no doubt). Does it apply just to state schools?
Just wondering, 'cause my undergrad institution, a private university, didn't count courses in terms of credits, so I had trouble talking about courses taken, courses left to take, and so on, with other people sometimes. "How many credits do you have left?" "Huh?"
Heebie was sad that her departmental secretary had to enforce rules until she me the department that had no secretary.
8: Back in undergrad, I had an advisor (I went through four of them, due to various sabbaticals and not-getting-tenure games) who recommended that I petition out of one of the classes that he taught., on the grounds that it was useless. Excellent plan; I've never missed it. But my institution was remarkably amenable to filing petitions to substitute any random class for any other one, as long as you were willing to make the case for it.
23: My experience was similar.
Apparently some colleges even let undergraduates select their own courses, such that it's possible to concentrate in or eschew certain subjects, and graduate in fewer or more than four years. How odd!
not-getting-tenure games
Your institution seems to be quite intent about those.
my institution was remarkably amenable to filing petitions to substitute any random class for any other one
Yeah, it really doesn't sound like this is the case with this particular class in my particular program. It's too bad, because the class I wanted to take (which is at your previously mentioned institution, actually) seems totally awesome. Oh well. There will be more awesome classes once I've finished these couple of stupid ones.
26: "What's your GPA?" was another one. Erm, I don't know; my college doesn't count things that way. I had to make up a system to calculate my college GPA when I was applying to grad school.
23--it applies to any institution that you can get federal financial aid for ( I.e. Almost all of them). It's going to basically be the Carnegie unit, so it is what most institutions are familiar with.
29: Huh. So does Harvard count courses in terms of credits now?
10- My school has recently instituted institutional requirements that every syllabus include not just course objectives and plagiarism and ADA etc (which were already required) but now also course-specific lists of "learning objectives" and "learning opportunities" and "learning outcomes" with specific ways that the course addresses each one. So you're suppose to say, for example, if one of your learning outcomes is "ability to analyze data", which of your assignments provides the opportunity for students to achieve this outcome. You can sort of use boilerplate for some of it, but not really for all.
It's very dumb, and I understand why my advisor doesn't want to do it. But I also still feel bad for the people who are supposed to be enforcing it.
We've got the objectives/outcomes/assignments on the syllabi in my master's program. The only part anyone pays attention to are the assignments.
Like E. Messily, our university has gone from requiring us to have fairly useless but not that annoying boilerplate on every single syllabus -- ADA requirements, statements on late work policy, statements on plagiarism policy -- to "university learning outcome" statements and "assessment methods" and "student learning outcomes" and "global learning outcomes" and crap that runs on for pages and pages. I post mine electronically and send students the link; it doesn't really help. Most of the class still requests a hard copy (we have to ask, and provide one if they want one). And no, I don't seriously believe any of them read any of that. Would you? They read my email address and grading policy; they check when the papers are due. That's the stuff I used to put on when the syllabus was one page long.
now also course-specific lists of "learning objectives" and "learning opportunities" and "learning outcomes" with specific ways that the course addresses each one
Eeeeee barf.
I turned in my syllabi today to the department secretary who was all "Looks great!" and "I'll photocopy these up and put them in your box by tomorrow!" And I wondered, when is the part when she yells at me about not having written a page of boilerplate about learning objectives and assessment techniques and whatnot? Nope, we don't do that here. Neat!
What we do do though is have a million ceremonies requiring full regalia which I don't own and couldn't even obtain in time due to the awkward timing of my degree, and so I'm going to be the only faculty member without a gown on, and am thinking about just not going because how embarrassing. It's a small enough place that it will be seen and noticed and remarked upon. I don't really have an excuse, I guess, except for that I don't read mail on paper very well, and no one hassled me about it.
OT: Basically the only photographs I own are of my ex, particularly our wedding day. What the hell do I do with them?
36: Send them to nosflow. That's what we all did.
and so I'm going to be the only faculty member without a gown on, and am thinking about just not going because how embarrassing
No, this is an issue for new hires every year. The bookstore should be able to loan you something, although it would probably be the mortar board instead of the jester's cap.
38: It's literally tomorrow, early in the morning. Why can't I just go in a nice outfit? (Seriously, if one is not used to this kind of thing, it really seems about 15 degrees too Hogwartsish.)
to "university learning outcome" statements and "assessment methods" and "student learning outcomes" and "global learning outcomes"
This exactly.
Also, besides exam dates and important due dates, they want a schedule, and I want the freedom to respond to the class and tailor topics according to what they're finding challenging.
Also this semester I'm teaching a fake-course, which involves organizing reading groups for students to do with various instructors. I never actually meet with the students. I just send emails making sure they're at the right place at the right time. It makes no sense to have a syllabus for that class. They fill out agreements with each instructor. I don't want to modify these agreements to include Learning Outcomes and Schedules and blah blah blah. Waaaah.
39: There's a very good chance that a bookstore has at least something on hand, if you can fit a 5 minute trip in. This is almost certainly a solved problem, if you ask your chair - I've fielded this question for every new hire in our department since I've been here.
31, 33
This is the kind of shit that is great in theory and terrible in practice. Of course teachers should think about what the students should learn, but these types of rules for syllabi totally fail to achieve that. The ones who think about that already have no problem with it, except when they fail to hit the proper buzzwords, and the ones who don't aren't going to start just because they are forced to copy someone else's boilerplate.
36: Have them printed up as iron-ons and make sweatshirts. Then on first dates, women will at least know that you're the marrying type.
I totally bought my regalia just for the hell of it, even though my first chance to wear it officially won't come until the spring, and that's only if I attend my new institution's graduation. My grad school canceled winter commencement, so I figure I'll skip the whole walking/hooding thing in favor of having some nice pictures taken. (A lesson learned from my wedding--if what you care about is the pictures, just elope, and stage a photo session later. I regret that we did not do this).
I should add that I'm thrilled we got married (4 years ago this weekend); I just could have done without the big wedding on a small budget pressures (all entirely self-imposed, with help from the indie/craftier than thou alternabrides).
they want a schedule
Hmm. As a student, I find these very helpful. Sometimes you just have to plan out your procrastination strategies.
But seriously, if your students have lots of outside commitments, having a course schedule or at least a sense of what the workload will be each week,* can make it a whole lot easier to plan. There was a class in my program last term where the instructor didn't hand out a syllabus, and didn't announce the readings until the week before they were to be done. I dropped the course, so I don't know how it went personally, but the lack of schedule (which extended to mysterious assignments that you may or may not know were coming) seemed to cause more problems than the lack of a syllabus.
Overall, my program seems to treat the syllabus and the reading list as distinct objects. The syllabus follows rules while the reading list can appear or change at any time. This drives me crazy, but at the same time, most people just don't do the reading, so I guess it doesn't matter.
*Not an average. A sense of what each week will be like.
most people just don't do the reading
Is that really true? I always hear it from people, including from people whose intellect I admire or whatever, and it doesn't square with what I've done taking classes. I've always done probably 99% of the reading, with that odd 1% for when I just totally dropped the ball and forgot, which was rather uncommon.
41: I've fielded this question for every new hire in our department since I've been here.
Have there been new hires since you've been there?
Professional programs appear to be different. I started by doing the reading, but have more or less settled into doing the reading that seems worthwhile, along with related reading not assigned that seems more interesting/useful than assigned readings. A number of people do this; it's like paying to be self-taught. Oh, and there's stuff that's useful as a reference, but not something you'd read straight through anyway.
36 OT: Basically the only photographs I own are of my ex, particularly our wedding day. What the hell do I do with them?
That depends. Which orifice is the hook in?
The new federal definition of the credit hour
I never understood this "hour" thing. At the U of C a class was a class, and that was that. Why do most places have to complicate things?
re: reading
Some reading lists are aspirational, no, rather than strictly required?
'Here's 40 papers and 10 books you could read for this essay topic. I've marked the 5 or 6 that you really need.'
That sort of thing would be normal, wouldn't it?
51: Generally with undergraduate American syllabi the reading list is not aspirational, or, if it is, it is clearly marked as such. The British style came as quite a surprise to me: halfway through the term, the professor finally told me that I was supposed to pick the readings that appealed to me the most (per topic) from the reading list. I had been doing them all.
I should add that my observations re: the American practice are limited to the West Coast and my discipline.
American reading lists must be very much shorter then.
Just wondering, 'cause my undergrad institution, a private university, didn't count courses in terms of credits, so I had trouble talking about courses taken, courses left to take, and so on, with other people sometimes. "How many credits do you have left?" "Huh?"
parsimon,
They did except that it was really simple. All courses except for intensive language courses were half credit courses. The language courses were meant to cover a full year's work in one semester,and they counted for a full credit (though the grade wasn't doubled for your in concentration GPA, sadly).
You needed 16 credits to graduate.
36: Mine are stashed up in a closet. I have a hoarderesque difficulty throwing anything away, so there's that. But there's also the fact that getting rid of the pictures won't chnage the history, and in the end, it's always nice to look back at photos. Especially photos of when you were young and hot.
In one of my small non-seminar classes (5 people) the professor decided not to have an exam, because he figured he could already evaluate how we were doing. We were mostly translating stuff.
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JeffreySachs on happiness. See also Will Wilkinson
Ingrid Robeyns on "capabilities", Nussbaum and Sen
When the oligarchy is so entrenched and the hegemony so powerful, it is guaranteed that, along with a ressentiment ideology and a rebellion ideology, that those with a pathological aversion to confrontation and violence (which aversion is instilled by the hegemony) will create an ideology, epistemology, and morality demonstrating that is so very very good to be a contented slave. Because the patriarchy is the oldest and deepest oppression, this is always partially gendered. Obviously not always so, slaves in the South and feudal peasants adopt religions of acceptance and passivity.
"But I want to wear a burqa and live in purdah! It is my tradition and makes me happy." It is very difficult to find ways to respect people's agency.
I think it is important to restore violence, confrontation, resistance, rebellion, revolution as valid and justifiable moral choices so that non-resistances remain free choices rather rationalized surrender.
I could confront Sachs but not Robeyns or Nussbaum.
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Another example of rationalized surrender is a low-growth ideology.
"We don't need so much stuff"
No, they, the rich fucks don't need so much stuff. After we take their stuff, we can reassess what our resource base and growth potential can be.
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Old photos should be digitized. They can be shared by great grandchildren (or great grand nieces and nephews). So that's what the late 20th/early 21st century actually looked like. They got married!
Maybe pwning myself here, but it seems to me these syllabi/course description requirements are the result of universities becoming admin top-heavy in the last 15-20 years. This is exactly the kind of stupid shit MBA idiots think adds value.
The aspirational course list was something I only ran into once, even during my PhD, and it was from a very old-school professor who didn't fit in well and ended up leaving for another program that would appreciate him more. It's sad, because it was a really interesting, if jarring, experience, and I ended up taking four years to write my paper for him because I needed that time to finish all the suggested reading. (It was seriously about four or five times the size of a regular reading list.) It was extremely good for me, and had a huge impact on my work.
This semester my reading list for one of my classes is apparently about twice the size of anyone in my department. I take up about half the whole department's shelves at the bookstore for my two. It seems like a perfectly normal load to me, but I'm expecting maybe a bit of resistance. We'll see!
But seriously, if your students have lots of outside commitments, having a course schedule or at least a sense of what the workload will be each week,*
I tell them homework will be assigned on Fridays and due each Friday. I tell them when exams are and if there are any extra due dates, which are all set at the beginning.
All that is up in the air is which content will be covered in which week. I know some teachers have that all mapped out ahead of time, but I really do not like to do so.
most people just don't do the reading
Is that really true? I always hear it from people, including from people whose intellect I admire or whatever, and it doesn't square with what I've done taking classes.
I usually did not do the reading.
Most professors in my lower-level undergrad tested solely on the material covered in class. I didn't take any upper-level courses that required reading.
Further to 65... I imagine the Vice Provost for Dean-Professor and the Underchancellor for Professor-Student relations having a conversation that begins like so:
"Are our classrooms and courses ISO 9001 compliant?"
"I don't know, do you think we ought to hire McKinsey to see?"
Speaking as (still) a student, a syllabus that explains what you will be expected to learn from each week's material, and what you could maximally get out of it if you were motivated, sounds kind of awesome. On the other hand, a class where I had no hint of what we were going to be doing from week to week sounds frustrating; even if I don't try to look ahead at material that's coming later, I like to know what I'll be getting into -- it helps planning when you need to really focus, and when you're basically going to be cruising. Perhaps this is not an attitude heebie hopes to inculcate, but, yeah, knowing what you're going to be spending your time on more than a week in advance is often unachievable in life, but pretty cool when it is.
I have to do some trainings on things like trauma-informed care. I'm supposed to do these learning objectives and a big idea and have people do an activity. The thing is that the trainer of trainers is so boring.
a class where I had no hint of what we were going to be doing from week to week sounds frustrating;
THERE IS A MATH TEXTBOOK. We will be going straight through the math textbook. Occasionally we will skip a section.
Also get that openly bleeding wound checked out.
We will be going straight through the math textbook. Occasionally we will skip a section.
Can't help feeling it may be easier to work like this in mathematics than in a less precise discipline.
Rutgers requires that all syllabi include a statement of the university's policy on plagiarism
Until I figured out that the singular of syllabi was not syllable, this seemed impractical in lecture courses:
"GooNOPLAGiARISMALLOWEDd
MoNOPLAGiARISMALLOWEDrnNOPLAGiARISMALLOWEDing
StuNOPLAGiARISMALLOWEDdeNOPLAGiARISMALLOWEDnts. . ."
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Well, that statistics placement test certainly seemed awfully easy.
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66: "And remind professor Geebie about the new cover sheets for the TPS reports."
Hint, Sifu: They're not going to accept answers like "No, that distribution looks pretty abnormal to me. I don't like the look of it one bit."
69
Amen. You would not believe the number of students who find this confusing/irritating. There are x chapters in the book we are using and y weeks in the semester and we will proceed in order. Perhaps you can use MATH to determine what we will cover each week?
78: is MATH some kind of a website?
My old professor had the most absurd regalia (she was a Doctor of Sciences in Strategic Studies from Aberdeen - go figure) which looked as if you could repurpose it as a Sexy Santa outfit.
58: you clearly have no idea what is meant by "capabilities". hint - consider the meaning of the word capable, or the word capability when the military use it.
But that's all right, because 59 is right.
If you're going through the math textbook week by week, then you obviously have a schedule and the discussion of lack of schedule doesn't apply. However, if you like to break out the all caps, have fun.
OK, so the bookstore was nice and let me borrow PhD regalia, and they didn't shame me or hassle me or anything. They were totally nice. I'm also glad I went, because they made a little fuss over me today. It's a small school.
See? SEE? I told you they'd love you.
Can't help feeling it may be easier to work like this in mathematics than in a less precise discipline.
This is definitely true, and I acknowledge the usefulness in other disciplines. Which is part of why I just don't want it applied to me.
I can't find an image for Doctor of Sciences in Strategic Studies from Aberdeen regalia.
86: nor I and I'm very curious. For academic reasons, of course.
89: It is not in the least dissimilar to CA's brother's gown from McGill.
I'm wearing...out my welcome here!
Ha ha! Just kidding. Right guys?
Guys?
Still not as bad as the robes of the Canadian Supreme Court. Santa suits gone wrong.
There was an unintentionally hilarious story recently that Saskatchewan has gotten so populated now, the province is going to get another area code.
How were they supposed to write a story like that?
This headline suggests the real problem Canada is facing.
