- Events
- Workshops and Programs
- Course Design
- Effective Teaching
- Inclusive Teaching
- Anti-racist Pedagogy: Healing from Racism Program
- Linguistically Responsive Classrooms: Instructor Series
- Book Club: Inclusive Teaching
- Multilingual TA Workshop Series
- Teaching Multilingual Students Workshop Series
- TA Development: Supporting EAL Writers in Writing Intensive Courses
- Quick Inclusive Teaching Conversations
- Accessible and Inclusive Teaching Drop-in
- Faculty Reading Circle 鈥� Wayi Wah! Indigenous Pedagogies By Jo Chrona
- Learning Technology and Media
- Online and Blended Learning
- Voice and Presentation Skills
- Graduate Student and TA Programs
- Symposium on Teaching
- Workshops and Programs
- Services
- Teaching Resources
- Course Design and Development
- Teaching Strategies
- Inclusive Teaching
- Assessment of Student Learning
- Online and Blended Learning
- Technology and Multimedia Design
- Curriculum Development and Renewal
- Teaching Assessment
- Scholarly Teaching and Inquiry
- Instructor Well-being
- New Faculty Resources
- Faculty Guide to Teaching
- Course Logistics
- Course Outlines and Syllabi
- Textbooks and Course Packs
- General Policy Information and Code of Ethics
- Exam Policies
- Grading Policies
- Accommodation at 丁香园AV - Centre for Accessible Learning
- Academic Integrity
- Protection of Privacy
- Teaching Technology Support
- 丁香园AV Teaching Context and Curriculum
- Assessing and Documenting Your Teaching
- Your Teaching Mentors: CEE and Your Faculty Teaching Fellow
- Working with Teaching Assistants (TAs)
- Graduate Supervisor Resources and Expectations
- APPENDIX: Campus Resources for You and Your Students
- Faculty Guide to Teaching
- Generative AI in teaching
- TA Support
- About Us
- Connect With Us
Teaching Practice, Course and Curriculum Planning
The unexpected benefits of a shorter syllabus
By Jackie Amsden
In January 2020, Hannah McGregor reinvented the syllabus for PUB 448: Publishing and Social Change: Tech, Texts, and Revolution by formatting it as a zine, a self-published, often handmade publication popular among fringe subcultures like and the movement.
McGregor, an assistant professor in , condensed her normally six-page syllabus into one double-sided page, folded over to resemble a booklet. To honour the zine aesthetic, she hand-wrote all of the content with a black Sharpie marker.
鈥淪tudents are used to seeing very long and dense syllabi formatted in a very institutionalized and standardized way. They are so repetitive and so overwhelming that students don鈥檛 even read them. They just give them a skim and turn away.鈥�
鈥淚T WAS GREAT TO SEE [STUDENTS] ACTUALLY READ THE WHOLE SYLLABUS. AND BECAUSE NOT ALL THE INFORMATION WAS WRITTEN ON IT, THE STUDENTS ASKED WAY MORE QUESTIONS.鈥�
McGregor explains that the new format fostered a richer student discussion around the course outline and objectives.
鈥淚t was great to see them actually read the whole syllabus. And because not all of the information was written on it, the students asked way more questions. I think the fundamentally too-short syllabus really gets the conversation going.鈥�
McGregor also notes that the challenge of reducing her syllabus so dramatically forced her to refine the course design.
鈥淲hat I didn鈥檛 anticipate was how incredibly hard it would be to fit all of the information about the course onto a single piece of paper, so I had to really rethink what do I actually need them to know? What is actually key? I ended up simplifying the assignment structure for the course because I couldn鈥檛 fit the entire assignment in the zine, which made the whole course way more straightforward for students.鈥�
And while she isn鈥檛 sure if she will be picking up a Sharpie next semester, the experience has given her new insight into the role of innovation in the classroom.
鈥淚t reminded me that every element of the course can be rethought and that I need to resist the urge to think I know how everything should look.鈥�
Want to see other examples of how faculty across Canada and the U.S. are experimenting with communicating course expectations to their students in creative and visual ways? Take a look at a few examples: