August 6, 2014
Graphic syllabus and outcomes map – new additions to your fall syllabus?
Posted by Laura Guertin
Graphic syllabus = a one-page diagram, flowchart, or concept map of the topical organization of a course.
Outcomes map = a one-page flowchart of the sequence of student learning objectives and outcomes from the foundational through the mediating to the ultimate.
— Nilson (2007)
Each semester, and for every course we teach, we are required to create a course syllabus. Each of our institutions have some variations as to what content is required in the syllabus, from office hours to the ISBN number of our required textbooks. There are many articles and resources online that provide suggestions on how to create and improve our syllabi, such as:
- SERC – On the Cutting Edge: Designing Effective and Innovative Courses, Creating the Course Syllabus;
- SERC – On the Cutting Edge: Designing Effective and Innovative Courses, Course Goals/Syllabus Database (with the opportunity to submit your own syllabus to the collection);
- The Chronicle of Higher Education – ProfHacker: From the Archives: Creating Syllabi.
Syllabus from Principles of Macroeconomics: The Online Version (access at http://econ201online.umwblogs.org/visual-syllabus/)
Although our syllabi seem to be getting longer and longer each year with more and more required material (mine are coming close to 20 pages in length), have you tried adding one more component to your syllabus – a graphic component? A graphic syllabus shows the organization of and interrelationships among course topics. The outcomes map can then help students make connections not only within a course but between other courses and their own lives. (Click here to see three examples of graphic course outlines from philosophy courses) For those already familiar with concept mapping, a graphic syllabus and outcomes map should be a logical format to help faculty have tighter course organization and clearly define the enduring understandings we want our students to have.
Why supplement (not replace) a traditional syllabus with a graphic syllabus?
- A graphic can provide a visual to help students see the “big picture” of how a course is organized, instead of just showing students a linear format/structure as presented in a text-only syllabus.
- Students may actually look at the graphic, instead of being uninspired to read through a syllabus filled with university policies, dates and deadlines that they feel are far in their future.
- The graphic can clearly articulate for students the connections between course content and in-class/take-home assignments, that the course work is not just “busy work.”
I have been tempted to add a graphic component to my syllabus – but I am also thinking that this might be an interesting exercise to do with students at the very end of the semester. By asking students to “map” out my student learning objectives with our course activities, it might help reinforce the connections I was making all semester between concepts – and for students that missed those connections the first time, this would be the final opportunity to make that happen!
Another example of a graphic syllabus, from an engineering course at Clemson University (from Google eBook preview).
(*I haven’t seen an example of a graphic syllabus from a geoscience course yet – anyone have one to share?)
Additional sources for exploration
Hara, B. (2010, October 19). Graphic Display of Student Learning Objectives. The Chronicle of Higher Education – ProfHacker [blog post]. (Available online)
Jones, J.B. (2011, August 26). Creative approaches to the syllabus. The Chronicle of Higher Education – ProfHacker [blog post]. (Available online)
Nilson, N.B. (2007). The Graphic Syllabus and the Outcomes Map: Communicating Your Course. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 978-0-470-18085-3. (Preview in Google Books) (Book review in The National Teaching & Learning Forum)
Weimer, M. (2012, May 2). A Graphic Syllabus Can Bring Clarity to Course Structure. Faculty Focus – The Teaching Professor Blog [blog post]. (Available online).
Laura Guertin is a Distinguished Professor of Earth Sciences at Penn State Brandywine in Media, PA. Her research focuses on how technology can enhance teaching and student learning in introductory-level geoscience courses for non-science majors. Her blog focuses on geoscience education/outreach, science communication, and technology tools in the classroom, online, and in the field.
See, I do not like the engineering one. Tying what is being done for how long is not easy. That one is form over function.
The economics one is much better. I can follow the way that the course will progress easily and see what questions will be answered at which stage of the course.
Hi Laura,
Very timely post. I will add a link to my next Heads and chairs email! Thanks for all the references for further reading.
Pranoti
P.S. I agree with Martin — I too prefer the economics example.
Great idea as I have students make concept maps throughout the course – why not have one in the syllabus of the course outline!
Hi Laura—I published a graphic syllabus for my Indigenous Geology intro course in JGE in 2005 (see p. 154): http://d32ogoqmya1dw8.cloudfront.net/files/nagt/jge/abstracts/Semken_v53n2p149.pdf
Steve
[…] Here’s a great example from an Engineering course from Clemson (made all the way back in 2000), which I got from this helpful blog post: […]
[…] How about shaking things up? Just because we have to include certain things in our syllabi doesn’t mean that the thing has to read like an insurance policy. We’re smart people; we can be creative and functional! Perhaps visual creativity is the way to go; see the examples in this post from the Cronicle’s ProfHacker blog. Or, if you want to represent to students the way your course material fits together, try a graphic course calendar–here are some examples from Philosophy survey courses that clue students in right away to the interconnected nature of the course material and themes. And here are some more great examples–this time from the sciences–courtesy of the Americ… […]