Thursday, August 28, 2014
No, syllabi do not average 15 pages!
A recent article on Slate alleged this. A facebook thread in which I'm participating says that syllabi range from 3-6, with 15 being the high end of the scale. To get there you would have to copy and paste the entire academic integrity policy into the document. I just link to it.
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3 comments:
The key difference may be that you teach mostly upper-level courses, or at least have the independence tenure affords you to design your syllabi as you see fit. The requirements for core/intro. classes taught by contingent faculty are often much more stringent, syllabus reviews tend to take place, and the incentive to put things in the syllabus so that, if a student complains, the faculty member (or program director, or department chair, or dean) has something very specific to point to is much stronger.
There are, increasingly, two somewhat-overlapping but very different universities.
My longest syllabus is 8 pages this semester. I always have pretty long syllabi, and students find them extremely helpful. I sometimes do get to 10 pages, but I don't see a problem. Nobody ever complained. I love creating these long booklet-like syllabi and I don't see why I should deprive myself of this form of enjoyment. :-)
So you'd agree that 15 is long, not average.
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