Q: Why are faculty being asked to provide copies of their gen-ed syllabi each semester?
A: We understand that being asked to provide a syllabus each semester can be inconvenient, so we’d like to offer an explanation.
Justification: We (i.e., the Gen-Ed Co-Directors) are being asked to collect syllabi for all general-education offerings by the HLC Assurance Officer for IU South Bend because we need to be able to provide documentation for our general-education curriculum, potentially on short notice, and expected information includes course syllabi.
We ask faculty to keep in mind that general-education courses serve not just the needs of the offering department or unit, but they meet campus-wide curriculum requirements as well. Accordingly, instructors have a responsibility to provide assessment and course information so that reporting obligations can be met by the HLC Assurance Officer.
Formatting: Instructors are largely free to format their syllabi as they see fit, although it is expected that syllabi for general-education courses include specific Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for each component within the curriculum. Links to the SLOs for each component can be found here.
Notably, these are the SLOs that are assessed for the general-education program, and the current versions of the SLOs are specified on the associated assessment rubric worksheet for each area.
We also note that with increased usage of Canvas, especially for online courses, some faculty have begun to adopt a modular, or hyperlink-based, presentation of material that would traditionally be included in a single syllabus document. Although we can see the appeal of this approach, it cannot substitute for a stand-alone syllabus.
We see a few key points that we believe justify continuing the practice of faculty providing a single syllabus document for each course:
- A syllabus is required as part of the approval process for new courses in the general-education curriculum;
- Course-change requests in the CARMIn system require the submission of a single syllabus document;
- As described above, syllabi are needed for assurance reporting to HLC; and
- Our own process for students to petition for a course-exception require the submission of a syllabus document and, accordingly, we think it is reasonable to think that our own students may face a similar expectation were they to transfer from our campus.