The following section includes resources specific to designing syllabi at UW-Madison, tools and templates for structuring your course, and best practices for composing inclusive syllabi. Due credit goes to Bonni Stachowiak and Angela Jenks for sharing many of these resources in the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast (Episode 280: “Syllabus Resources.“)

Page Navigation: Key Resources  |  Learning Outcomes  |  Course Calendar and Credit Hours  |  Inclusive Syllabus Design  |  Office Hours

Key Resources and UW-Specific Information

Course Syllabi at UW-Madison (Overview) – This page provides an essential starting point for faculty designing syllabi at UW. Among other resources, it includes a syllabus template document that instructors can adapt for their own purposes.

University Health Services (UHS) also provides a series of wellness-oriented syllabus statements instructors can adapt and incorporate into their syllabi. (Two examples from this list: a mental health syllabus statement and a syllabus statement about recovery resources for alcohol and substance use concerns.)

Composing and Revising Course-Level Learning Outcomes

MTLE Learning Outcomes Overview

MTLE Learning Outcomes Development Examples – This annotated resource provides examples of ineffective learning outcomes, explains why they are not effective, and provides revised versions of those outcomes.

Student Learning Outcomes (UW-Madison Office of the Provost) – This page provides suggestions about how to draft student-centered learning outcomes.

Planning Your Course Calendar and Credit Hours

Credit Hours

Course Credit Information Required for Syllabi at UW-Madison 

Course Workload Calculator – Rice CTE – This page includes an interactive workload calculator and, most importantly, an overview of the evidence base behind student reading and writing speeds when engaging with different forms of content. Some notable guidelines from this page:

• “The optimal reading rate of the skilled adult reader (including college students) is around 300 words per minute. This assumes a “normal” reading environment in which there are no new words or concepts in the text and the purpose of the reading is to understand the meaning of each sentence (Rayner et al., 2016; Carver, 1982).”
• “In conditions where the material is more difficult (i.e., with some new words and concepts), the optimal reading rate slows to 200 words per minute (Carver, 1992).”
• “Combining what we know with what we assume allows us to construct the following table of estimated reading rates (with rates about which we are most confident in yellow)”

Average Reading Speed Rate

(Source: Rice CTE Workload Calculator)

Course Calendars

Caleb McDaniel’s Generic Syllabus Calendar Maker allows instructors to specify their seminar start dates, select their course meeting days, and receive a list of their course meeting dates in their preferred date format. (Note that this does not include holidays.)

• (If you’re viewing this page in Canvas, the site may not open automatically. This link will open this Syllabus Calendar Maker in a new tab.

The UW-Madison Academic Calendar page provides key semester dates and deadlines.

UW-Madison also includes information about religious observance and election dates as well as guidance for instructors related to scheduling course activities and due dates that conflict with them.

• If you need to view dates beyond what UW’s religious observance list includes, we recommend subscribing to the UW Outlook calendar titled “SoF Academic Calendar & Religious Observances.” The University of Iowa also provides a list of holy days for instructors to take into consideration when planning key deadlines in the semester.)

Inclusive and Accessible Syllabus Design

“Designing Your Course and Syllabus With an Inclusive Mind-Set”

In Inclusive Teaching: Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom, Kelly A. Hogan and Viji Sathy highlight relevant literature on equitable syllabus design and provide practical examples of learner-centered syllabus components. The UW-Madison libraries have made the full ebook available to campus. If you’re a current UW-Madison member logged in with your NetID, this link should take you directly to Chapter 3: “Designing Your Course and Syllabus with an Inclusive Mind-Set.“

“Make Your Syllabus More Inclusive” – A UW-L&S Instructional Design Collaborative Resource

This new inclusive syllabus resource provides practical, development-oriented examples of inclusive syllabus strategies at multiple different levels of communication and design. Our amazing colleagues at the L&S IDC enthusiastically welcome suggestions and shared examples of your own!

Syllabus Statement Examples from UW-Madison University Health Services (UHS)

UHS’s Healthy Academics Toolkit includes a series of syllabus statements that you can adopt and adapt to meet the unique contexts of your classes and your students. Included on this page: a mental health syllabus statement, collegiate recovery syllabus statement, violence prevention syllabus statement, YOU@WISC syllabus statement (wellbeing resource), and an accommodations for students with disabilities syllabus statement.

Additional Resources

• Tulane’s Accessible Syllabus project site contains information about how to compose an inclusive syllabus. The key pages in the project detail ways to create visually accessible text and image organization, discuss how to describe course policies using respectful language that increases student self-efficacy, and provide examples of course policies designed to help students take responsibility for their learning.
• Resources for Writing Syllabus Accessibility Statements: Suggested Practices for Syllabus Accessibility Statements and Check Your Syllabus 101: Disability Access Statements

Office Hours

At their best, office hours can provide the kinds of interactions among students and faculty that promote student learning and self-efficacy (Cotten & Wilson, 2006; Freeman & Walsh, 2013). However, in a 2017 survey of 625 students at a public research university in the US,  Smith et al. identified several common misconceptions about office hours that prevented students from using them effectively. The authors state:

students are most likely to perceive office hours as the last resort they can turn to when an academic crisis (e.g. an anticipated failing score) is on the horizon, rather than as an institutional resource that may be regularly used for a broader set of fruitful interactions with faculty members. . . [S]tudents need explicit guidance about what office are intended to do: they need accessible models of what office hours can offer and how to make use of this resource. (15)

For additional details and a review of the literature on office hours attendance, see  Smith et al. 2017, “‘Office Hours are Kind of Weird’: Reclaiming a Resource to Foster Student-Faculty Interaction.”

Practical Takeaways:

When describing office hours in your course syllabus, consider the following best practices:

1. Describe some of the reasons why students might use office hours. For instance, students might attend office hours to:
   • receive guidance on an assignment
   • discuss specific questions about course material
   • brainstorm topics for an upcoming paper
   • take a deeper look at feedback on a past assignment or exam with the goal of helping students prepare for future assignments and exams
   • discuss how the course or discipline may fit into the student’s career goals
2. Offer students multiple ways of accessing office hours.
   • The Faculty Focus article “Two Tips to Increase Students’ Use of Office Hours” describes strategies for scheduling office hours, ways to survey students to find optimal times for office hours, and ways to hold virtual office hours to even the playing field for students who may have complex family or employment obligations.
3. In your syllabus and in class, describe what students should expect from office hours and how they can prepare.