August 8, 2024

Who Needs Information?

How about a minimal approach to syllabi? Long syllabi are like end-user agreements: they are generally ignored and never read. The longer the syllabus, the less likely student are to read them. So, in all of the the meetings we’re having this week, with all of the additional, compulsory additions to syllabi, I began to daydream of the syllabi I got back in community college: one-to-two page documents that did not overload students with superfluous information. I know I could not get away with minimalism in official syllabi, but I could certainly build classes and assignments with that in mind.

. . .