1. Building a Syllabus
  2. What components should be included in a syllabus?
  3. There are no rules to what should be included.
  4. Pick and choose, add and modify the components that are right for your department or unit.
  5. Some components include:
  6. Advising Philosophy and Definition/Mission of Advising
  7. These can be tailored to your specific division
  8. Learning Outcomes or Goals
  9. Things to consider:
  10. What sort of things do you want your students to learn?
  11. What skills do you want them to develop?
  12. What interests do you wish to facilitate?
  13. Are these goals meaningful to your students?
  14. Are they relevant to the student now and in the future?
  15. Why have these?
  16. You have a framework to direct your practice (i.e., am I fulfilling my duties to help the student meet these goals?).
  17. You have explicit outcomes by which to assess student learning.
  18. Student Responsibilities
  19. What are your expectations of the student?
  20. Have read their degree audit
  21. Have looked at the course schedule
  22. Know their degree/major requirements
  23. Meet regularly with their advisor
  24. Keep advisor in the loop about changes, difficulties, adds, drops, career goals, etc.
  25. Why have these?
  26. When these are clearly defined, we can hold our students responsible for their part of the advising relationship.
  27. Advisor Responsibilities
  28. What are your expectations of yourself in the advising relationship?
  29. Maintain confidentiality
  30. Be knowledgeable and/or be able to find answers
  31. Understand and communicate degree/major requirements
  32. Know policies and procedures
  33. Encourage and facilitate your advising goals/learning outcomes, etc.
  34. Why have these?
  35. We expect our students to be accountable, so we must hold ourselves accountable, too.
  36. Serve as a reminder of what we should be doing for our students.
  37. Contact Information
  38. Phone #, Room #, Office hours, web addresses, etc.
  39. Allows students to easily contact the correct advising office.
  40. List of Important Dates and Deadlines
  41. Can include information from the Academic Calendar
  42. Add, drop, withdrawal dates
  43. Registration dates
  44. Application deadlines
  45. Holidays, etc.
  46. Can include information specific to your department/unit
  47. When advising begins
  48. Specific department/program events, etc.
  49. Tools and Resources
  50. These may include required books (i.e., the University catalog) or documents (degree audit)
  51. Contact information for the Registrar’s office, counseling center, CACD, student affairs, etc.
  52. FAQs

Group Activity (Blank Syllabus Template)

  1. Briefly jot down some ideas for each category that are relevant to your department/division.
  2. Compare these with your group members
  3. What are some of the similarities in your document?
  4. What are some of the differences?
  5. Why are some components more or less important or relevant for you as an advisor and for your department/division?
  6. What suggestions might you offer to each other?
  1. How should you go about creating the document?
  2. As a group:
  3. If you have multiple advisors, you can all contribute to the development process.
  4. You may wish to include the department/division chair or other faculty.
  5. You might seek input from other departments or the CACD.
  6. Individually
  7. You might be on your own to develop the syllabus.
  8. If so, think about your experiences and expectations. These can inform what is most important to include in the document.