For some faculty, the syllabus is an agreement among professor and students. For others, a broad statement of intellectual aspiration. According to our Academic Regulations, all Yale-NUS syllabi must include certain kinds of information (i.e. attendance policies). Please look at this syllabus template to see what information should be included, and customise to your own needs. For some faculty, the syllabus is an agreement among the faculty and the students for your course. For others, the syllabus is a more general statement of intellectual purpose and aspiration. The College recommends that syllabi take on the personality of individual instructors, while explicitly informing students what you expect them to learn, why you want they learn, and how they will demonstrate what they have learned through assessment. The syllabus should also include language on core policies on academic integrity, late assignments, discipline-specific issues and a section on Intellectual Property and Privacy. However you conceptualise the syllabus, we recommend that faculty read through the syllabus during the first instructional week or impress upon your students the importance of reading it thoroughly on their own time and raising questions or concerns they may have. If you are teaching online this semester, it is highly recommended that you also include a section on netiquette and online interaction. See these Suggested Netiquette Guidelines for some recommendations.

For a different approach, see this advice on “Three Things to Leave Off Your Syllabus”: http://rtalbert.org/three-things-to-leave-off-syllabus/

On the importance of maintaining and communicating boundaries in your syllabus see: http://rtalbert.org/setting-boundaries-in-your-syllabus/

Below are some books and readings that you may consult as you think about designing your courses.