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Syllabus Guidelines

A course syllabus is an important part of promoting courses, fulfilling university regulations, and communicating with students. Courses must have an updated syllabus available to students before the course starts, and preferably before registration even begins for a semester. At a minimum, the following items need to be included in the syllabus:
  1. Indicate somewhere that the course 1) is in the Graduate Program in Critical and Creative Thinking, and 2) within the College of Advancing and Professional Studies
  2. course number, title, and semester ("CRCRTH 601 Critical Thinking, Spring 2016")
  3. instructor info, including how/when to contact you outside of class (office hours, availability, preferred modes of communication)
  4. course web site or other information that points to accessing electronic materials or online systems
  5. course description - typically this should mirror the official description that has been approved for the UMass Boston course catalog, but it is sometimes helpful to include additional text, as the catalog description may be somewhat generic and not describe particular themes or areas of emphasis that reflect an individual instructor's expertise or preferences or other background information.
  6. Additional specific details below:

Explicit learning outcomes (goals and objectives)
List or description of overall learning outcomes/goals. Optionally, specific objectives may be listed here, or they may be listed in the details for individual sessions.

Pointers about preparation that is assumed
A set of pointers that comment on the preparation that is assumed for the course (in lieu of formal prerequisites). This may borrow from or point to a generic set of pointers at http://www.cct.umb.edu/Pointers.html (see example at http://www.faculty.umb.edu/pjt/692-xxonline.html#Pointers)

Reflective Practice Portfolio assignment
Designate one assignment in which students identify the tools, practices, and perspectives from the course that they intend to bring into their specific professional or personal endeavors. Highlight that this assignment is suitable for inclusion in CCT students’ required Reflective Practitioner’s Portfolio (http://www.cct.umb.edu/rpp).

Course Evaluation Link
Syllabus should indicate under last session that course evaluation will be done, can refer to this link generically, where anonymous, online evals. will be activated at the end of the course:
http://bit.ly/CCTEval

Required Texts, including ISBN numbers
All textbooks must be listed. These should be in standard bibliographic format (i.e., include author, year, title, publisher, etc.), and the ISBN number must be included.

Format, and Schedule of synchronous meetings
Indicate the format of the course (face-to-face only, online, hybrid, etc.) If the course is online only, then the dates and times of synchronous meetings (using Google Hangout, for example) need to be indicated so that students can plan for them (although hybrid courses are usually scheduled with a fixed date and time for class meetings well in advance of the semester). Sometimes, instructors will determine these times after a semester starts based on feedback about availability. State that this is the case on the syllabus if the schedule is not set before the semester begins. State clearly any policies around what happens when students miss meetings and if, or how, makeup work will be assigned.

Grading/evaluation system used
Clear description of grading criteria should be given. Please note that only the following grades are possible for graduate courses: A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, and F. A grade of C is the lowest passing grade.

In your syllabus, you may also wish to outline your policy for awarding an Incomplete grade. Incomplete grades are usually only allowable because of extreme circumstances and with documentation from the student, and show up as a grade of INC in the student's academic record. The student must arrange with the instructor the specific work to be done and due dates (at the instructor's discretion and willingness to put in work after the course term ends) in order for the instructor to replace the INC with a regular grade, and the real grade must be submitted one year of the end of the original course (otherwise, the INC automatically turns into an 'INC-F', which is equivalent to an F and means that the student has to repeat the course). Instructors are encouraged to set due dates for incomplete work as early as is reasonable after the end of the course term.

Accommodation statement
Some statement must be made about the rights of the student to seek accommodation based on special needs. Consult the Ross Center at UMass Boston for assistance, and refer to their web site for practical examples: http://www.rosscenter.umb.edu
An example may also be found in the syllabus for CRCRTH 694 Synthesis of Theory and Practice, here (look for “ACCOMMODATIONS” under the section titled Overview of Assessment & Requirements):
http://www.faculty.umb.edu/pjt/694-12.html

Course Bibliography
List of readings used in the course. Should include sources will be provided by the instructor rather than purchased (such as articles from journals maintained in the library eReserves). May also include sources beyond the scope of the course but recommended as optional follow-up reading.

Weekly breakdown of activities, assignments
List of specific learning objectives, activities, assignments, and other notes that describe what will be involved in each week of the course. These can be written in high-level form in the original syllabus (at least the weekly topic of theme); detailed information about weekly activities can be provided on course web sites or elsewhere once the course has started.