Designing Your Syllabus and Assignment Sheets

Designing syllabus and assignment sheets requires careful thought and consideration because they are the clearest way for students to understand your class's goals and expectations. In these pages, learn more about the options for designing your syllabus and assignment sheets, both in paper "hard copies" and in the context of a course website or learning management system.

Designing an Accessible Syllabus 

As instructors, we aspire to create equitable learning experiences for our students. One way we can do that is to design some of our course's most important documents - our syllabus and assignment sheets - in accordance with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. This page will teach you a little bit more about UDL and how to design both print and online materials that adhere to these principles.

Visual Rhetoric in Syllabus and Assignment Design 

Our students access the syllabus and assignment sheets primarily in a visual mode. Therefore, we should think carefully about the visual rhetoric of our materials and what they communicate to our students about our priorities and expectation. This page includes a list of questions for you to consider as you conceive of your materials' visuals and some general tips on how to conceive of visual rhetoric for your course materials.

Comparing and Contrasting Online and Print Syllabi 

This page offers several examples of syllabi designed in print and online forms to help instructors understand the range of ways to communicate key course information.