I recently attended a workshop and shared my visual syllabus with a few colleagues. After several interactions, I noticed the most frequent comment was, “What a cool syllabus…but is it accessible?” I was ecstatic to hear this question! You see, I’ve been working to expand the accessibility of resources at my college for a while, so it was great to see this on the mind of so many other educators. Just a little about me; I enjoy redesigning my syllabus and getting creative. Every semester, I put a lot of effort and time into this document. Since this is the first time a student will interact with me, I allow myself to be a bit overzealous with my syllabus. All my hard work is having the desired effect, I think. After receiving my syllabus a few semesters back, a student confided in me that she hated accounting but was glad she chose it. She said, “A teacher that puts that much effort into the class…cares.” This reduced her anxiety and helped her approach the class with a positive attitude.
The content stays the same, but I change my visual theme each year.
