Food for Thought: Using a Small-Bite Syllabus in an Online Course
Jacqueline M. DiSanto
For many students taking an online course for the first time—asynchronous or hybrid—determining how much time to allot for each assignment completed in
cyberspace can be daunting. Faculty present syllabi with student learning outcomes that must be met within 15 weeks; assignments are often laundry listed with due dates and verbose directions.
According to the Community College Resource Center at Teachers College (2013), maintaining a purposeful presence in an online environment has been de- scribed as even more important in cyberspace than in an actual classroom. It is often difficult to establish a relationship with learners who either never see the authority figure in a formal class setting or have reduced face-to-face interaction in a hybrid course. At Hostos, faculty office hours might not be scheduled at convenient times for students who have opted for a course section without specific class times.
During a twelve-year period at Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York, 19.7 percent of participating students reported that falling behind and not being able to get back on track was responsible for their lack of success in an online course (Fetzner, 2013). How can an asynchronous or hybrid course maintain equal rigor to a traditional section without overwhelming a student who may not be comfortable without the physical presence of the instructor?
One method that offers students the opportunity to digest content, assignments, and deadlines a little at a time is by delivering the syllabus in sections, hence the term small-bite syllabus. This has been tried in several Education courses at Hostos since the 2011 summer session.
Not one single student ever requested the entire syllabus, although each semester someone usually does ask if he/she can have the next section a couple of days earlier than scheduled.
Several days before the first day of the semester, the introduction to the syllabus is uploaded to BlackBoard. It contains the following:
Faculty information such as name, email, address, and office hours course description. Textbook with image Student-learning objectives. Assignment titles (without description) with how much it counts towards final grade Grading policy.
At the same time, the first section of the syllabus, containing topics, assignments, and due dates, and directions is also added. Both the introduction and first section are placed under Course Documents/Syllabus, and an announcement (with email notice) is sent informing the students the information is available. Additional messages explain how to use the Assignment and Discussion Board features.
Examples
Two sections of EDU 101: Foundations of Education are offered during the first summer session; both are writing-intensive. One section is hybrid and the other is asynchronous. The syllabi are divided into three sections with due dates
at the end of the first and second week and then sometime toward the end of the session. The students who typically register for these two classes are non-education majors needing to complete one of the required writing-intensive courses.
The hybrid version of EDU 105: Social Studies for Young Children was completed under the Hostos Hybrid Initiative in Fall 2012. The course is designed so that the students discuss instructional theory, social-studies themes, and directions for the upcoming assignments in class. The online component requires the students to research New York City as a resource for teaching social studies and to share components of the assignments with their peers before the final project or paper is due.
For this section, monthly syllabus sections are made available. There is also a Chart of Assignments posted on BlackBoard, which acts as a calendar. This is necessary to demonstrate the topic shared by the face-to-face period and the online work within a given time period. This commonality is a requirement for hybrid courses.
Teacher-Education majors must complete 120 hours of field experience in either an actual school setting or a child care center. This course is offered every fall and spring in two asynchronous sections and one hybrid section. Students in the fully online classes receive seven syllabus sections, distributed weekly for first two months of the semester, with one exception. The third sections spans a two-week period of time and includes time so that the students who may have trouble balancing the fieldwork hours and online work with other courses can catch up.
I started using a small-bite syllabus in an attempt to improve the students’ ability to manage time. I found that, when offered small-bite sections, students produced work that took topics deeper and were more effectively revised. An unexpected result was the ability to broaden topics for student enrichment or to revisit activities in order to provide remediation. Delivering information in deliberate intervals supports the development of purposeful presence on the part of the faculty, especially when information in the section of the syllabus is directly connected to issues and topics that arise from discussion forums and student work.
Future plans include researching the impact small-bite syllabi have on academic achievement in and student attitude toward completing a course in an online environment. If anyone is interested in small-bite syllabi, I would love some company.
References
Community College Research Center. (2013, April). Creating an effective online instructor presence. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.
Fetzner, M. (2013). What do unsuccessful online students want us to know? Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 17(1), 13-27.