Important Information for Faculty: Syllabus
Do I have to use a syllabus?
Each law school course must have a syllabus that is distributed to students during the first week of classes. The purpose of the syllabus is to outline for the students the specific learning goals that the teacher has set for the course and the assignments the students will be responsible for completing. While the exact nature of the syllabus will vary from course to course, each syllabus should include a brief description of the subject matter of the course, its main objectives, a schedule of reading assignments, computer lab assignments, clinical work, court visitations, oral presentations, quizzes, exams and the like.
What should my syllabus look like?
Since the syllabus is meant to provide students with a clear understanding of their responsibilities in the course, each syllabus should specify the graded work required and the weight given to each assignment in computing the student's final grade for the course.
We also suggest the following for inclusion in your syllabus:
- State your attendance policy in your syllabus. (See below.) That way students can't claim they "didn't know" - especially when they miss the first few classes!!
- Be clear as to whether or not collaboration among students is allowed on in-class and take-home projects, exams, and the like.
- If you can, let the students know what kind of final exam you are planning (e.g., open or closed book, take-home, etc.), what materials they can bring in to the exam and any other information you want them to know.
Information (office phone number and e-mail) as to how students can contact you. As you know, we have a page of information on our website for every full-time and part-time faculty members. Please verify that the information we have for you on this page is accurate. While students will be able to get contact information from the web, it's also important to have it in your syllabus.
